The New York Yankees will never shake their reputation for being the stale, robotic winners of the baseball world. No matter how many positively delightful players they employ. No matter how much disheartening losing in postseason matchups they do. The haters will always strain extra hard to hate.
But how could anyone hate Luke Weaver?
The Yankees' very own ferocious jungle cat perfectly embodies the way this team has managed to harness and unleash outsized personalities since at least the start of the Baby Bombers Era, and now, right on time, he's been given his own online show - or, rather, rebooted a show he used to workshop back at Florida State.
Welcome to Weav's World, where Episode 1 gave us an all-access look into the Yankees' spring training photo day through Weaver's eyes. It also taught us more about his bromance with Clarke Schmidt, how deep his ties with Brandon Liebrandt go, and exactly how much of a morning person Trent Grisham is not.
Luke Weaver's "Weav's World" contrasts nicely with buttoned-up Yankees image at spring training
Now, we just need Weaver to do a one-on-one interview with Devin Williams' beard, and we can dispel every preconceived notion of the Yankees at once.
In case it wasn't obviously clear long before Weaver's first save at Wrigley Field, when he "blacked out" and got the job done in September, the Yankees have a one-of-a-kind character on their hands, whose morning energy in this video is matched only by Schmidt, who showed up with an inexplicable zoomed-in camcorder on Weaver's face midway through. The two paired nicely together for a photo shoot, and when it came time for Weaver to do some solo work, Schmidt could be heard screaming, "Yes, queen!" in the background.
Come for the Schmidt giddiness, stay long enough to learn Liebrandt and Weaver went to FSU together (interesting leg up...) and that Grisham is completely unable to match Weaver's morning pep (even when given a softball golf question).
At the end of the video, Weaver hinted at an Episode 2, which should hopefully detail more behind-the-scenes of the spring action. Despite a few early hiccups, the vibes seem to be immaculate. Hopefully, they — and this content — continue into the 162-game grind of the regular season and beyond.