Melancholy rules in final Yankee Stadium opener

NEW YORK – Tradition is in transition, and maybe it's maudlin to suggest tears. From Babe Ruth, thick and salty. From Joe DiMaggio, discreet and pure. From Mickey Mantle, carrying the heady stench of the night before.

Rain splattered onto Yankee Stadium for a second day, and again the 39th and last season opener here since 1923 was in jeopardy. OK, it's sappy to suggest the guys in pinstriped paradise might have been responsible.

Yet even as the sellout crowd of 55,112 cheered the clouds away and the Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 Tuesday night, memories were inescapable. Even as construction crews finished up a day's work next door on the nearly completed $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium, melancholy was the pervasive theme.

"It's what, 100 yards away? It's not too far for the ghosts to go," shortstop Derek Jeter said. "It will be up to us as players to start a new tradition at the next place."

New York's new yard shouldn't force a change in habits. Millionaire players will still report to work in the Bronx, far from moneyed Manhattan. Fans will continue to flood the subway and dip into the souvenir shops and bars along River Avenue for unashamedly all-American grub – wings and dogs, burgers and battered onion rings – before finding their seats.

The outfield dimensions will be the same, so flyballs that travel down the right-field line all of 314 feet and a few inches will still be home runs, which worked out nicely for No. 9 hitter Melky Cabrera on Tuesday. His lazy popup in the sixth inning barely cleared the wall to tie the score 2-2 and elicit enough cheering to prompt a curtain call.

The Yankees scored the go-ahead run in a less storied manner in the seventh – a fielder's choice by Hideki Matsui brought Alex Rodriguez home – and hard-throwing relievers Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera closed out the victory for sinkerball specialist Chien-Ming Wang. It was the Yankees' 11th consecutive opening day victory, breaking the record set by the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1945 to 1954.

"That's the way you want to script it," catcher Jorge Posada said. "Seven from the starter, then to Joba and Mariano. We'll take those all year."

Whether the season will extend into October is an open question. The Yankees might be only the fifth- or sixth-best team in the American League, having relinquished their familiar role as favorite to the Boston Red Sox. Their fortunes lay in the uncalloused fingers of young pitchers Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes and Chamberlain because veterans Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina are worrisome. Wang, in his fourth year and a 19-game winner each of the last two, is the ace.

The lineup leans on Rodriguez and Jeter, who benefit the most from Yankees largess. A-Rod will make between $20 million and $32 million a year until 2017 – he'll be paid more than the entire Florida Marlins roster this year – and Jeter will make $20 million this year and next, and $21 million in 2010. The club's embarrassment of riches don't always yield productivity – injury-riddled and steroids-stained first baseman Jason Giambi is in the last season of a 7-year, $120 million deal.

"Not everything has worked out exactly as we've anticipated," general manager Brian Cashman said.

Yet the Yankees have made 13 consecutive playoff appearances, and any downturn should be brief. Their rushing river of revenue (You can't call several hundred million a year a stream) makes reaching the postseason a no-excuse proposition.

First-year manager Joe Girardi, versed in Yankees lore as a player (three World Series championships in four seasons) and as a coach (Joe Torre's right-hand man in 2005), has an appreciation for the expectations.

"I understand what you are judged on here," he said. "As a kid, I dreamed of being a player. Then as an adult, I wanted to manage the New York Yankees, the most storied franchise in the history of the game. It's a big deal for me."

The Yankees will host the All-Star game in July. Bows will be taken and more homage will be paid throughout the season. Reggie Jackson, Yankees hero of the 1978 World Series, threw the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday. Standing alongside him was Yogi Berra, 82, who has thrown out six first pitches since 1999 and was on the receiving end of plenty as a player from 1946 to 1965. He played in 14 World Series.

Now there's a tradition the Yankees would like to transition back. As a rookie, Berra played with fellow Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey, who broke in as a Yankee in 1928 and played in eight World Series. On Tuesday, Berra chatted with Posada, a veteran of five World Series as the Yankees catcher since 1997.

Girardi, a former catcher who shared playing time with Posada for three years, feels connected to it all.

"When you think of Yankee Stadium, you think of history, so (the last season) is sad in a way," he said. "We'll move to the new building and it will be great. But this place has had so many historic moments. You might call them magical. No-hitters and hitting streaks and World Series games and home run chases.

"It's truly amazing what happened on these grounds. As exciting as it is moving to the new stadium, it's also sad to leave."

The new digs promise to be spectacular. No way the Yankees would allow the cross-town Mets – who also will open a new stadium in 2009 – to win comparisons. Or even the Washington Nationals, whose new park opened to rave reviews Sunday. The price tag for the Mets and Nationals' stadiums is about half that of the new Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees put nearly $100 million into a renovation in 1976, but this will be different. It's a move from the spot Ruth christened with a home run on opening day in 1923, the building known as "The House That Ruth Built."

"As I was walking in today, I looked at that low ceiling and thought about all the players who walked through that tunnel over the years," Girardi said. "And I thought, 'This is going to be the last year.' "

It was also his first game as Yankees manager, and when it was over Rivera – like Posada a former teammate – handed Girardi the ball. He's popular with players because he's been here before, on this very field, celebrating victories.

"Joe won championships here as a player," Rodriguez said. "The veterans had a great relationship with him already, and the young players follow our lead."

The new stadium awaits, and its formidable shadow will draw longer as summer comes and goes. But nobody is in a huge hurry to take residence. Yankee Stadium – the one with the ghosts – will make that long summer special.

"It probably will hit me when it gets toward the end of the season, in September," Jeter said. "That's when it will really sink in. Until then, let's enjoy this place as much as we can."