2004: The Yanks get a win in Tokyo and even their season record at 1-1 with a
12-1 demolition of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Two-run
bombs from Tony Clark and local hero Hideki Matsui followed by the first of two Jorge Posada solo homers, stake Kevin Brown to a 6-1 lead.

2003: In the first of two consecutive Opening Day games played outside the United States, Roger Clemens rides a two-run Robin Ventura blast and an Alfonso Soriano grand slam to an 8-4 Yankee win in Toronto. The victory will come at a price, though, as Derek Jeter suffers a badly damaged shoulder in a collision with the knee pads of Blue Jays catcher Ken Huckaby at third. base. El Capitan will spend six weeks on the bench.

1992: Ken Silvestri, switch-hitting Yankee backup catcher of the ’40s, dies at the age of 75.

2008: Brett Gardner and Cody Ransom are among the prospects reassigned by the Yankees to minor league camp.

2005: In a spring training game, Andy Pettitte, now in an Astros uniform, faces his former teammates for the first time. The veteran lefty allows but one hit the first time through the lineup, but Derek Jeter triples and Alex Rodriguez homers with two down in the third. The Yanks take the ballgame 7-4.

1948: Bill Sudakis, who was platooned at first base with Chris Chambliss in 1974 and also shared DH duties for the Yanks, is born. Happy 63rd, Bill!

1941: The Yankees sell pitcher Steve Sundra to the Senators on his 30th birthday. Sundra‚ 11-1‚ in 1939‚ slipped in 1940 to 4-6.

1879: Miller Huggins is born.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Huggins

…and on the 28th…

2001: The Yankees trade 36-year-old Glenallen Hill‚ who hit .297 with 29 homers last season‚ to the Angels for minor-league outfielder Darren Blakely. Hill‚ taking the place of the
just-released Jose Canseco‚ will go 9-for-66‚ spend 5 weeks on the DL‚ and
get his release on the 1st of June.

1986: The Yankees and Red Sox swap designated hitters: Mike Easler goes to New York for Don Baylor.

1934: In a collision with Yankee catching prospect Norman Kies‚ 42-year-old Rabbit Maranville breaks his left leg sliding home on a double steal in an exhibition game against the Bombers. The Braves veteran is out for the season and will play just 23 games next year. He had broken his right leg in spring training of 1926. Meanwhile, Kies, who is only shaken up, will be released in a few days. 

1927: In a final exhibition match between last year’s series opponents‚ the Yanks score 4 in the first off the Cards Grover Cleveland Alexander.
Then Old Pete shuts down the Yanks until leaving in the 8th‚ and the Cards
score 2 in the 9th to win 6-4. Both teams use their regular lineups‚ the
only clubs to make no starting changes from last year’s rosters.

2004: The Yankees ship infielder Mike Lamb to the Astros in exchange for pitcher Juan DeLeon. Lamb had originally been acquired to compete for the starting job at third base after Aaron Boone damaged his knee in a pickup basketball game, but became trade bait once Alex Rodriguez was signed.

1937: Babe Ruth signs an endorsement deal with Quaker Oats worth $25,000 annually.

1920: In a spring training match between the Yankees and Dodgers‚ a sweeping inside curve ball by Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer beans Chick Fewster, striking the Yankee shortstop behind the ear and flattening him. Fewster
revives 10 minutes later but soon loses the ability to speak. Taken to
the hospital with a skull fracture and a blood clot on the brain‚
Fewster will recover slowly and return to play in mid-season. 

…and on the 26th:

2005: Robinson Cano is reassigned to minor league camp and appears destined for another year in AAA.

Marius Russo, pitcher for three Yankee championship teams in the late ’30s and early ’40s, dies at the age of 91. 

1968: Jose Vizcaino is born. Happy 43rd to the man who delivered the game-winning hit in game 1 of the 2000 World Series!

1952: The Yankees sell future longtime MLB manager Gene Mauch to the Cardinals. 

1937: Joe DiMaggio tells the Sporting News that he is going to take Ty Cobb’s advice to use a 36- or
37-oz. bat rather than the 40-ouncer he had been swinging. Joe will hit .346
this year, and his 46 homers will be his highest season total in the bigs.

1936: Red Ruffing ends a holdout by signing with the Yankees for $12,000 this year.

2009: In what has become a regular rite of spring over the last few years, the Yankees reassign Kei Igawa to Minor League camp.

1974: The Yankees purchase outfielder Elliot Maddox from the Rangers for $60‚000. Maddox will prove to be a great defensive outfielder as well as hitting .303 over the ’74 campaign.

1972: The Yankee ownership agree in principle to continue playing in the Bronx.
Later this year, they will put it in writing by signing a
30-year lease contingent on renovations to be completed in time for
the 1976 season. Old-school Yankee fans point to this renovation as the
true end of the original ballpark, though younger fans point to the final
game in September 2008.

1952: Late ’30s Yankee pitcher Steve Sundra dies of cancer at the age of 41.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sundrst01.shtml

1944: George Scott, who played most of his career with the Red Sox and Brewers but finished his career with the ’79 Yankees as a free agent, is born. Happy 67th to the Boomer!

1941: Joe DiMaggio, a hold out and late arrival in spring training‚ plays his first Grapefruit League game.

…and on the 24th…

1996: The battle for the starting Yankee shortstop job in ’96 comes to an end when veteran Tony Fernandez fractures a bone in his right elbow in a game with the Astros. The injury gives Derek Jeter the
unexpected opportunity to start on a notoriously rookie-phobic Yankee team,

1983: Chad Gaudin is born. Happy 28th to a two-time Yankee who is now with the Nationals.

1937; Late ’60s Yankee backup catcher Bob Tillman is born. Tillman will be the player whom the Yanks give up in order to bring third baseman (and future iconic Braves manager) Bobby Cox from Atlanta to the Bronx.

2009: The Yankees option six righthanders the Yankees to AAA, AA or Minor League camp. Anthony Claggett, Phil Hughes and Sergio Mitre will pitch the big-league team this year, while Steven jackson, Humberto Sanchez and Jason Johnson will not.

1986: The Yankees announce that their most heralded off-season acquisition‚ 26-year-old pitcher Britt Burns‚ will not pitch at all this season because of a chronic deteriorating hip condition.

1936: Joe DiMaggio runs his spring training record to 12-for-20‚ in an 11-2 Yankee victory
over the Boston Braves. Before the next game is played‚ the
prize rookie is left unattended with his foot in a diathermy machine.
The resulting burn is severe enough to end his spring training and delay his ML debut
until May. 

…and on the 22nd…

1992:  George Steinbrenner’s son in law Joseph A. Molloy is elected a general partner in the yankee organization. Molloy will remain a prominent figure in the Bomber boardroom until his divorce from Jessica Steinbrenner in 1997.

At Sotheby’s in New York,  a 1952 Topps card of Mickey Mantle is auctioned off for $49‚500‚ tripling the pre-auction estimate‚ while a baseball‚
signed by 12 players (including Babe Ruth)  at the 1939 Hall of Fame induction ceremony‚ sells
for $20‚900.

1972: One of the greatest trades in Yankee history goes through, as New York send 1B/OF Danny Cater to the Red Sox for relief pitcher Sparky Lyle. In 7 seasons with the Yanks‚ Lyle will post a 57-40 record with 141 saves and a 2.41 ERA‚ win a Cy Young award‚ and help the team to 3 pennants and two Championships. The deal is completed when the Yanks toss in backup shortstop Mario Guerrero.

1931: American League founder and first president Ban Johnson dies at the age of 67. Although his relationship with the Yankee ownership was sometimes strained over the years, Johnson spearheaded the effort to bring an American League team to New York to compete with the Giants, resulting in the Baltimore Orioles’ move to Gotham in 1903 to become the NY Highlanders. 

2006: After Randy Johnson throws 6 shutout innings in a grapefruit league game against the Astros, reliever Al Leiter pitches to one batter before leaving. He will announce his retirement at a press conference after the game.

2003: The Yankees trade outfielder Rondell White (below) to the Padres for outfielder Bubba Trammell and pitcher Mark Phillips. 

1989: With Dave Winfield sidelined‚ the  Yankees trade catcher Joel Skinner and a minor leaguer to the Indians for outfielder Mel Hall Winfield will miss all of the 1989 season after undergoing back surgery next week for central disc herniation.

1974: In a 3-team deal involving the Indians, Tigers and Yankees. Pitcher Jim Perry joins his p brother Gaylord in Cleveland. Pitcher Ed Farmer and outfielder Walt ‘No Neck’ Williams end up on the Yankees, while former Thurman Munson backup Gerry Moses goes to the Motor City.

…and on the 20th…

1988: Newly acquired Yankee Jack Clark tears a tendon in his calf while delivering a home run swing in a spring training game against the Orioles, and will miss the start of the regular season.

1978: The Yankees take to the field for a St. Patrick’s Day exhibition game against the Reds,who don green uniforms rather than their traditional red‚ starting an annual ritual that will
last until the end of the ’80s. The good luck works and the Reds win‚
9-2. The Cardinals will be the next to follow suit.

1949: At St. Petersburg, the Tigers and Yankees slog through 17 innings before agreeing to call the game a 2-2 tie. The two sides issue 28 walks and leave 42 runners on base.

1936: Much-heralded prospect Joe DiMaggio makes his spring debut with the Yankees, collecting 4 hits including a triple. The day is marred only by the Cardinals’ 8-7 win.

1921: The Yankees, training in Shreveport‚ Lousiana, journey to Lake Charles to play a game against the Cardinals‚
who are based in Orange‚ Texas. The game is proclaimed ‘Ruth-Hornsby Day‚’ but
the Rajah hits only a single while the Babe launches a home run the short
right field fence. The Yanks win 14-5.

…and on the 18th… 

1985: Commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstates Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, who had been banned from association with organized baseball by Bowie Kuhn because of their employment by Atlantic City casinos.

1962: Mid ’80s Yankee reliever Brian Fisher is born. Happy 49th, Brian!

2008: In a spring training game against the Pirates, Billy Crystal leads off as the designated hitter. He manages to make contact, fouling a fastball up the first base line, but is eventually struck out by Paul Maholm on  6 pitches and is then replaced in the batting order by Johnny Damon.

2007: Brett Gardner is reassigned to minor league camp.

1963: Mariano Duncan is born. Happy 48th to Mr. ‘We play today, we win today, thassit’!

1954: Newly acquired Bobby Thomson of the Milwaukee Braves breaks his ankle sliding into second under Woodie Held in a 3-2 exhibition loss to the Yankees at Al Lang Field. The injury‚ a trimalleor fracture‚ will keep Thomson
out of action until July 14th‚ but it will open the way for rookie Hank Aaron to start in the left field. Ironically‚ Aaron will suffer a similar fracture in
September.

1937: Lou Gehrig agrees to a one-year for $38‚000‚ plus a $750 signing bonus. He will play his first
game on March 20th, driving in 2 runs as the Yanks beat the Boston Braves 5-3.

1922: Cliff Mapes, ’40s outfielder who was the last Yankee to wear Babe Ruth’s old no. 3 before it was retired, is born.

1886:Hall of Famer Frank ‘Home Run’ Baker, starting Yankee third baseman from 1916 through 1919, is born. 

.
…and on the 14th…

2008: Billy Crystal is released from his Yankee contract on his 60th birthday.

2007: A turbulent year in Yankee pitching gets off to its start as Phil Hughes, Matt DeSalvo, Chase Wright and Ross Ohlendorf are assigned to minor league camp. All but the latter will be starting in the Bronx by May, and even the Princeton grad will be in the pen when the Yanks start the ’07 postseason.

1961: George Weiss, whose Yankee teams won 10 pennants and 7 Championships during his tenure as GM from 1947 to 1960, comes out of retirement to become president of the future New York Mets. Weiss will later be reunited with his former manager Casey Stengel, who will make a comeback as the Mets’ first skipper.

1956: Butch Wynegar, starting catcher for the Yankees from 1982 through 1986, is born. Happy 55th, Butch!