Jorge Posada and fellow Puerto Rican Sonia Sotomayor,
at the new Yankee Stadium in 2009,
after her confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court
April 2, 1995: A federal judge grants an injunction against Major League Baseball, preventing its team owners from unilaterally implementing a new collective bargaining agreement and using replacement players. This ends the Strike of '94. MLB and the Players Association reach an agreement that will start the new season on April 25.
The Judge was a 40-year-old Yankee Fan from The Bronx. I was so grateful to her for giving me back my baseball, I was willing to marry her. (Give me a break: She was very attractive back then.) At the very least, I wanted her on the Supreme Court of the United States.
The former, obviously, didn't happen. The latter did, in 2009. Her name was Sonia Sotomayor.
The next day, April 3, I went into New York, took the Subway up to Yankee Stadium, and bought a ticket for Opening Day. Main Level Reserved, Section 2, right behind home plate. $24. (About $45 in today's money.) The gates were open -- security was different in those pre-9/11 days. And I was able to walk to my seat, and just sat there for about 15 minutes, taking it all in.
Walking out, I saw a section of the outer wall's plaster displaced. I picked up a 2-by-3-inch piece, and took it home. To this day, I have a piece of the old Yankee Stadium, even if it probably dated, at most, only to the 1973-76 renovation. There was also some graffiti on the wall. When Opening Day came on April 26, the plaster was repaired, the graffiti was painted over, both looked like there had never been anything wrong, and the Yankees won.
*
April 2, 1995 was a Sunday. Obviously, there were no baseball games. Football was out of season. There were 9 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat their neighbors, the New Jersey Nets, 94-85 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands, despite Queens native Kenny Anderson scoring 31 points for the Nets.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 94-87 in one of the last games at the Boston Garden.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat, 105-92 at the Miami Arena.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-101 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.)
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Washington Bullets, 110-105 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 104-93 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns, 109-106 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Despite the Suns' loss, Charles Barkley led all scorers on the day with 45 points.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic, 119-112 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-83 at the KeyArena in Seattle.
There were 7 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. (The New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils were not scheduled.)
* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Ottawa Senators, 7-5 at the Colisée de Québec.
* The Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Florida Panthers beat their arch-rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1 at the Thunderdome in St. Petersburg. (It's now named Tropicana Field.)
* The St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 3-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The Dallas Stars beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1 at the United Center in Chicago.
* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the San Jose Sharks, 5-4 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. (It's now named the Honda Center.)
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