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Seated in the front row right below him were his family, his father Charles, his mother Dorothy, his sister Charlee, his grandmother, his wife Hannah and his two young daughters. Behind them were his former Yankee teammates, Jorge Posada, Tino Martinez, Gerald Williams and his fellow iconic pal Michael Jordan. Seated further back were Hal Steinbrenner and club COO Lonn Trost representing the Yankees. And, of course, seated among the 34 returning Hall-of-Famers behind him were Mariano Rivera, Reggie Jackson and Joe Torre. “I thank you Mr. T, for trusting me [as a rookie in 1996] or at least making me think you trusted me,” Jeter said.

“I might describe something in a meeting and he’ll come up and say, ‘Coach, can you put together a cut-up of other players doing that?’ So I will and he does those things. Then if I see it in practice, I remind him, ‘There it is. That’s what you were talking about. You just did it.’ Now he has a feel for it.”

While Steele has been steady in maintaining his fastball velocity from start to start, averaging 93.4 mph compared to 94.2 mph as a reliever, Thompson’s velocity dips have been concerning. His stuff waned over the course of the game and has featured a fastball sitting at 92.4 mph in his three starts. As a reliever, Thompson’s fastball averaged between 93.8 and 96 mph during his 26 relief appearances for the Cubs this year. A decrease in velocity is expected when a pitcher goes from throwing shorter one or two-inning outings versus trying to maintain stuff over, ideally, five-plus innings. Even so, Thompson has visibly been out of whack at times in his starting role.

“He’s a super smart guy,” Gipson said. “But sometimes he thinks light years ahead. So sometimes when he first brings an idea to you, you say, ‘Sean there’s no way that’s going to work.’ … Then after he breaks it down to you, you’re like, ‘OK. Five minutes ago, there’s no way I would have put that together. But now it makes sense.’ ”

Everything about this game seems to point to Robinson, starting with the Texans defense, which gave up a league-worst 5.2 yards per carry last year. Of course, they’ve tried to improve but they may see the field a lot if Tyrod Taylor can’t sustain the offense. And the Jaguars may lean heavily on the run in Trevor Lawrence’s NFL debut.

The Bears are working fifth-round pick Larry Borom exclusively at left tackle, and it will be very interesting to see if he or Elijah Wilkinson is active Sunday night against the Rams. Typically, teams dress only three offensive tackles for a game, and Alex Bars, who I imagine will be active, has the ability to slot in anywhere on the line if someone is injured. I believe the Bears are grooming Borom as a potential starter at left tackle in the future. That doesn’t mean second-round pick Teven Jenkins is definitely headed to right tackle whenever he returns from back surgery, but it certainly indicates it’s a possibility. The Bears could use two young offensive tackles considering Peters is 39 and he and right tackle Germain Ifedi are on one-year contracts. Peters has struggled to remain healthy in recent seasons, so there is a good chance we see Borom at left tackle at some point. While it looked like the Bears might consider a rotation early in the season to account for Peters’ conditioning, coaches indicate he’s good to go. My hunch is the plan is for him to play the entire game Sunday night.

“He came out in the first inning, and he was nervous, which he should be,” La Russa said. “And what’s so impressive was once he got into the flow, he showed his reputation. He has a reputation for being a closer: He can finish innings, he can pitch deep into the game. And that’s exactly what he did. He got, actually, sharper and better and better as he relaxed and just pitched. So a very impressive game.

“I mean, I’ve done this before, so it’s not new territory,” Sampson said. “It is hard, though, at the same time just routine-wise. But they gave me enough time to prep, and after my last (relief) outing, they gave me a little heads up that this could be a possibility of starting today. And so I just shifted to starter mentality and got my stuff done in between my outings and I kept it normal.”

“I felt more appreciated because I was really down in Arizona,” Jiménez said. “I was frustrated a little bit, and every time some of the guys reached me, it motivated me to come back sooner than later. It felt nice to have that support from your teammates, and that was for me and (Luis) Robert. That’s why we’re here today.”

Leylah Fernandez celebrates after winning her match in the quarterfinals of the 2021 US Open inside Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Flushing NY on September 7, 2021. (Photo by Andrew Schwartz) (Andrew Schwartz/For New York Daily News)