Devoted Yankees fans fill up Jupiter stadium
Judge gives New York faithful an extra treat with his first homer.
JUPITER— They all congregated on Jupiter, with their pinstriped jerseys and “Got Rings?” T-shirts. They migrated from New York — some temporarily, some for longer. Some have lived here their whole lives.
On Sunday, the center of the Yankees Universe was in Jupiter, as the visiting New York team played the hometown Marlins at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. But you wouldn’t know which side was the home team, given the raucous applause for Yankees stars Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez and the muted clapping for Miami’s Starlin Castro andDerek Dietrich.
“This is the most exciting spring training game I’ve ever been to,” said Mark Plutno, a Palm Beach Gardens resident who moved from Long Island last year. The Jupiter stadium was near or at capacity as fans started streaming in an hour and a half before the 1:05 p.m. start so they could watch the Yankees take batting practice.
Cory Strolla, a Royal Palm Beach resident clad in a customized New York jersey, brought his 12-yearold son, Carson, to the game early. Strolla said he usually goes to one or two exhibition games during the spring, but he had no intentions of missing the Yankees when they came to town, even though former Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton, whom Miami traded to New York during the offseason, didn’t make the trip.
“Once the Yankees were com-
ing,” he said, “it was absolutely, 100 percent, we were coming.”
Melinda Dower, wearing a Derek Jeter shirt (even though the former Yankee is now a part owner of the Marlins), doesn’t live in South Florida, but she made it to Sunday’s game. The New Jersey resident was so excited about the Yankees’ coming season that she bought a condo in Dune- din, close to New York’s spring-training home in Tampa. She visited a friend in Palm Beach Gardens, and they went to Sunday’s game together.
“My father grew up in the Bronx, and my grandfather actually worked at Yankee Stadium for a little while,” Dower said. “My favorite story I tell everyone is: Babe Ruth used to pay my father a quarter to watch his car during the games.”
Although the Marlins beat the Yankees 7-5, New York fans didn’t go home empty-handed. They got to see Judge, last year’s American League rookie of the year, launch his first home run in 2018.