Bronx Bombers The Yankees modest opening day lineup

Ben Francisco True Yankee He'll be their opening day DH.(Photo Kim Klement USA TODAY Sports)

The New York Yankees the franchise that brought us the Babe and the Mick Joltin' Joe and Jeter Gehrig and even Granderson have a decidedly different look for Opening Day today.

Forget Hall of Fame legends. Today against the Boston Red Sox fans will instead be treated to Nunez and Nix Wells and Youkilis and in a rare treat two flavors of Francisco (Ben left fielder and Cervelli catcher).

If we weren't above wallowing in cliches we'd insert a nation turns its lonely eyes to (fill in the blank here). But we'll avoid that temptation. Instead feast your eyes on the Yankees' lineup. Then try to imagine Red Sox starter Jon Lester's reaction when a bullpen catcher or clubhouse attendant hands him a copy of their lineup card

CF Brett GardnerSS Eduardo Nunez2B Robinson Cano1B Kevin YoukilisLF Vernon WellsDH Ben FranciscoRF Ichiro Suzuki3B Laynce NixC Francisco CervelliP CC Sabathia

Their position players including DH are slated to make a combined $50.9 million (per the freshly updated USA TODAY Sports MLB salary database). Meanwhile there's $92 million of Yankee salary on the disabled list including the aforementioned Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson.

MONEY MEN MLB salary database

Manager Joe Girardi who wasn't born yesterday was philosophical about his club's plight before Monday's opener.

We're probably going to score runs in a different way he said in a pregame press briefing. I don't think we're going to hit 240 homers the way our lineup is constituted.

However don't sleep on the Yankees. With a quietly deep pitching staff the window for pinstriped schadenfreude may be narrower than some may imagine.

So Yankee fans avert your eyes. Yankee haters revel even for just a moment.

Contributing Paul White in New York

OPENING DAY Baseball's holiday in pictures

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