http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200005050.shtml

You could see that team anneal right there as it happened, and look where they went the rest of the season. It contained camaraderie, fire, and one of those “he just became a True Yankee (TM) in front of our eyes” moments — speaking of course of Graeme Lloyd and his dash from the bullpen to start throwing punches.

I’ve never been able to find good footage online, and I’m left wondering if MLB suppresses brawl videos. I’m not a violent guy, but I think people in general (and MLB officialdom in particular) are too squeamish about baseball fights.

I have a few audio games (surprisingly, you can find a good amount on line for free or small subscriptions), but what I really enjoy are a few audio tapes with post game shows from the mid-1980s.

[10] There used to be a guy in Thornwood, NY that had audio broadcasts, but I lost touch with him. Tape trading was big in the early 90′s. I used to get links from Usenet groups back in the day.

[12] He got a haircut.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199308040.shtml

During Mike Stanley’s AB in the 6th with 2 on and 2 out, the stadium stood and cheered with an energy I’d only seen on old 70′s Yanks highlights. Stanley launched one that Devon White pulled back in the park over the 399 sign. That moment has always stuck with me, finally seeing life in the stadium and seeing the team compete with the best.

[7] That fight was great, Benitez was a classic villain.

I love this site, and this is my first post, even though I’ve been reading for years.

(B-R.COM has him at 6’2″)

I was also at the Irabu game and there definitely was a big buzz in the crowd. It might seem silly now, but Irabu’s debut was big news at the time.

I remember Mariano’s debut vividly because the Yankees were really scuffling for pitching and Rivera’s performance was a godsend, especially after how poorly he performed in his first stint.

[5] I saw that game in an Emergency Room. My family went to Great Adventure, but my sister wound up falling and cutting her chin. While she got stitches, I got to see the game instead of listening on the Sony walkman I had brought with me.

My all-time favorite game was against the Twins on May 13, 1985. Behind Eddie Lee Whitson, the Yankees fell behind 8-0 early on, but then chipped away. In the ninth, Mattingly hit a walk off three-run blast to win the game 9-8. About five years ago, I found someone on the internet who had taped the game, with commercials, and converted it to DVD. It is now the most cherished game in my collection of classics, which includes just about every ASG since 1968.

Gene Michael had mentioned that Rivera’s uptick in velocity was one of the reasons he got the call again; all of a sudden he was throwing mid 90′s. IIRC it was during Rivera’s Yankeeography.

As for the youth movement, it was widely understood that the Yankees preferred veteran players. For all the talk of the “core four” the Yankees were for the most part players in free agency, even during their rebuilding period; Boggs, Tartabull, Spike Owen, Mike Gallego, Tony Fernandez, Strawberry, Polonia, Dion James, etc, were all signed as free agents.

One other thing; before Chamberlain-Hughes-Kennedy, there was Taylor-Johnson-Kamieniecki.

As for regular season games that stuck with me, I remember the Yankees sweeping a doubleheader from the Indians at the Jake in 1996. They started Brian Boehringer and Ramiro Mendoza, who up to that point really hadn’t done much of anything of note. I also remember Cone’s return from surgery, shutting down the A’s in Oakland. For some reason, Ricky Bones’ time in pinstripes seems to stick with me, as well as the circumstances that brought him to NY. Hideki Irabu’s debut against the Tigers I attended, I thought it was pretty cool that the Yanks were able to get the “Japanese Nolan Ryan.” It was a big deal at the time.