Welcome to Opening Day-New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays begin their 2012 season this afternoon at 3:10PM.  The Yankees will be live on the YES network, pregame coverage begins at 2.  Here are the pregame notes along with the lineups for both teams.  These are directly from the Yankees, the press notes. 

I will start with the lineups:Yankees:Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, Raul Ibanez, Russell Martin, Brett Gardner.  CC was 19-8 last year with a 3.00 ERA and he is on the mound. 

Rays Lineup:Desmond Jennings, Ben Zobrist, Evan Longoria, Jeff Keppinger, Sean Rodriguez, Carlos Pena, Elliot Johnson, Jose Molina, Matt Joyce.  James Shields is on the mound, he was 16-12 last season with a 2.82 ERA. 

Derek Jeter is making his 16th Opening Day start at shortstop which is a franchise record.  The previous record was held by Phil Rizzuto and it was 11.  The last shortstop with as many Opening Day starts at SS for any team was the Red Barry Larkin who made 17. 

Alex Rodriguez has played in seven Opening Days with the Yankees and hit safely in all of them.  He is 12-30 which is a 400 batting average with four doubles, two homeruns and nine RBI. 

The Yankees this spring were 18-12-3 which is a 600 winning percentage.  It is their best spring since 2009 when they were 24-10-1 and of course won the World Series.  I don't make much of spring training results or stats but those are the facts. 

In 1973 on this date Ron Blomberg became the major leagues first DH.  He went 1-3 with an RBI ast the Yankees lost to the Red Sox in Fenway Park 15-5.  He walked with the bases loaded in the first inning in his first plate appearance. 

On this date in 1974 the Yankees played their first home game at Shea Stadium.  Yankee Stadium began a two year remodeling.  They beat the Cleveland Indians 6-1 as Mel Stottlemyre pitched a complte game and gave up seven hits. 

Enjoy Opening Day everyone, comment here or follow me on twitter @gmarchesej.  I can also be found on Facebook.  I will talk to everyone later after the game with the postgame reactions.