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 →
The most interesting thing, perhaps, in the 4-3 loss the Yankees suffered against visiting Arizona on April 2, 2025, was not the two-run outbursts the Dbacks enjoyed in the first two innings against Carlos Rodon, but rather the manner in which they made the game close. Trailing by that margin heading into the bottom of the ninth, Anthony Volpe hit his fourth home run (in 5 games!), a three-run shot that was just a bit too little to save the day. 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 →
The Yanks made it three in a row over the Brewers to start the 2025 season in a 12-3 victory on March 30. Jazz Chisholm contributed two 3-run home runs to the carnage, and Aaron Judge homered and walked tree times, scoring on all four trips. Ben Rice homered as well. Continue reading →
It almost seems unfair to focus so much of the description of the Yankee 20-9 victory on March 29, 2025, over Milwaukee on right fielder Aaron Judge, but the stats write themselves as he homered three times (with a grand slam), went 4-for-6, scored four times, and drove in eight. Unfortunately, some of this destruction came against recently traded away lefty Nestor Cortes, but also in need of mention are the homers Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe stroked for the second straight game, and Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger went yard as well. CC Sabathia threw out the first pitch. Continue reading →
The Yankees crushed the visiting Orioles 7-2 in the Stadium on March 28, 2019, their home opener. Both Aaron Judge and Luke Voit reached safely four times, with the latter’s three-run bomb in the first setting the tone. Masahiro Tanaka pitched into the sixth for the win, and Adam Ottavino had a strong Stadium debut, retiring four straight, three on strike outs. Continue reading →
The Yankees opened their 2025 home campaign on March 27 against the Brewers, with Andy Pettitte supplying the ceremonial first pitch. Carlos Rodon pitched into the sixth for the 4-2 win, with thanks to catcher Austin Wells and shortstop Anthony Volpe early home runs. Vinny Capra cut the lead in half with a third-inning jolt of his own, but Aaron Judge highlighted a seventh-inning rally with a fortunate double that caromed off the third base bag. Continue reading →
It’s a good day to feature Mickey Mantle, who on March 26, 1951, hit a homer estimated to have traveled between 654 and 660 feet in an exhibition game at USC. “Good fences make good neighbors,” the poet Robert Frost wrote. We feature fence-buster extraordinaire The Mick for his homer on March 26, and the poet, who was born this day in 1874. Continue reading →
