Yankees get a kick out of playing in front of fans again

TAMPA, Fla. — There will be plenty of games ahead in spring training to evaluate the horse races in depth.

The battle for the fifth starter spot, the multiple open bullpen slots and the composition of the Yankees’ bench.

Those competitions — and others — officially began for the Yankees on Sunday afternoon in their 6-4 loss to the Blue Jays in both clubs’ Grapefruit League opener.

But for one day, all of it took a back seat to the biggest headline of the day from the perspective of those in uniform, especially the ones in pinstripes: playing in front of fans, even a small number of them.

As Gleyber Torres put it afterward: "It was like the first day of school."

Indeed, Sunday was about a return, to a small degree, of normalcy in the sport.

A crowd of 2,637 trickled into Steinbrenner Field on Sunday afternoon, marking the first time since last March 12 that the Yankees played in front of paying customers.

(About half, it seemed, shed their masks once inside, a violation of protocols, and kept them off.)

"It was pretty exciting finally having them back," Aaron Judge said. "I was sitting in the cold tub [after the game] with Gleyber and DJ [LeMahieu] and we were kind of going over [the day]. We kind of had a little butterflies getting in there [for] your first at-bat. So we were all excited to finally have some fans, even though it wasn't a packed house. But anything's better than nothing."

The afternoon came complete with the introduction of Yankees players and staff — wearing their home pinstripes, as they typically do for the exhibition home opener — on the first-base line.

"It was great to be back here in Florida playing in front of some fans and feel that energy," Judge said. "Run out on the field for pregame stretch and the crowd goes a little crazy and then the first time the whole team runs out on the field, just the energy. It was kind of weird for me, first at-bat, I hit a ground ball [to short], but just hearing the fans kind of spark up [on contact]. Even when DJ hit a ground ball up the middle, you hear that instant crowd reaction. That’s something that I’m glad it’s back."

Judge, who in the past routinely played catch between innings with young fans in the stands, altered that a bit Sunday. After doing his warmup tosses on the field between innings, he threw the last one to a young fan in the crowd.

"I've missed having those moments, but I had to save it until one last toss and let them keep the ball," Judge said. "With all the rules we’ve got going on, I can't be spreading anything, so I tried to be smart about that."

The fans arrived intent on being heard.

With a man on and the count full on Toronto's Bo Bichette in the first inning, much of the crowd, unprompted, began making noise, trying to urge on Mike King to get the second out. As the noise level increased, Bichette fouled off two straight 3-and-2 pitches before drawing a walk.

"It was cool," Aaron Boone said of the fans. "Even on the bench, where we sit just outside the dugout there, we made reference to it a couple times with the coaches, just how nice it is having people in the stands. I saw a highlight before we walked out of BP and [saw] a kid chasing a ball going over the fence. Those kinds of things. To have some interaction with the fans waving."

Boone paused.

"Yeah," he said. "I mean, it's been too long."

Notes & quotes: Two batters after walking Bichette, King hit Vlad Guerrero Jr. to load the bases with two outs before allowing Rowdy Tellez’s two-run double that made it 2-0. King allowed three runs in two innings.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.