‘Buzz’ returns to the Stadium
For the first time in 531 days, real crowd noise filled Yankee Stadium on Thursday — for better and for worse.
The boos were quick to return on Opening Day in The Bronx, especially late in the Yankees’ 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Blue Jays, but the energy was felt throughout as the sellout crowd of 10,850 made its way back to the stadium after a season locked out of it due to the pandemic.
“It wasn’t the result we wanted, but having that buzz, having that energy back in the stadium was something special that I know we all enjoyed,” Aaron Judge said. “I was talking to a couple of the guys, talking with the umpires, everybody missed it. Those fans, that energy, that makes the game. They’re a part of the game, just like all of us. Bad result, but glad to have the fans back.”
Judge even got some firsthand interaction with the crowd — just not the kind he was used to. After he caught a ball along the wall in rightfield foul territory to end the ninth inning, a fan tried to reach into his glove to grab the ball. Judge, perhaps not surprisingly, won out.
“Imadetheplaybythewalland as I’m trying to run away, I feel somebody grabbing at me,” Judge said. “They kind of tried to get their hand in the glove and rip it out there. It’s their first time back at a stadium in a long time, so I’ll give them that one. First day, I don’t think that’ll happen again. … I’ll give them a little grace period there.”
Otherwise, the buzz began early, as soon as Gary Sanchez and Gerrit Cole walked out to the bullpen and grew as pregame introductions got underway.
Though the game may have ended with more grumbles than it began with, it was a welcome replacement to the piped-in crowd noise of last season.
“It really did [live up to expectations],” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously it didn’t end the way you want to, where you’re shaking hands. It was definitely special having a crowd back in there. Even though we’re 20 percent capacity, you could feel their energy and feel them waiting to erupt. Obviously we had some chances to take that and just couldn’t break through there.
“It felt like a bigger crowd than that. … It’s not something that any of us take for granted, being able to have our fan base and people in here watching, because it’s different, it’s better, it’s the way it needs to be.”