It’s been a rough winter in New York City - cold, icy and unforgiving. Luckily, for the legions of baseball fans who streamed out of the subway, on to a sun-drenched River Avenue and into Yankee Stadium, spring sprung just in time for the home team to play the Toronto Blue Jays on Opening Day.
The cloudless Bronx skies weren’t enough to brighten the moods of some Yankees fans however. They’re still struggling to come to grips with what they won’t be seeing during the 2015 season: Derek Jeter.
“It’s not going to be like a regular New York Yankees Opening Day,” said Paul from Waterbury, Connecticut. “It’s going to be dry, there’s not going to be no excitement. No El Capitano. Derek Jeter made the Yankees the Yankees. There’s nobody here exciting to watch.”
“Jeter’s gone,” said Pat from New Jersey. “But he’s still in my mind, you know?”
A year ago, Jeter was getting set for a league-wide, epic goodbye tour, where fans home and away could pay their respects to an all-time great and future hall-of-famer - the iconic shortstop at the core of five World Series titles who accumulated more than 3,000 hits while authoring a series of memorable Yankees moments.
Now, for the first Opening Day since 1996, Jeter’s name cannot be found anywhere on the Yankees roster. After 2,905 regular and post-season games in pinstripes, he’s moved on, pursuing publishing greatness while the Yankees enter an era that doesn’t include the famed No2, or any of the other “Core Four” players - Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada - a group that helped them to 17 playoff appearances in 20 seasons.
“It’s gong to be weird,” the Blue Jays manager, John Gibbons, told the Guardian before first pitch. “He was such a mainstay, one of the great players in the game for a lot of years. The game keeps moving on, you know it’s a young man’s game, and Didi Gregorius (Jeter’s slick fielding replacement) is a special kid, a special shortstop. I’m sure the fans will fall in love with him. But there’s only one Derek Jeter, so they’ll miss that.”
That’s definitely true of Jen, a fan whose husband Mike forced her to attend. “I didn’t even want to come. I didn’t want to come because he’s not going to be here. It’s not the same. His presence isn’t here, his leadership isn’t here.”
The Yankees transition extends into the shirt and memorabilia shops which line the periphery outside the ballpark. What will sales be like without the Yankees Captain on the Bronx diamond?
“It’s unchartered waters,” according to Steve Martucci, owner of Stan’s Sports World. “Nobody knows what it’s going to be like.”
Ray from Wall, New Jersey was trying his best to move on, selecting a hooded sweatshirt with Jacoby Ellsbury’s name on the back. “I’m hoping he can become the face of the Yankees so to speak, hoping he can kind of take the torch from Jeter.”
Perhaps the Yankees dynamic center fielder will gain traction in that role over the next few years, but for now, with Jeter out of the picture, much to the chagrin of Yankees ownership, the unchallenged face of the franchise is none other than Alex Rodriguez.
A-Rod, who is currently fifth on the all-time 654 career home runs, returned from a year-long suspension for his involvement in the Biogenesis performance enhancing drugs scandal on Monday. He remains the biggest story in baseball, partly because he always elicits strong opinion.
“I don’t know about A-Rod,” said Jason, a lifelong Yankees fan who made the trip with his 12-year-old son from Jacksonville, Florida. “We hope he performs. But here’s the thing - he is not a good role model for him [gesturing to his son]. From my perspective, I wish we weren’t saddled with his contract, but we are.”
Inside the ballpark, all eyes were on A-Rod, who was steady during Spring Training, performing well enough on two surgically replaced hips to earn a spot in the Opening Day line-up as the designated hitter.
Proving yet again that fans care little about the use of performance enhancing drugs, Rodriguez received a loud ovation from the crowd, call it 70% cheers and about 30% boos while being announced during the opening ceremony. That was arguably louder than the hand that four-time World Series champion manager Joe Torre received from fans as he tossed out the ceremonial first pitch.
By the time Rodriguez got to the plate for his first at-bat, one that coaxed another round of reasonably hearty applause, his Yankees were down. Ace hurler Masahiro Tanaka, whose questionable right arm carries the key to the Yankees’ season, allowed a two-run homer to Edwin Encarnacion, capping a five-run second inning.
Rodriguez worked a walk, had a base-hit and hit the ball hard in two at-bats, but the home team suffered a 6-1 defeat, putting a damper on the first game of the post-Derek Jeter era.
Throngs of reporters awaited A-Rod post-game to get reaction from the slugger following his first day back at work since 25 September 2013.
When asked by the Guardian what it meant to him to return to the sport, Rodriguez said: “It means the world to me. I don’t think I ever took for granted. But I can guarantee you I won’t take this year for granted. And being back in uniform, wearing the pinstripes ... look, I have one of the greatest jobs in America, to be able to be a Major League Baseball player, and perhaps in the past I didn’t think like that.”
For fans and players alike then, it seemed to be an appropriate day to move on from recent history.
