The big ballpark in the Bronx will be cloudy, but only for now. Fifteen or 25 years from now, your memory will lie. Because that’s how it always is on opening day on the home baseball calendar. It can really rain during the home opener. Once in 1996, it snowed so much that it looked like Lambeau Field.
it doesn’t matter. Home openers are always about rebirth, renewal and shaking off the winter, even when the mercury barely hovers above freezing. The Yankees have won 27 times, but today will be their 126th home opener. In other words, the greatest gift of this day is 99 times washing away the disappointments of the previous year.
However, this is different.
This time, the Yankees returned home after seven games, winning six of them. The Yankees have been in business in New York City since 1903 and have never started the home portion of their schedule with such a head start. Of course, for about half of those years, his record was 0-0 when he took the field at Yankee Stadium.
This time it was 6-1. They have never gone 6-1 in home openers. They went 5-1 in 2003, with easy wins over Toronto and Tampa Bay, then defeated the Twins at home, en route to Game 6 of the World Series with 101 wins, and started 5-1 in 1928. He made his third start. World Championship season with triumphant tours in Philadelphia and Boston.
(They also went 4-1 in front of empty houses in Washington and Baltimore during the year of COVID-19 in 2020, but like everything else about that year, it’s best forgotten.)
“In the grand scheme of things, all 162 games, a week doesn’t mean much,” said left fielder Alex Verdugo, who gave the Yankees shocking outings on both sides of the ball. “But it’s huge to start the week like this and keep that momentum going. Everyone here knows we have talent and what we can do. I know.”
It will be Verdugo’s first home opener at Yankee Stadium, but his reasonable and reasonable take on the hot start speaks to a team that isn’t as surprised by the start to the season as some fans think. There is. he will see he will learn. The player plays in the opening game every year, but depending on the schedule, he may play as many as two or three times.
Not so in the Bronx.
It’s different at Yankee Stadium.
Some years, this day is essentially a day of secular obligation, as the Yankees hoist a new pennant atop the stadium. They are always the best version of this day. But even though it’s been 14 years since this featured attraction took place, on April 13, 2010, the flag was raised for the 2009 World Series, his 7-5 victory over the Angels. The day is still a day like no other.
Many stars, old friends and timeless names remain. For many years, the main attraction was Eleanor Gehrig and Claire Ruth throwing out the first pitch from their box seats near the Yankees’ dugout. For years, it was Joe DiMaggio in a sharp suit waving his arms before throwing the ball from the front of the pitcher’s mound. After that, legends in name only took turns taking charge, including Yogi, Whitey, and Scooter.
These days, he’s a member of someone from the 90’s Dynasty Boys. And no matter how many games they win or how many championships they win, they never start the season 6-1 on the road. That was good, but he might have to wait until the second week of the season, and possibly the second month, before stepping on the gas.
Verdugo is certainly right. A week doesn’t define a season. The Pirates are off to a 5-0 start, similar to the Yankees, and it’s likely that no one in Pittsburgh or New York has booked a hotel room this October yet, so the Yankees could finally get their revenge on Bill Mazeroski. The 1998 Yankees famously started the season with 1 win and 4 losses. Things got a little better soon after that.
There is still time until then. The Yankees’ home opener is always a time to pay proper homage to the most illustrious collection of pasts in the history of the sport. This time, it looks just as fine today as it did yesterday.
