An outsider survives at Yankee Stadium

On Oct. 2 Princetonian senior writer Zack Pierce, a Minnesota native and die-hard Twins fan, attended Yankee Stadium to root for his squad in a playoff game between baseball's bad boys and baseball's darlings.

"The Twins are going to beat the Yankees," my grandma said to Regis Philbin. Her first time in New York in 80 years of life, meeting the Legend himself, and this is the first thing she says to him.

A couple weeks later, the Minnesota Twins beat the New York Yankees in the first game of their American League Division Series, and I had tickets to Game 2 in the Bronx.

I brought three people with me, and we were prepared for the possibility of death. But, as one Yankee fan cheerfully said to us on the subway, "Don't worry, we only kill Red Sox fans." Very well.

We arrived late and watched in the concourse as Shannon Stewart drew a walk to start the game for the Twins. Amazing. This guy seemed to get on base more than he came to the plate.

Alas, the Twins stranded him there. For the second straight game they failed to score when Stewart led off by getting on base.

After the third out, I walked out into the right field bleachers, popping out of the tunnel with my Twins beanie on. I was bombarded with boos and naughty gestures. One cop even made the comment, "These guys are looking for a beat down." So comforting.

As I made my way up the stairs, my hat was plucked from my head and tossed into the crowd. It was a gift from my mom.

Then came the Yankees. Three straight singles, and the bases were loaded, the fans were going nuts, and my friend Chris began to calculate the odds of the Twins coming back from an 8-0 first inning hole.

Stunningly, Radke (a pitcher who drives me crazy because every pitch looks like something you'd get from a little league coach in practice and yet he always comes up big in clutch games) got out of the inning only allowing one run.

Three scoreless innings followed. I had nothing to cheer about except good pitching, and the Yankee fans were throwing out their witty side comments, most of which involved the word "suck" in creative ways.

One fan then made a keen observation, "You're from Minnesota?"

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I said, "Two of us are. These guys just go to school with us."

He shook his head. "You've got guts, man."

There was silence as I waited for him to knife me and throw me in the East River, but, to my surprise that did not happen.

The fans somehow made me feel out of place and perfectly at home. I was the enemy, but I was there, and they respected that.

Miraculously, I got my hat back. A cop brought it to me and I thought perhaps he felt bad for the "beat down" I was set up to get. I decided not to put the hat back on.

Top of the fifth. The Twins' Torii Hunter came up, and amidst ruthless heckling from the center field fans, took a cut and missed.

Next pitch. Home run. Our friend Matt, who loves antagonizing the opposition, threw the heckling back at the silent Yankee fans, who once again showed us their fingers.

Sadly, that was the only run the Twins scored in Game 2.

After five innings of pitchers dueling, the dam seemed ready to burst. The Twins threatened but couldn't get the big hit, and the Yankees weren't going to be held to one run two games in a row.

Sure enough, the seventh inning arrived. The Twins went down in the top half. Radke took the mound again. The first batter was Nick Johnson, and Radke beaned him.

Trouble. Everyone knew it, and we were hearing about it.

Juan Rivera advanced him to second with a bunt as (gasp!) the Yankees resorted to small ball. Still okay. One out.

The order turned over, and it had disaster written all over it — fourth time through the order, Radke over 100 pitches, the fans getting into it, just had that feel. Sure enough, Soriano singled, Johnson scored, and Radke was done.

Enter LaTroy Hawkins, who won game one for us. He faced three batters — Jeter got on because of Hawkins' own error, Giambi singled home two runs, and Bernie Williams singled. Good job, Hawk.

Down 4-1, the Twins were finished. The series was tied at one, and the Twins headed home after blowing a golden chance to take a 2-0 series lead.

It was all fairly moot. The Yankees dominated the Twins at the Metrodome, the series ended, and Grandma was wrong.

Maybe her prediction was just for Game 1.