Opening day of baseball in the South Bronx, more than just a game.

A local musician across the street to Yankee stadium trying to make a dollar. One of the many that come out to sell, or entertain to earn money. (Photo credit< Latino Sports)

South Bronx, NY: Yesterdays Yankees pregame opening day celebration and the eventual game that the Yankees won 5 -0 over the visiting San Francisco Giants was in traditional Bronx Bomber style. It started with a homerun in the first inning from non-other than the Yankees homerun king, Aaron Judge. The crowd went ballistic when Judge in his first at bat smacked one over the left center field fences for his first homerun of the season giving the home team a 1- 0 lead. The celebration by the sold-out Yankee stadium crowd continued until the end of the game.

There are countless articles written about yesterday’s Yankee – San Francisco game and all its ramifications, so I will not add to the pile of over told game trivia.

I would on the other hand like to write about the economic input rarely seen by the Yankees, or their fans in the South Bronx community. The Yankees considered the richest team in Major League Baseball, worth over seven billion dollars in dead smack in the middle of the poorest urban Congressional district in the entire continental United States where the median family income hovers below thirty thousand. That’s one large disparity and one that explains why every Yankee game is an opportunity for an economic impulse for the local community. However, this economic impulse is totally independent from the confines of the cathedral, AKA Yankee stadium.

Opening day reminds me of what is must have looked like in the medieval period where peasants lined themselves on the road leading to the castle and its perimeter selling, or peddling anything they could to make any amount of money to survive. Well in 2023 few fans get to understand this economic contradiction but see it as they walk from their parking lots, the local train stop and the upper scale trains line, Metro North shuttling in upper middle-class fans from the wealthier upstate region of New York.

The local Bodegas, Yankee apparel stores, fast food & non-fast-food restaurants, bars, supermarket, and other retail stores do make more profit during opening day than during any other period except post season and World Series games. So, though the Yankees might be oblivious to the poverty walking distance from their stadium, the local community is grateful for an opportunity to peddle whatever it can to the incoming tourist and fans that the Yankees draw. South Bronx welcomes in opening day 2023.