A sudden epidemic of Yankee fever held the city in its grip yesterday, infecting thousands of children and adults who skipped school and work to take their medicine at the ball game.
E-mails were unanswered, meetings were missed and homework was not handed in, all because of yesterday’s rare makeup day game that followed a Wednesday night rainout.
“Yeah, he’s got a doctor’s appointment today,” Don Butterworth, 39, said of his 12-year-old son Tom, whose physician must be somewhere near the left field bleachers.
Even though the Yankees lost Game 2 of the Division Series, 4-3, to the Detroit Tigers, Tom is still the coolest kid in class.
“They were impressed,” the young Yankee fan said of his classmates. “They said, ‘You’re lucky, I wish I were you.’ ” Bruce Levenbrook’s son was not as fortunate. Instead of skipping school and coming to the big game with his dad, the ninthgrader got a civics lesson by being told to go to school.
“He understands the values that affect the world, the future and him,” said Levenbrook, who watched the game next to a couple of teenagers whose parents clearly had different values.
One of those teens, Matt Fortuna, 17, said “it took a little arguing” to convince his folks to let him and brother Danny come to the game.
“I told them, school happens every day. This is the Yankees and the playoffs are only once a year.” Seven-year-old Bobby Haskins was at Yankee Stadium with sister Julia, 6.
“I’m happy to be here,” said Bobby, whose oversized Yankee jersey looked like it could fit Bobby Abreu. “I don’t mind missing school.” Angel Louis Fernandez Jr., a real estate investor from Shelton, Conn., didn’t think twice about keeping his son out of school for the day game. After the rainout, he and 11-year-old Angel headed home but decided to stop at a Marriott in Stamford instead of going all the way home.
“These memories are priceless,” Fernandez said. “I’m doing this for him because no one ever did anything like this for me.” The rain delay created a buyer’s market for what were once hard-to-get tickets.
Many fans who waited in the rain but couldn’t return the next day were stuck with tickets they had to eat or sell.
Robin Schatell, a Parks Department manager, had two $60 tickets she had to unload for $40 each.
Yankee luck didn’t hold yesterday, but fans were optimistic.
“We still have hope,” said Mary Beth Belles, 39, a legal secretary from Tuckahoe. “We’ll win tomorrow.”
COSTLY DOUBLE PLAY FOR FANS
As if the heartbreaking loss to the Detroit Tigers wasn’t bad enough, many fans who returned to Yankee Stadium yesterday after Wednesday’s rainout had to pay twice for parking – and twice for beer to cry in.
“Twenty-six dollars, two days in a row,” Lisa Rego, 34, of Elmwood Park, N.J., said of her parking bill. “Do you believe that?” Some fans who came back for their second shot at Game 2 saved their parking receipts from the night before. But parking attendants insisted they pay another $26- double the $13 regularseason parking fee.