For Yankees, having fans back in stadium like ‘having little butterflies’ and ‘getting back to your first at-bat’

TAMPA — Just after one o’clock, the unfamiliar noise broke out. The usual routine of spring training — the announcing of the players, managers, coaches and staff of a minor-league version of what will happen in a month — was welcomed with an unusually loud and sustained, real live cheer of fans yelling and clapping.

The assistant bullpen coach and hitting coaches probably got the biggest cheers of their careers, because not only were the Yankees back at George M. Steinbrenner Field for the first time in 2021, but so too were their fans.

“One of my favorite things is just the interactions in between innings and when you first run out there, the crowd, the energy, the roar and hearing them kind of yelling certain things, good things, bad things, it’s just you feed off of that,” Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said. “So, it was pretty exciting to finally have them back.

“I was sitting in a cold tub with Gleyber (Torres) and DJ (LeMahieu) and we’re kind of going over it and like man, it was kind of like having a little butterflies,” Judge recalled thinking of fans before the game. “It was like getting back to your first at-bat. So we’re all excited to have some fans even though it wasn’t a packed house. But anything’s better than nothing.”

Michael King and the Yankees took on the Blue Jays in their first spring training game of the year. (Frank Franklin II/AP)

After playing without live fans in the ballpark since March 12, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down baseball, the Yankees embraced a little piece of  normalcy. The Yankees had 2,637 fans in the ballpark for their 6-4 Grapefruit League opening day loss to the Blue Jays Sunday.

Fans were in socially-distanced pods with seats in between having been taken out of use with zip ties. There were plexiglass sheets put up over the dugouts, near the on-deck circles where the managers and coaches sit during spring training games to keep a healthy barrier between fans and players and staff.

Still the Yankees felt the difference.

“Even on the bench over there, or where we sit just outside the dugout there, we made reference to it a couple times, with the coaches there, just how nice it’s having people in the stands,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I saw a highlight before we walked out of BP and a kid chasing a ball going over the fence and those kinds of things. To have some interaction with the fans waving… it’s been too long.”

After playing the abbreviated 2020 season in sterile stadiums with fake crowd noise pumped in and some ballparks using creepy cardboard cutouts in the stands, Gleyber Torres said it was nice just to have anybody there to play in front of.

“I feel really excited to see fans in the stands,” he said. “It’s kinda like we have a little more motivation to play. I mean, we feel happy to see little boys in the stands to have fans get loud pitch after pitch, inning after inning. This is what’s right. I mean, I’m feeling really happy to see fans right now. “

The return of fans to GMS wasn’t without issues.

Fans watch during the fourth inning of a spring baseball game between the Yankees and the Blue Jays, seen not wearing masks at George M. Steinbrenner Field. (Frank Franklin II/AP)

While the teams policy clearly states that the limited number of fans allowed in the ballpark 2,637 Sunday were required to wear masks covering their mouth and nose at all times except when eating or drinking, many fans disregarded that policy. Photographs taken throughout the game showed the pods of fans — socially distanced by sectioned off parts of the stands — without masks on properly or at all as they yelled and screamed for their team. MLB said that each team is responsible for enforcement of the mask-wearing policy in their own ballpark.

Still, Judge and the Yankees still tried to safely make that connection with the fans who were here. Known for his interaction with fans in the outfield — like playing warm up catch with young fans and talking to others in the time before coronavirus — Judge brought out extra balls to toss to fans in the outfield.

“I miss having those moments,” Judge said.

Boone admitted that there were still plenty of reminders of how the world has changed.

“So there was that little bit of not quite the interaction you have when everything’s normal,” Boone said. “I think in the end, today was a day where a lot of people were just excited to be back at the ball field, whether you’re a fan or a player.”