Marcus Stroman makes fatal mistake with debut Yankees spring training outfit

Marcus Stroman was trying his best. He's a lifelong Yankees fan. He grew up rooting for a powerhouse team led by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, with an impenetrable-sounding rotation fronted by Mike Mussina.

Unfortunately, he should strike one particular season of his childhood fandom from the manifest.

Stroman, finally living out his lifelong dream at Yankees camp, showed up when pitchers and catchers reported looking top-notch, clearing out his closet in an effort to show off the maximum amount of throwback team gear possible. The beanies, the turtlenecks ... it mostly all worked.

Maybe the righty didn't make a mistake with his weekend attire at all. Maybe he actually proved what a high-character guy he is. After all, he might be the only Yankee fan on earth who didn't ball up all his 2004 gear in a fit of rage following the team's ALCS choke against the Boston Red Sox.

Instead of being incinerated 20 years ago, there it was on Stroman's chest: the Opening Day roster from that fateful year, about which we should never speak again.

Yankees starter Marcus Stroman shows up wearing 2004 shirt. That year sucked.

Maybe Stroman really would've been a perfect fit on the 2022 Yankees. After all, that was the year where Aaron Boone and the team's management cluster thought it was a good idea to motivate the Yankees, down 3-0 in the ALCS, with some "highlights" of the team getting thoroughly dominated by a heart-shattering Red Sox club.

If that went over well with team legends like Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada (it did not!), then hopefully they missed Stroman's shirt, too.

That 2004 pitching staff never fully recovered from the loss of Andy Pettitte, who walked to Houston and left Jon Lieber covering critical Game 2s for the entire postseason, backed by sudden also-rans like Kevin Brown, Javier Vázquez and Esteban Loaiza, all recent All-Stars. Hmm. Big names, lots of volatility, fans clamoring for one more lefty arm instead of sticking with the status quo.

Oh God. Add in a Netflix documentary crew following the Red Sox all season long inexplicably, and that shirt should definitely be shredded before anyone else notices.

Bad T-Shirt or not, it's hard not to get excited about New York's offseason additions and you can celebrate with a chance to win big at FanDuel. Just sign up, deposit $10 or more and then bet $5 or more on ANY team to win this week. If your team wins, you'll get $150 in bonus bets. Sign up with this Yanks Go Yard link today!