There are plenty of Yankee- and baseball-related events to talk about that happened on April 9, including the death of a Hall of Famer. But the most significant item in this Yankee fan’s experience on that day occurred on 1996 Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. The Opener is an event that is longingly awaited every year, but the uplifting and exciting, then excruciating, five-game loss to the Seattle Mariners in the 1995 ALDS had left Yankee fans hungry for big-time winning baseball. So 50,000-plus suffered and froze their way to a 7-3 victory over Kansas City behind the gritty Andy Pettitte through a nonstop snowstorm that day. None realized that the day would have a second highlight with the almost offhand Yankee offer of a free ticket to one of three upcoming games to all who had suffered through the conditions. Continue reading →
April 8, 2022, served as a quite late Opening Day due to a players/owners labor disagreement with the ownership lockout, and it began poorly for the Yankees. Ace Gerrit Cole, forced to be idle after warming up with the pregame ceremonies slowly unfolding, surrendered three first-inning runs to the Red Sox, and the Yankees battled from behind the whole game. Anthony Rizzo‘s two-run homer in the first got them close, and home runs from Giancarlo Stanton (in the fourth) and DJ LeMahieu (in the eighth) tied the game heading into extras. Boston’s ghost runner scored in the 10th on a Xander Bogaerts single off Michael King, but Gleyber Torres, on the bench for this opener, tied it with a pinch hit sac fly. Finally, a Josh Donaldson single won it in the 11th, 3:56 from the 1:08 first pitch, 6-5 Yankees. Continue reading →
The Yankees failed to sweep the Orioles in the third game of a set in dramatic fashion on April 7, 2021, as the O’s prevailed 4-3 in 11 innings. James Taillon surrendered but three hits to the visitors in five innings, but two of them were singleton home runs by Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander in the fourth, eclipsing a 1-0 Yankee lead on an Aaron Hicks rbi single. Few, I imagine, recall that Gary Sanchez had a strong start to the season, and the Yanks tied it in the eighth following his leadoff single. Both teams scored a “ghost runner” in the 10th, but just Baltimore in the 11th, as Gio Urshela was gunned out at the plate in a double play to close the game after a DJ LeMahieu liner to right. Brett Gardner actually did bunt Urshela to third in that 11th frame. Continue reading →
Coming off having stroked a two-run single that gave the Yanks a lead they would not relinquish in his second Pinstriped game just two days previous, Jay Bruce gave the Bombers an early lead with a home run in a 7-2 win over visiting Baltimore on April 6, 2021. Alas, it was to be his lone roundtripper and the third of Jay’s three Yankee rbi’s, as he would retire after playing six more games. Aaron Judge would carry the action following Bruce’s blast, with a home run and four rbi’s. Gerrit Cole would strike out 13 over seven innings for the win. Continue reading →
The home-standing Yankees powered their way to a 7-0 shutout of Baltimore on April 5, 2021, on the strength of a strong six-inning start from Jordan Montgomery. Playing right field, Aaron Judge gave the Bombers an early lead with a leadoff home run in the fourth. But it was DH Giancarlo Stanton who put this one away with a grand slam home run in the fifth. Continue reading →
Even the most grizzled and veteran Yankee fan will have to admit that April 3, 2009, is a huge day in Yankee history. With the venerable old Stadium being slowly chipped away at across 161st Street, it was on this day that the team opened their new Palace in what would become a Championship season, just as they enjoyed when they opened the original 86 years previous. Would the magic make it across the street? Most doubts were dispelled when Hideki Matsui hit a two-run home run off the right field foul pole in the third inning and Cody Ransom thudded a high drive off the top of the left field pole for three more runs in the fourth. Chien-Ming Wang started the 8-5 exhibition victory over the NL Chicago Cubs, who started ex-Yankee Ted Lilly. Mariano Rivera pitched a rare sixth inning. Continue reading →
A three-run third inning on Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton home runs was more than enough to get Jhony Brito a win in his major league debut as the Yankees prevailed 6-0 over the Giants on April 2, 2023. Brito gave up two hits and a walk through five, and struck out six. Kyle Higashioka added a late tally with a home run. Continue reading →
It was only fitting, perhaps, that the final Opening Day in old Yankee Stadium was rained out March 31, 2008, and postponed until April 1. Reggie Jackson threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Tuesday night game, George Steinbrenner was the first of 81 (sometimes) celebrities to advance the home games left counter from 81 to 80 in the fifth inning, and the Yanks prevailed 3-2 over Toronto in a scintillating pitchers’ duel between Roy Halladay and Chien-Ming Wang. That Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera threw scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to preserve the win was not surprising, but two other things were: First, Melky Cabrera came through with a tying home run in the sixth inning; then, Jason Giambi contributed greatly to the winning rally in the seventh with a cunning baserunning move, diving to the ground to avoid a tag and then scrambling to second just in time to thwart a double play attempt that put Alex Rodriguez at third base with one out. DH Hideki Matsui delivered the run with a fielder’s choice ground ball. Continue reading →
Culminating an insane major league schedule prepared, one assumes, by “professionals” who have never seen a map or a thermometer, the Yanks celebrated 2011 Opening Day in the Bronx on March 31, the first of 20 games played in a frigid, wet stadium before May 1. Recent Yankee retiree Mike Mussina threw out the ceremonial first pitch to one-year-from-retirement Jorge Posada. Behind Mark Teixeira‘s three-run bomb, the Yanks tied the Tigers through six with staff aces CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander pitching, and Curtis Granderson greeted ex-Yank lefty Phil Coke with a leadoff seventh-inning home run that led the way to the 6-3 hometown win. Continue reading →
