Opening Day 4/11

There was a feeling of great excitement when the season opened last week in Oakland. That's nothing compared to opening day at Yankee Stadium though. The field will look pristine, the seats will be packed (as well as all access roads to The Stadium), Yogi will be in the house, maybe Whitey, NYC mayors, past and present. The only thing that makes it better is raising a championship flag from the prior season.

I've had the good fortune to attend three home openers and had a fourth snowed out twice in 1982. The Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 10-3 on April 9, 1981. Bucky Dent blasted a 3-run homer off of Jon Matlack in the 2nd inning and my man Bobby Murcer put the game away with a pinch-hit grand slam off of Steve Comer in the 7th. I held my breath as the right fielder John Grubb leaped, but couldn't reach it. Tommy John went 8 innings for the win.

The home opener in 1983 was another story all together. Ron Guidry got pasted by the Detroit Tigers en route to a 13-2 loss. The crowd was much smaller than the announcement 55,000 plus. Tom Brookens and Glen Wilson combined for 7 hits and 6 RBI, including a Brookens home run off of Guidry. Ironically, Gator would top the twenty win mark for the second time in his career that season, but he didn't have it on that day. Dale Murray came in and poured fuel on the fire to make matters worse.
The only thing I took away from that game was seeing a young first baseman who merely on the team because of an injury and would be sent down to the minors 3 days later. Don Mattingly would go 1-3 on that day with a strikeout, giving no hint of the greatness to come.

The last opener I went to is when the buzz and traffic returned to the Bronx. After suffering through horrid teams in the late '80s and early '90s, the Yankees started bringing in some players who knew how to play. Paul O'Neill had been acquired over the winter in a deal for Roberto Kelly and was manning left field. Danny Tartabull was in his second season in right field. The left side of the infield was brand new with Wade Boggs (Boston) and Spike Owen (Montreal) having signed as free agents. The starting pitcher, Jim Abbott, had been acquired for J.T. Snow, Russ Springer, and Jerry Nielsen. A 24-year old Bernie Williams stood on the hallowed grounds of center field. Ironically, the Kansas Royals had David Cone out on the mound that day. Cone had signed as a free agent that winter after having played with the Mets and Blue Jays the year before.

O'Neill was on fire that day going 4-4 with 2 single, a double, a triple and 2 RBI. Abbott tossed a complete game in front of a frenzied sell out of over 56,000 as the Yankees won 4-1.

The Yankees opened at home against the Royals again in 1996 when a young Andy Pettitte pitched through the snowflakes in a 7-3 win. Today, the two go at again in much more ideal baseball conditions. It has to be quite an honor for Chien-Ming Wang to get the start for the Yankees and hopefully he will return to his pre-injury form of 2005.

MLB Notes

The Red Sox suddenly look stronger as Curt Schilling has thrown 2 gems for victories and Jon Papelbon replaced Keith Foulke as closer, going 3-3 in save situations. The Sox did get a blow though when center fielder Coco Crisp broke a bone at the base of his index finger. He will be re-evaluated after 10 days.

The Royals may be a bad team, but they took two of three from the defending champion White Sox over the weekend, coming from behind late both times.

Chris Shelton of the Tigers and Garrett Atkins of the Rockies were named the first Players of the Week for the 2006 season. Shelton hit .583 and slugged 5 home runs. He finished the week with a 1.458 slugging pct. Atkins hit .462 with 7 RBI, 8 runs scored and 12 hits, half of them for extra bases.