Opening Day Rememberances - 1993

Excitement had returned to Yankee Stadium prior to the 1993 season. The buzz was stirred up by the acquisitions of Paul O'Neill from Cincy and Jim Abbot from the Angels, and the free agent signings of Wade Boggs (Bos) and Jimmy Key (Tor). 56,000 plus crammed into the Stadium. Traffic was jammed worse than it had been in years. Me and my friends were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the GWB, and then trying to find parking spaces was another fiasco. We finally got into the game as the 4th inning was started.

Paul O'Neill's first game in front of the home fans was a memorable one. Paulie went 4-4 with a double and triple, 2 RBI, and a run scored. He was also playing left field, with holdover Danny Tartabull manning right. The Yankees took advantage of 3 Royals errors to to help topple some Royals pitcher by the name of David Cone.

Abbott threw a complete game to win his first game in pinstripes. The Yankees improved from 80-82 and a 4th place finish in 1992 to 88-74 and a 2nd place finish in '93. They were well on their way to become a perennial playoff team.


Opening Day Lineup

CF B. Williams
3B Boggs
1B Mattingly
RF Tartabull
LF O'Neill
C Nokes
DH Maas
SS Owen
2B Kelly