Their family tradition is a perfect home run.
Stubborn Yankees fans celebrated their participation in the 50th consecutive opening day game on Thursday. He told the Post, including the first with his young grandson for 29 consecutive years.
“It's a very emotional day for me. I've dreamed of this for all three generations,” said Barry Phillips, 73, of Westtown, New York.
“My girl grew up and went to college, but she returned on the first day each year,” said Phillips, who took part in the first major league baseball kickoff game in 1975.
“They were in the snow and rain. They wanted to continue the tradition.”
Phillips' daughters, 48-year-old Brett Grace and 43-year-old Dana Fontanel, began to come to the house Ruth built with him as teenagers in 1995.
“That year, we see this slender rookie, Derek Jeter, and a girl say, 'Daddy, he has a cute forehead!”, recalls Phillips.
The family had field-level seats so when the girl cried out, “Derek, Derek!” the budding Hall of Fame ran up to say “Hello,” Phillips said.
“After that, he put his hand in his mouth and blew a kiss on them.”
“So the girls started coming and they liked it,” he said. “The rest is history, as they say.”
Thursday's match against the brewer marked the first year Phillips' eight-year-old grandson, Eric Fontanes, won the fun.
Meanwhile, Grace wears goofy outfits to celebrate the first day each year, while other families wore Yankees hats, but for no particular reason they wore cheeseburgers.
“We're having a great time,” Phillips told the post that the game will begin.
“We have concluded an agreement that we are trying to maintain this tradition.”
The bombers won 4-2.
