By Mark La Monica
Some observations and thoughts from the Bronx as the Yankees played their first home game and beat the Kansas City Royals, 9-7:
* "What does his sign say?" quipped a young female Yankees fan outside the ballpark about 90 minutes before the first pitch. Clearly, she was inquiring about Freddy, a sort-of cult figure around the Stadium. Freddy is an elderly gentleman who walks around the Stadium at home games with a sign, a pan and a spoon and asks fans to hit the pan with the spoon to help support the Yankees. His sign today read as follows:
Freddy "sez"
2006 OPENING DAY
LET'S GO YANKEES
SHOW THE WAY
* One proud man walking around outside the Stadium with a George Brett throwback jersey. Impressive.
* Way more than one person chirping and staring at the one proud man walking around outside the Stadium with a George Brett throwback jersey. Expected.
* $4 jumbo pretzels just might be the best value at the Stadium if not the city. A giant beer for $8.75 is definitely not the best value, even if you take the plastic bottle home with you and try to return it for the 5-cent deposit.
* Ron Guidry received a terrific greeting from the fans when his name was announced as the pitching coach during pre-game introductions.
* Don Mattingly received an even better greeting at the team's hitting coach.
* The Bleacher Creatures are already in mid-season form. This does not bode well for visiting right-fielders.
* The relationship between Bernie Williams and the fans will be interesting to watch this season. His not starting in centerfield but still being in the lineup was strange. It was made even stranger by his being included in the patented Roll Call by the Bleacher Creatures. Wonder how Johnny Damon felt about that. Clearly, the fans respect what Bernie Williams has given the Yankees the past 14 seasons and will appreciate him every chance they get. Of course, if he's hitting .234 in June, well, we'll just have to revisit this relationship.
* Jason Giambi has some seriously large guns for arms, regardless of how they may have been created.
* Gary Sheffield wears phat suits.
* It's virtually impossible to see Jimmy "The King" Leyritz and not hear the clanking of metal his home run in Game 4 in Atlanta created 10 years ago.
* Goose Gossage is a very large man.
* Mariano Rivera on the mound. Always noteworthy if for no other reason than he's Mariano Rivera and he's the most dominant closer of his generation.
* Of the 54,698 fans in attendance, maybe four or five were not wearing some form of Yankee paraphernalia.
* "Reggie Sanders, you're a bum," one fan screamed from behind the plate. Next pitch, boom! Home run, Reggie Sanders. "You're still a bum!" the fan said. Ah, such reasoning.