by
NARR
The doors to the number 4 train slid open…
AX (Subway announcement)
This is 161st Street, Yankee Stadium.
And summer unofficially began in New York.
(AMBI CROWD NOISE)
NARR
Grown men in pinstripe jerseys and Yankee hats poured from the subway station and onto the streets in font of the stadium. Children sat atop their fathers' shoulders and pestered them for souvenirs and those famous ballpark hotdogs.
AX (Vendor)
T-shirts, I got t-shirts, opening day t-shirts.
NARR
Of course, vendors were there to satisfy everyone. Farther down, Louis Cappobianco had a table beneath the elevated train tracks that run along River Avenue. The vendor knew his targeted audience—Red Sox haters who have bitter memories of Boston's 2004 World Series victory. He pointed to his best-selling t-shirt.
AX (0:18 Cappobianco)
It says "Boston Still Sucks," glows in the dark. And then we got, "The only swear word my dad allows me to say is Boston sucks."
NARR
Close by, a musician plucked away at his guitar to make a buck of his own.
(Roll guitar music underneath and hold, then fade under)
Families watched and listened as a 1920s circus calliope filled the air with music.
(Post organ music after "music" and fade through "giddy")
Part of the celebration, of course, is that every team can hypothetically still win the World Series in the first week of April. And while it seems the Yankees are always atop their division in October, they haven't won the World Series since 2000. Just supposing the team might win it all this year can make fans a little giddy.
AX (:04 Fan)
This is God's graces right here, my friend. This is sacred ground today.
AX (:04 Christine)
I think we're going all the way. Derek Jeter is going to take us all the way this year.
NARR
Christine from Long Island loves the Yankees so much that she got a tattoo of the team's logo eight years ago. She's waved her Yankees flag at the last five opening days. She was in the crowd when the team won it all in 1996, and just like a lot of other people in the Bronx on Monday; she had no interest for that other team in Queens…the Mets, who beat up on the Cardinals the night before.
AX (:09 Christine)
I don't like the Mets, I don't follow the Mets. Die hard Yankees, that's it. Everything is Yankees. We're staying in first place. We're not doing anything else. I'm not taking it this year.
NARR
When game time approached, the crowds grew deeper at the gates. Fans washed down sauerkraut dogs with the last swings of their beer and squeezed through any turnstile that would let them inside just a half-second sooner.
Some stood outside ticketless. Desperate. A father and his young son each extended a hand and two fingers toward anyone with an extra seat.
AX (:03 Fan)
Ah, it's a tough one, opening day is always tough. Whattya got?
(Post ambi of crowd control with megaphone)
NARR
In the end, the Yankees came from behind to beat the Devil Rays. Alex Rodriquez hit his 465th career homerun in the eighth inning. And with that single shot into the bleachers, a long, cold winter came to an end. Baseball is here.
I'm Peter O'Dowd. Columbia Radio News.