Bronx, N.Y., Apr. 7, 2003 — To talk about Opening Day in Yankee Stadium is not just to report on sports in the new millennium. Yes, over the years the Yanks have played some great games on this day, and their status as the most successful sports team franchise in history is undeniable. But to simply reduce the event to a recitation of pitchers and their stats, and position players and their plays and at bats, is to ignore much of the glamour, the pageantry, and the youthful exuberance of the experience, and to miss out on the romance and the poetry with which our favorite game is thoroughly imbued.

Realizing this aspect, I took the fact that April 7, 2003 is the 233rd anniversary of English Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s birthday and I was ready to lead with that. In answer to those who might consider the link spurious and off-topic, I was prepared to segue to the career of Favel Wordsworth, who played 11 games at shortstop for the 1873 Elizabeth Resolutes.

But then I was struck by the “best laid plans” corollary: As the snows came, the game was pushed back; April 8 became the day in question. I resisted the momentary temptation to substitute with the birthday of Buddha (reputed to be on this day 2,566 years ago). Although I’m sure the young and innocent prince Siddhartha would have loved the game, I’m afraid the idea of “stolen base” may have ruined it for him, not to mention infielders “cheating up the middle” and the concept of close shaves and “chin music.”

But just as the snow taketh away, it giveth too, and the nine to 12 inches dumped on the New York area on April 6, 1982 gives me as good a point of reference as I could want. The Opening Day game could not be played that day some 21 years ago, or on the four that followed. When the Stadium outfield was finally cleared for an Easter Sunday doubleheader, I was pressed into “family” service , and was unable to attend, a game I had already decided I wanted to witness every year.

So it fell to me to start a new streak in 1983, and to get the Yankee ship righted (as we did lose both ends of that Opening DH the year before). But things did not start out very well. First, during the offseason the Yanks decided to shorten the distance to the power alley in left field, but inexplicably ran into trouble getting the project finished in time. They appealed to major league baseball to let them play their home opener in Denver of all places, and I owe mlb one to this day for turning that request down.

And so there my brother and I were on April 12, 1983, and in third base side main boxes no less, as the Detroit Tigers came to town. It was cold, it was windy, it was damp. But I was where I wanted to be, and I did not let my spirits get down, or at least not until the 13-2 hammering we took got out of hand. But still, the game was played, and I was there.

For an avocation that had such difficult early years, you might think that Opening Days in Yankee Stadium have taken on a sort of love/hate aspect for me, but you would be wrong. Baseball was always for me a young boy’s game, and the young boy inside of me just beams when a new season begins. We start each year tied for first, and although the nuts and bolts of the game, the exploits on the mound and on the bases, are intimately tinged with the dreaded chance of failure, they are also wed with the aura of possibility. Any kid knows that although pitchers don’t go 30-0, that teams don’t amass 162-0 records, and even that the great Mick didn’t hit 1.000; what cannot be denied is that, “It could happen.”

But I cannot prove here that I would still glow with “possibility” every April whatever the outcome, because the Opening Day tide turned long before the whole ship found its course, and the outcomes have become such things of joy. Including the horrendous pasting we took at the hands of the Tigers that 1983 day, our 20-year record on Opening Days is an amazing 16-4. The 81 runs the opposing teams have collectively totalled in these contests compute to a semi-respectable four runs per game, but it palls in comparison to the 124 the “Boys” have put up.

You would have to speak to the schedule makers about the opposition, by the way. The Kansas City Royals have so far played the part of the Washington Generals to the Yankees’ Globetrotters, serving as the guest four times and losing all four. The Rangers have been almost as accommodating, falling in three out of three. The Twins find themselves at a crossroads, as they can join Texas in an 0-3 group, or with a win join the Indians as losers of only two out of three. The Tigers have lost one to leave them with the same 1-1 record that both the White Sox and A’s have posted in these contests.

The lone (losing) appearance of the Devil Rays last year is understandable, but what of the Red Sox (also 0-1 since ’83), and the Angels and the Mariners, who have yet to appear? And if you counter that it’s a quirk of an unbalanced shcedule, my reply would be instantaneous: How is it that neither the Orioles nor the Blue Jays have filled that role in the last 20 years?

Andy Pettitte has the opposrtunity to take over the lead in Home Opener wins in my run, as he currently shares the mark at two with Jimmy Key. (Jimmy is 3-0 in openers for the Yanks, but only 2-0 in first games in Yankee Stadium.) David Cone and Roger Clemens join Ron Guidry and Jeff Nelson as guys who have gone 1-1 in these games, but in Coney’s and the Rocket’s cases they endured the loss as visiting players. Frank Viola is the only pitcher to have lost two in the 20-year run.

Other Yankee winners include Phil Niekro, Dave Righetti, Charles Hudson, Rick Rhoden, Scott Sanderson, and Jim Abbott, along with relievers Eric Plunk and Mike Buddie. John Candelaria started and lost one as a Yankee, but former Yanks Kenny Rogers and Greg Cadaret both lost wearing road grays, and not the white Pinstripes.

The wierdest date was, in effect, a one-game home stand in 1995 when we played Texas on April 26 in a season delayed and shortened by the 1994 strike, then went on the road to KC. And the wildest game was a recent one, when we outlasted the A’s 17-13 for David Cone on April 10, 1998. None of the 10 guys who pitched that day are with those two teams anymore. Tino Martinez was the Yankee hero with a single, double, home run, two walks and four rbi.

Unofficial Yankee team member Robert Merrill (number 1 1/2) continues to start them by singing America the Beautiful and the eagle Challenger makes his flight; Yankee heroes make their appearances all over the field. In 1999 we beat the Tigers on the strength of homers from Tino, Scott Brosius and Chili Davis; Bernie’s three-run homer and a two-run triple by Tino were the big blows against Texas in 2000. And it was a special moment when cancer survivor, Yankee hero and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre threw the honorary first pitch to catcher Joe Torre and Roger beat the Royals in the 2001 tilt. Last year Andy followed Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s honorary first pitch with a beaut over the Devil Rays. We’ve seen Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and Phil Rizzuto do the honors, and rain or shine, it will be a poignant moment when it belatedly arrives this year.

Someday maybe it will be me. Hey, “It could happen.”

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!