Over the weekend we got a taste of baseball in the shadow of COVID-19: cardboard cut-outs as fans, piped-in noise from boat-sized speakers, and a sterile, and clearly surreal, sense of a home game. So if we assume the MLB season is on, then the Yankees will play their first home game on July 29 under said climes - against Joe Girardi's Phillies, incidentally.
The 2020 season, however, brings a milestone, maybe: sportswriter named Ed Lucas hopes to attend his 65th consecutive Yankees home opener. Lucas's dedication would be epic on its own, but when you consider that he’s blind – Lucas, now 81, was struck in the head by a baseball at age 12, which stole his sight – and has his son guiding him to games, it should make most of us feel like fools. We gripe over a pulled muscle, and grouse over a tweaked tendon, but we’ve never faced a fraction of Ed Lucas’ challenges.
We can't agree on much these days, but we can all cheer for Ed Lucas to make it to the home opener. "Baseball has taken my sight," he once said, "but given me a life."
For Lucas to be there would be something, but for the fans, these are the best home openers since they unveiled the original Yankee Stadium.
5. 2003Godzilla lands on our shores.
Hideki Matsui was a pricey import from Japan, and Yankees fans had a right to muse over the move, as not all imports are worth the quid. But Matsui was a bargain, one who played at full-speed, with his head down and the hunger and humility that New York fans adore, and he wasted no time proving his worth. Strolling up to the frosty plate, long blue sleeves jutting from his jersey, Matsui crushed a grand slam in the team's home opener on April 8, 2003 – a game played one day later than scheduled because the previous day had been snowed out. The fifth-inning blast proved to be the winning margin in a 7-3 over the Minnesota Twins, and over the next seven seasons, Matsui turned into a quintessential Yankee, winning the 2009 World Series MVP in his final act in pinstripes.
4. 1996Derek Jeter slugged his first career home run against “El Presidente” Dennis Martinez on opening day at Cleveland, but a few days later, as the Yankees limped back to the Bronx with a 2-3 record, fans in attendance watched the 24-year-old Andy Pettitte baffle the Kansas City Royals in the home opener. Pettitte spun his wicked pitches through the snowflakes for 6 1/3 innings, and notched his second win in two starts. For all the money and muscle we project on the Yankees, it's the pitching that spawned the Joe Torre Dynasty. And no one was more instrumental than Pettitte, particularly in 1996, guiding the Bronx Bombers to their first World Series title in 18 years.
3. 1978Most home openers in the Bronx are a big deal, but this one had the stars and sizzle only the Yankees could summon. Not only were they celebrating their 1977 World Series title - their first in 14 years - they brought back the boys who defined those teams of the early '60s. While Mickey Mantle is always a big deal, it was the return of Roger Maris that had fans frothing on April 13, 1978. The man who hit 61 homers in 1961 was making his first Yankee Stadium appearance since 1966, and the M&M boys raised the World Series banner for their 21st title. Another slugger who embraces big moments, Reggie Jackson, drilled a 3-run homer to topple the Chicago White Sox, 4-2, and the field was freckled with "Reggie Bar" wrappers, which became quite the rage among NYC youngsters in the ‘70s (such as yours truly).
2. 1923The Yanks played in the Polo Grounds in 1922 - a dark, dank ballpark with an outfield bigger than Central Park. But with all the buzz around Babe Ruth, the Yankees opened their own place, Yankee Stadium, in 1923. Despite its many mutations, it's always been called "The House That Ruth Built,” and the Babe delivered on April 18, 1923, christening his new digs by belting a home run - the first in the stadium - in a 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox, the team that made the Biblically bad decision to sell Ruth to the Yanks. Ruth's Yankees won the AL pennant in '21 and '22, and then won their first Fall Classic over the Giants in '23, thanks in great measure to the Bambino.
1. 1951It's hard to say if a torch, baton, or burden were being passed, but on April 17, 1951, Joe DiMaggio played his final home opener for the Yankees, while a future pinstriped luminary, Mickey Mantle, played his first. Mantle batted third and notched one base hit in four at-bats, while DiMaggio batted fourth and also smacked a base hit in four at-bats. The Yanks won, 5-0, over the Red Sox, who had Ted Williams in his prime and Joe D's brother Dom DiMaggio hitting leadoff. The Yanks would win their third straight World Series that season before the “Yankee Clipper” retired, and they then won two more with Mantle in '52 and '53 to become the only franchise in baseball history to win five Fall Classics in a row.
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