Fan contributions
During the Opening Night broadcast, Bonds told a story about how he almost signed with the Yankees over the Giants in 1992. “George [Steinbrenner] isn’t here anymore, so I can tell the truth, right?” Bonds said. According to Bonds, Steinbrenner called him during that offseason with an offer to join the Yankees on the largest contract in baseball history. The catch? He had to sign it by 2:00 pm that same afternoon. “And I said, ‘Excuse me?’” Bonds remarked. “And I just hung the phone up. I went to go get lunch and Dennis Gilbert, my agent, said, ‘Do you know what you just did?!’ And I’m like, ‘Do you know what he just said?!’” “By the time I walked down the street to go get lunch, I just said, ‘Lemme just think about this.’ The Giants called me, and I said, ‘I’m going home.’” An all-time What If scenario casually dropped by the greatest home run hitter in MLB history.
It seems to be the end for the Angel Hernandezes of the world as Jose Caballero had the first ABS Challenge in MLB regular season history! The call was off the pitcher Logan Webb, which Jose Caballero hit earlier in the game with a RBI single. Caballero lost the challenge, as he went on to ground-out to third. MLB players and fans will look forward to the ground-breaking technology, let alone idea, of the challenge as we look for the first challenge won!
Judge became the first reigning MVP to strike out four times in an Opening Day game. He also becomes the third Yankee to strike out four times in the same spot, joining Giancarlo Stanton and Oswaldo Cabrera. The previous mark for most strikeouts by a reigning MVP in a team’s first game of the season was three: Willie Stargell (1980), Sammy Sosa (1999), Mike Trout (2015), Josh Donaldson (2016) and Kris Bryant (2017).
