Yankees Fans: Call me anything, but don’t ever call me a “homer”
Writing about the Yankees apparently can be a perilous undertaking at times. Especially yesterday when I obviously touched a nerve with many fans of the team. Here’s my story, though, and I’m sticking to it.
The Yankees have thousands of words written about them every day. Most of the stories are good-natured, others are inane with platitudes having no founding, others are cutting and biting, and still, others are thoughtful and written with the intention to give the reader something to think about.
Yesterday, I managed to light the Yanks Go Yard Facebook page up with a story titled “Don’t vote for Didi, send the guy from Boston to Miami”. Read the comments for yourself, but trust me when I say they were not very favorable. A few were even downright nasty as emotions took over at the mere suggestion that a Red Sox player was more deserving of the All-Star Game than a New York Yankee.
The stories purpose was twofold and had little, if anything, to do with the Final Vote. First, participating in the game is a gift from the players to the fans. With 80 games behind them and 80 games still to play, three days in the Bahamas laying on the beach, recharging at least the mental batteries certainly must sound appealing. Kudos to the players who make the trip.
Second, the story was intended to put a little rub on the Red Sox by causing them to have another of their players not relaxing on the beach. This with an eye towards the three-game match-up between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway when play resumes next Friday.
More from Yanks Go Yard
- Did Andrew Benintendi contract help Yankees with Ian Happ trade?
- Aaron Judge Time interview scared Yankees as much as it scared you
- MLB Network’s proposed Yankees-White Sox trade seems insane
- Why weren’t Yankees in on Kodai Senga now that we know the price?
- There’s one way Yankees can make SF Giants’ offseason even worse
But now that I’m a little riled up, here’s something else to ponder. The right to vote trumps everything and the idea that it would be a mortal sin for a Yankees fan to vote for anyone other than Didi Gregorius is insulting to our way of life, especially on the day we celebrate a movement that gave us this right 241 years ago.
Having said that, though, unless you favor power (Logan Morrison and Mike Moustakas) over all-around numbers, the choice between Elvis Andrus, Xander Bogaerts, and Gregorius is close and by no means should Didi be an automatic pick.
When all was said and done though, my vote went to Gregorius, mainly because when his numbers to date (due to injury) are projected out over the entire season, he is going to crush all three of them in every department except for stolen bases, and who cares about that?
A mission statement
A final point. News about the Yankees and anything else is available 24/7. Wanna know who’s batting what, who beat who last night, or who has the most home runs on a 1-2 changeup, you can easily find it.
Regretfully, what is rarer these days is commentary and analysis that speaks of why something happened, the kind that jostles the brain cells a little bit to the point where you say….mmm…..could that be right?
And when you write something every day with that as a goal, there are bound to be a few times when the story is a bit “off”. And readers of YGY often come back with arguments that are far better than mine with salient points that prove the opposite of my argument.
It doesn’t get better than that. Some would say that my story yesterday is what is known in the business as “click bait”. Uh-uh. Been there, done that. People aren’t stupid. They catch on quickly.
I stand by the story. We live and learn. And now it’s time to check in on CC Sabathia to see how he’s doing in his comeback start.