I’ve been spending the winter in St. Petersburg, so it was only a short hop over to Tampa for today’s spring training opener against the Tigers. No matter how many years I’ve been a Yankee fan, it never ceases to make my heart race to see the new season’s players take the field in their pinstripes – even if I didn’t recognize half of them.

Stanton and Judge stood out, of course – literally – during the intro and National Anthem, even from my seat in the 200 section.

They’re so big that they dwarf the other players. But the kid who actually played multiple innings was Tyler Wade and he made a good impression. Stanton got a big hand but didn’t do anything Herculean. And Judge didn’t play at all. I guess the Yankees were saving him for tomorrow’s fans. Whatever. Luis Cessa started – it’s spring training, after all – and the hero was a kid named Jorge Saez. When he scored, there were chants of “Hip, Hip, Jorge,” which made me laugh and miss Posada at the same time.

The Yankees won 3-1 in a game without much action. I was thrilled. There I was at Steinbrenner Field feeling very Steinbrennerian in my need for the Yankees to win every single game, even the first one in February.

More to come now that there’s baseball for real!