The Yankees haven't had much luck this season, as exemplified this week when Monday night's home game against the Texas Rangers was delayed in the 9th inning for three hours and a half. The Yankees were leading 6-5 before the delay, but by the time the game started again at 2:15 a.m., they ended up blowing the lead and the game, ultimately losing 9-6.
But at least one area fan won the biggest prize of all: getting to watch a baseball game with almost no one around. "Not surprisingly, when play resumed well after 2 a.m., there weren't many fans left," Zack Hample wrote about the game. "This is just a quick video to show how empty it was."
"It's hard for me to understand what happened tonight, how it got to this point," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after the grueling game, completely ignoring how much fun at least one fan was having in the stands. "But it did, and we lost," Girardi added, not recognizing Hample's victory over the elements. In the Game of Seats, you either wait out a rain delay while all the other fans clear out of the stadium because they have day jobs they have to wake up for in the morning (and sticking around to watch the last inning of a game in June just isn't a priority), OR you go home and get a good night's rest—either way, everyone wins really.
Hample wants to make sure everyone knows he didn't intend to shove his happiness in the face of depressed Yankees fans: "Also, yes, I'm aware that this was a very tough loss for the Yankees," he wrote, likely in a rare lucid moment not spent conjuring up the sublime peacefulness of that empty stadium. "They were winning by one run before the delay, but then it all fell apart when the Rangers put up a four-spot in the top of the 9th. As I've said many times, I'm just a baseball fan—not a fan of any particular team—so that's why I was still able to appreciate the moment and enjoy myself. No disrespect intended to the Yankees or their fans!"
