While it's just one game, opening day means something more
BOSTON -- On the night the Yankees fell to 0-8 against the Red Sox last year, Johnny Damon stood in the middle of the Fenway Park visiting clubhouse and told us it didn't matter.
"Our day is going to come," he said.
And we scoffed.
|
|
| Recording artist Neil Diamond doesn't come out for just any game. (AP) |
And five months later, those eight games felt more meaningless than ever.
So far be it from us to make Sunday night's 9-7 Red Sox opening night win into anything more than it was. You won't read here that a one-night bullpen failure means the Yankees can't get a game to Mariano Rivera, or that a one-night outburst means that a bunch of us misjudged the defense-first Red Sox.
No, it says here that the most interesting number to come out of Sunday was one that had little to do with how this game turned out. The number was four, as in the number of opening day home runs that Jorge Posada has now hit for the Yankees.
"It's only one day," Nick Swisher scoffed when he heard the number in the Yankees clubhouse.
Only one day, yes, but listen to the names: Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle.
As Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said, "Huge company."
The Babe homered in four opening day games. So did Yogi. And now, Posada has, too.
The Babe hit five opening day home runs, the most ever by a Yankee. Berra, Mantle and now Posada have four.
Does one day matter?
Maybe it doesn't, but we do build opening day into something special. The Red Sox certainly did, with pyrotechnics, with Pedro Martinez emerging from the Green Monster to throw out the first pitch, with Steven Tyler and Neil Diamond.
No, it's not the most important day of the year, and you could say that it doesn't matter who has the most opening day home runs, any more than it matters who has the most home runs in Game 20 of a season, or Game 120.
And yes, when we sum up Posada's career, it's the championships we'll remember a lot more than the opening day home runs.
And yes, even on Sunday, five innings after his home run that made history, it was a Posada passed ball that broke a 7-7 tie and put the Red Sox ahead for good.
Posada has his problems on defense, and he has his problems working with various pitchers. You're sure to read more about both as the year goes on.
But here he is, a 38-year-old catcher, coming off a year where he drove in 81 runs in just 438 plate appearances, and one day into his 16th season, he showed again that he can still be an offensive force.
| Video |
| Red Sox-Yankees |
|
Sunday's recap: Red Sox 9, Yankees 7 |
After the home run, he had a walk and two singles. And, as Long was quick to point out, the one time he made an out it advanced Robinson Cano to third.
"I haven't seen any fall-off at all," Long said. "Zero. ... He's going to go down as one of the all-time great offensive catchers."
For the most part, we look at opening day for things that don't go the way they went the year before. We look at the Yankees with two blown saves in the same game (never happened in 2009).
We look for things that were different from what we were told to expect. The Red Sox with nine runs (what happened to defense first?).
We look at Josh Beckett, about to sign a new contract with the Red Sox, and wonder why he couldn't make it out of the fifth inning (only happened once all last year). We look at CC Sabathia, who couldn't hold the early four-run lead the Yankees handed him (never happened last year).
And yet everything we thought we learned Sunday night could change again by Tuesday, or by next week, or certainly by next month.
Maybe by then, David Robertson and Chan Ho Park and Joba Chamberlain are proving to be just as good in the middle of the bullpen as the Yankees expected coming out of spring training.
Maybe by then, David Ortiz (0 for 3 Sunday) is proving to be a problem in the middle of the Red Sox batting order. Or maybe not.
The one thing that can't change from Sunday is the opening day records, at least not until next April, when maybe a 39-year-old Jorge Posada hits another opening day home run and goes where not even Ruth, Berra and Mantle have gone.
Yes, it is only one game, as Yankees manager Joe Girardi reminded us again Sunday night.
But any day when you can see a guy do something that only Ruth, Mantle and Berra have done before, it has to mean something.
It has to mean more than one single win.
