Home cooking

The Yankees have won 11 straight home openers dating back to 1998.  Their last loss came on April 11, 1997 against Oakland when they fell 3-1.

David Cone, who will take part in the pregame ceremonies today, struck out 12 in seven shutout innings and left with a 1-0 lead.  However, Mariano Rivera blew that lead in the ninth, surrendering a leadoff home run to Mark McGwire.  They would go on to lose in the 12th inning, when Jeff Nelson, who had already pitched two innings, gave up two runs.  Ironically enough, Scott Brosius drove in Oakland’s second run in that inning.

And even more ironic, Jason Giambi played left field for the A’s, going 1-for-4 with a walk.

The 11-game winning streak for home openers is a major league record, according to Elias.  The Yankees’ victory last year broke a tie with the 1945-54 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Some other interesting nuggets from today’s game notes:

Yogi Berra is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the seventh time in a home opener, and is one of eight former Yankees to have such an honor.  Only Joe DiMaggio (nine) has thrown more first pitches.

Derek Jeter was the last Yankee to bat at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 21.  He is scheduled to bat leadoff today.  Jeter and three others (Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui) were in the lineup for the final game at Yankee Stadium last season and will be in the lineup today.

The Yankees defeated Boston on April 18, 1923 4-1, winning the first home opener in Yankee Stadium.  They defeated Minnesota on April 15, 1976 to win the first home opener in the remodeled Yankee Stadium.

The Empire State Building will be lit up blue and white in honor of today’s game.

This is the first time since 2000 (Comerica Park in Detroit) that a new park will be opened in the American League.  Nine National League teams have opened stadiums during that span.

Yankees lineup in 1923:

Whitey Witt – CF
Joe Dugan – 3B
Babe Ruth – RF
Wally Pipp – 1B
Bob Meusel – LF
Wally Schang – C
Aaron Ward – 2B
Everett Scott – SS
Bob Shawkey – RHP

The Yankees were 4,133-2,430-17 in the original Yankee Stadium.

Burnett nearly pitches no-no, offense rolls over Rays’ pen

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NYY	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	4		7	11	0
TB	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0		2	3	0

A.J. Burnett pitched six no-hit innings before allowing three straight singles in the seventh inning to crush the Yankees’ hopes of having their first no-hitter since David Cone’s 1999 perfect game.  No worries: the Yankees were able to win 7-2 Tuesday night in Tampa to even their record at 4-4.

After Burnett gave up two runs in the seventh inning to tie the game at two, the Yankees went to work on the Rays’ bullpen once Matt Garza exited.

The Yankees broke the tie in the top of the eighth inning when Mark Teixeira hit a sacrifice fly after Brett Gardner doubled and Derek Jeter singled.

They then broke it open in the ninth against reliever Dan Wheeler.  Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera each singled.  After Ramiro Pena flew out and Jose Molina struck out, Gardner hit a ground rule double, his second two-bagger of the night, to drive in Cano.  Everyone else scored on Jeter’s three-run home run that gave the Yankees a 7-2 lead, the final score.

Burnett pitched eight innings, allowing only those two runs and striking out nine.  He threw 67 of his 103 pitches for strikes.  Brian Bruney pitched the final frame, striking out the side on 10 pitches.

The Yankees scored only one run in the first inning after loading the bases with no outs.  Jorge Posada hit a one-out sacrifice fly.  They scored another in the fourth when Nick Swisher hit his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot.  He also doubled in the sixth inning.  He now has 11 RBI on the young season.

Gardner and Jeter each had three hits in the top two spots of the lineup.  In Teixeira’s return to the lineup, he went 0-for-3 with an RBI.  He had been out since April 10 with left wrist tendinitis.

Tomorrow is the battle of the Andys: Pettitte and Sonnanstine.  First pitch is scheduled for 4:08 p.m.

'Yankee Years' quotes of the night

I've only gotten through the first 10 pages of "The Yankee Years" (long day), so I'm still on the chapter entitled, "Underdogs." It deals with the 1996 team.

If I come across anything that stands out to me, I will post it here.

Page 6 mentions the David Cone negotiations during the 1995 offseason. Cone was ready to bolt to Baltimore, but those talks died over complications regarding deferred money and interest rates. George Steinbrenner, who was visiting a sick friend in the hospital, called Cone from the hospital's pay phone.

"We want you not just for this deal," Steinbrenner told Cone, "but for the rest of your career. Before your career is over with the Yankees, you will be pitching in a new ballpark on the West Side of Manhattan and I hope we're drawing three million people a year."

Cone, as you know, left the Yankees after 2000 and signed with the Red Sox. The Yankees, meanwhile, drew at least 4 million fans in each of the final four years of the old Yankee Stadium.

And here's another one I enjoyed. Page 8 talks about Joe Torre's meeting with the team during the first day of spring training in 1996.

"All of my coaches have been to the World Series," Torre told the team. "That's what I want. But I don't want to win just one. I want to win three of them in a row. I want to establish something here that's special. I don't want to sacrifice principles and players to do it one time. I want to establish a foundation to be the kind of ballclub that is going to be able to repeat."

Little did we know that Torre would actually fulfill that promise.

Final Stadium game to be on ESPN

According to Peter Abraham, ESPN has snatched up the final game at Yankee Stadium, moving it from 1:05 p.m. to 8:05 p.m.

This is obviously just an attempt to get ratings after the NFL season begins.

Hopefully the YES Network still broadcasts the pregame ceremonies because I'm sure they would do a much better job reaching the home fans than ESPN ever could. The last thing I want to hear is Jon Miller and Joe Morgan talking about their Yankee Stadium memories instead of people like David Cone and Paul O'Neill - you know, people that are actually relevant in recent Yankees lore.

Or hopefully I can get tickets and not care about what's shown on television.

Cone to join the YES Network again

According to Joel Sherman of the Post, David Cone will rejoin the YES Network to broadcast about 50 games for YES.

With David Justice leaving to write for YES online and Joe Girardi becoming manager, the YES Network had to fill a spot.

Cone will also host Yankees on Deck.