Tuesday afternoon's game between the Yankees and Angels was certainly more meaningful than just a regular opening game at Yankee Stadium.
Last year in 2009, they opened the brand new ballpark.
This year in 2010, the Yankees celebrated it by receiving their 2009 World Series Championship rings in a pre-game ceremony.
On hand were former Yankees Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra, who helped pass out the rings. Also on hand was former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to receive his ring from Joe Girardi and Derek Jeter.
Former Yankees outfielder and 2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, now with the visiting Angels, was also able to pick up his ring and not only received a tremendous ovation from the Bronx faithful, but was greeted by his former teammates as well.
Former Yankees Bernie Williams threw out the first pitch.
Oh yea, after all that, there was a baseball game to be played as well.
Andy Pettitte kept the Angels hitters off balanced and quiet, pitching six shutout innings, allowing five hits, no runs, three walks and struck out six.
Pettitte has looked extremely sharp in his first two starts so far and against two tough teams in the Red Sox and Angels. In 12 innings pitches, he's only allowed one run, which makes his ERA so far 0.75.
If Pettitte keeps up this pace all season long, he gives a good Yankees rotation even more depth by pitching well.
On offense, the Yankees beat up on a weak Angels pitching staff. Ervin Santana did strike out seven, but he allowed five walks, five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Angels relievers Jason Bulger, Brian Stokes and Bobby Cassevah didn't fair much better, as they allowed another two runs to the Yankees.
Chan Ho Park continued to give the Yankees quality innings out of the bullpen, pitching two innings and allowing only one run.
David Robertson however, was not sharp at all. After loading the bases, former Yankee Bobby Abreu crushed a pitch into right field for a grand slam and made a 7-1 game 7-5 with one swing.
Because of Robertson's lousy performance, it forced Mariano Rivera into the game to get the final two outs, but he did pick up his third save of the season.
It's a good thing the Yankees offense scored runs, because the extra two runs turned out to be needed.
Nick Johnson and Derek Jeter each hit solo home runs and Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run single.
Brett Gardner was the only major Yankee on offense to struggle, going 0-for-3, striking out twice and left six men on base.
In Matsui's return to the Bronx as a visitor, he went 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
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