This week’s Pop Quiz question came to us from Chris Gannon of Scotch Plains, NJ:
Name the former utility player (he played a little for two pennant-winning Yankees teams) who became the commissioned artist for three Super Bowls.
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Greetings from Citi Field, and happy Opening Day.
I’m a bit of a counter, and there’s no count I cherish more than my Opening Day count. For me, Mets-Nationals will be No. 25 – the first seven as a fan, and now this is No. 18 professionally.
In the interest of full disclosure, two of my seven as a fan — 1989 and 1993 — were actually home openers, rather than season openers. But I’m counting them. There’s still that freshness, the pomp and circumstance.
And that tradition. The recall that sometimes Opening Day means everything, sometimes nothing and sometimes it’s in between.
So to continue a personal tradition, here’s my personal list of Opening Days — and what I remember from each one. Some of this is recycled straight from last year’s write-up, some revised thanks to changed circumstances or impressions.
1. April 5, 1988 at Yankee Stadium (Yankees 8, Minnesota 0): So many memories from my first one: Dave Winfield, treated to a standing ovation because he released a book critical of George Steinbrenner, drove in the game’s first run with a fourth-inning single. Rafael Santana, in his first game as a Yankee, hit into a triple play. And after the game, when we returned to my friend Scott’s car, we had a flat tire.
2. April 7, 1989 at Yankee Stadium (Cleveland 4, Yankees 2): I got to excuse myself from high school to go to the Stadium, since I was 18. Jamie Quirk started at catcher, which was quite a discouraging sign.
3. April 12, 1990 at Tiger Stadium (Detroit 11, Boston 7): The season started a week late due to the spring-training lockout that year. As for the game, I remember it being unbearably cold. I checked the first-pitch temperature in the box score: 38 degrees. Good Lord.
4. April 8, 1991 at Tiger Stadium (Detroit 6, Yankees 4): Tim Leary started for the Yankees, as a reward for his 9-19, 4.11 ERA campaign in 1990. During spring training this year, I asked Stump Merrill if he recalled his Opening Day starter for his one full major-league season as a manager. Stump was, well, stumped.
5. April 6, 1992 at Tiger Stadium (Toronto 4, Detroit 2): Jack Morris’ Blue Jays debut, and the 13th of his 14 Opening Day starts, one of his claims to fame. That he pitched so well on this Opening Day made it extra painful for his longtime former team, the Tigers; he of course spent one year between Detroit and Toronto with Minnesota, during which he pitched the Twins to the 1991 World Series title.
6. April 13, 1993 at Tiger Stadium (Detroit 20, Oakland 4): This was pretty much a typical day for these Tigers, who scored 899 runs and allowed 837. Mike Moore, the winning pitcher, finished the season with a 13-9 record … and a 5.22 ERA. He’s an excellent exhibit for the “Pitchers’ wins are stupid” argument.
7. April 4, 1994 at Yankee Stadium (Yankees 5, Texas 3): I remember Jimmy Key started and won for the Yankees. Otherwise, it’s a blur. I blame the August players’ strike that led Bud Selig to cancel the World Series.
8. April 1, 1997 at the Kingdome (Seattle 4, Yankees 2): My first assigned Opening Day, professionally. Ken Griffey Jr. went deep twice as Alex Rodriguez’s M’s topped his best friend Derek Jeter’s Yankees. Jeter and A-Rod are the only two players from that game who are still active in the major leagues, and many of you might dispute such an adjective for A-Rod.
9. April 1, 1998 at Edison Field (Angels 4, Yankees 1): “Edison Field.” Ay yi yi. Better known as Angel Stadium. This was Andy Pettitte’s first and only Opening Day start. Which just shows you what a silly measure “Opening Day starts” is.
10. April 5, 1999 at Network Associates Coliseum (Oakland 5, Yankees 3). Another silly, short-term ballpark name. This was Roger Clemens’ Yankees debut, and it came with Don Zimmer managing the team, as Joe Torre was recuperating from surgery to treat prostate cancer.
11. April 3, 2000 at Edison Field (Yankees 3, Angels 2): The Yankees won thanks to a two-run, sixth-inning homer by Paul O’Neill, who had begun fading by that point.
12. April 2, 2001 at Yankee Stadium (Yankees 7, Kansas City 3): Clemens passed Walter Johnson to become the American League’s all-time strikeout leader.
13. April 1, 2002 at Camden Yards (Baltimore 10, Yankees 3): Clemens left the game in the fifth inning, his performance turning dramatically for the worse after he tried to barehand David Segui’s fourth-inning comebacker and injured his right hand. Who would’ve thought back then that Segui would wind up testifying in Clemens’ 2012 trial? I also remember that I became the pool reporter who spoke to Clemens on the phone following his visit to an area hospital. Clemens was gracious as always, and when I thanked him, Clemens responded, “OK, guys” — the same way the Chef from South Park always addressed even a single child as “children.”
15. March 20, 2004 at Tokyo Dome (Tampa Bay 8, Yankees 3): This was an awesome experience, except for Mike Mussina, whose misery at being in Japan seemed to accompany him onto the mound. In A-Rod’s Yankees debut, he collided with reliever Paul Quantrill (also making his Yankees debut) on Rocco Baldelli’s bunt single in the seventh, and Quantrill never seemed to be the same pitcher again. Oh, and the winning pitcher Victor Zambrano would finish that season in a Mets uniform. #Kazmir
16. April 3, 2005 at Yankee Stadium (Yankees 9, Boston 2): Say what you want about Randy Johnson’s time with the Yankees, but he beat the Red Sox five times in 2005, as the two teams finished with identical 95-67 records. This was the first of those five.
17. April 3, 2006 at Shea Stadium (Mets 3, Washington 2): Paul Lo Duca enjoyed himself a nifty Mets debut, in part because he duped home-plate umpire Rick Reed in an eighth-inning play at the plate.
18. April 1, 2007 at Busch Stadium (Mets 6, St. Louis 1): The Mets immediately “avenged” their crushing National League Championship Series loss to the Cardinals. If you had told anyone in the ballpark that night that the Mets would miss the playoffs that season and the next six, you would’ve received plenty of odd stares. I remember telling then-Mets big shot Tony Bernazard that I had predicted the Mets to miss the playoffs. Tony looked at me with contempt and arrogance. But then again, that pretty much was always how he looked at me.
19. April 1, 2008 at Yankee Stadium (Yankees 3, Toronto 2): This was the final home opener in the old Stadium. And Chien-Ming Wang, just months away from his impressive career falling apart, outpitched Halladay.
20. April 6, 2009 at Great American Ball Park (Mets 2, Cincinnati 1): Great pitching, from Johan Santana to Sean Green to J.J. Putz to Francisco Rodriguez, the latter three making their Mets debuts. This probably was the most misleading Opening Day I ever attended.
21. April 4, 2010 at Fenway Park (Boston 9, Yankees 7): The Yankees’ bullpen melted down. It just wasn’t going to happen for Chan Ho Park in a Yankees uniform.
22. March 31, 2011 at Yankee Stadium (Yankees 6, Detroit 3): On a freezing day, the Yankees defeated Justin Verlander. I was surprised to see the Yankees have defeated Verlander five times in 15 regular-season starts. I would’ve guessed higher.
23. April 5, 2012 at Citi Field (Mets 1, Atlanta 0): Santana’s return from major shoulder surgery proved inspirational — if short-lived.
24. April 1, 2013 at Yankee Stadium (Boston 8, Yankees 2): The Yankees’ starting lineup featured Eduardo Nunez hitting second, Kevin Youkilis fourth, Vernon Wells fifth and Ben Francisco sixth. None of those men is currently in the major leagues. And as we know, the Yankees’ lineup didn’t get considerably better until August.
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Your Pop Quiz answer is Gene Locklear. If you have a tidbit that correlates baseball to popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.