4/07 in Yankee History

1977: Before a crowd of 43‚785 in the season opener at the Stadium‚
Reggie Jackson makes his first start as a Yankee.

Catfish Hunter holds the Brewers to five hits‚ three by Von Joshua‚ as
the Yankees win 3-0.

Von’s last hit strikes Catfish in the instep and
the hurler leaves after 7 innings of work. Sparky Lyle pitches the last
two innings. Jim Wynn has two hits for New York‚ including a homer in
his first Yankee at-bat. Reggie Jackson‚ in his first start as a
Yankee‚ also has two hits and two runs‚ one on a suicide squeeze by
Willie Randolph. With the recent addition of Bucky Dent to the lineup‚
the Yankees start an all-star at every position (Catfish Hunter‚
Thurman Munson‚ Chris Chambliss‚ Willie Randolph‚ Dent‚ Graig Nettles‚
Roy White‚ Mickey Rivers‚ Reggie Jackson and Jimmy Wynn). They will
duplicate this on Opening Day 2005.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1977/B04070NYA1977.htm

1970: At the Stadium‚ Mel Stottlemyre makes his 4th straight Opening
Day start‚ joining Lefty Gomez and Jack Chesbro as the only Yankee
pitchers to do so. The Red Sox counter with newly acquired Gary Peters‚
who allowed no earned runs in 32 spring training innings. Boston jump
out to a 4-0 lead by the fifth inning‚ but the Yanks score 3 in the 6th
to chase Peters. That’s all the scoring, though, as Boston win‚ 4-3.

(In the ‘How times have changed’ department, the game took 2:19 to play, with 21,379 in attendance… Can you imagine a game against the Red Sox taking less than 3 hours to play, or the Stadium less than half full on opening day?…)

Mel_ Stottlemyre.jpg