Yankees' mysterious new hit celebration is catching on (even with DJ LeMahieu)

The New York Yankees are buttoned-up in all aspects, playing things close to the vest. Sometimes, that results in Brian Cashman silently passing the trade deadline and hoping no one notices. Sometimes, it involves an inside joke that becomes a team-wide hit celebration, spread only through whispers and winks.

And sometimes, the Yankees let one slip and blast "Dreams and Nightmares" after outlasting the Phillies in 12 innings. Whoops. That one was obvious.

Early in the season, the Yankees' team celebration was extremely obvious. They made no secret of their propensity to bark like dogs while mounting rallies. June's swoon, which bled into July, kind of put the kibosh on that, though, so it became time for something new.

They couldn't rerun 2023's eye covering, which we believe was a Blue Jays troll after Aaron Judge was accused of peeking into the dugout (oh no, the horror!). Once upon a time, there was sort of a hand in the air/claw hybrid, which was easy to replicate, but equally as mysterious as the current edition.

Nowadays, it seems the Yankees are waving their hands in front of their eyes. They do it on base hits. They do it from the dugout back to the players on base. And they do it on homers -- yes, even extremely delayed ones, and even DJ LeMahieu.

Yankees new hit celebration replaces Alex Verdugo's dawgs

So ... what is this? Is this "all eyes on me"? Something about how, if the crowd's always going to be watching and dogging the Yankees anyway, they might as well put on a show? Some variation on being locked in?

Credit to the team for being able to regroup and bond, and this celly moved fast. Jazz Chisholm was already all over it when he showed up midway through the Yankees' series at Fenway Park.

Our favorite possible interpretation? Maybe they're looking at something that's "right in front of them," putting Aaron Boone's favorite quotation to good use. If everyone's focused on you anyway, you might as well embrace it. And you might as well start winning.