While the Yankees front office stays with a nonchalance “it’s early” approach to the team, fans are ready to revolt, and who can blame them?
The Yankees, if you can believe it and you should, are a bare one game over .500 in the middle of June after being humiliated by the Philadelphia Phillies, with another display of a disappearing offense on a day when Domingo German should have stayed home.
German, who has been of the team’s most consistent and effective pitchers before this start, made a cameo appearance at Citizen’s Bank Park, barely pitching into the fifth inning while allowing ten hits and seven runs, a margin the Yankees would never come close to touching, leaving the Yankees…
I remind readers, don’t shoot the bearer of bad news, but I know some of you will, and that’s okay.
A Box Score – Find The Silver Lining
Here I am, though, gazing at Sunday’s box score, trying to find a ray of hope and achievement that can put a silver lining in the Phillies’ two-game sweep over the Yankees, and I’m sorry I can’t.
We can point to DJ LeMahieu‘s two hits that allow his batting average to creep up to .262, but then we are left with a bunch of zeros.
Many had thought, and I was one of the hopefuls that the Yankees offense has finally taken off in Minnesota. Still, on further reflection, we may have forgotten these were the woeful Twins and not Aaron Nola, who ripped the bombers lineup apart today, leaving the team further behind in the AL East.
Wasted on the bench again today was Giancarlo Stanton, put out of action because there is no DH in the National League. Aaron Boone rested Aaron Judge, a decision you can’t fault them for, runs were bound to be rare, and indeed they were.
Look, the Yankees are in deep doo-doo, and everyone seems to know it except the front office where Brian Cashman has been as elusive as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.
Yankees fans are restless, as well they should be.
We’re in the middle of June, and the Yankees have three teams (the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, and Toronto Blue Jays) playing a better brand of baseball than they are.
The Yankees Are What They Are
As Joe Maddon says, “you are what your record says you are,” and for the Yankees, that can only be a sobering account of the 2021 season thus far.
With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Yankees due in Buffalo, New York, to face the up and coming Blue Jays, backed up with series against the Oakland A’s and the resilient Royals before they meet the Red Sox at Fenway, before closing out the month against Shohei Ohtani and the Angels at Yankee Stadium, place your bets.
Yankees Fans: A Revolt In The Making?
While a revolt by Yankees fans similar to the one Mets fans organized to engineer the oust of the Wilpon family that led to an inspired takeover of the team by Steve Cohen, as maddening as it is, there is not the same intensity coming (yet) from Yankees fans.
If the Yankees could honestly state, even without saying it aloud, is that the team is in the initial stages of rebuilding, as the Chicago White said no more than two years ago – and look at them now – then this fan and probably many others would be okay with the Yankees current status.
Instead, we see nothing from the front office.
Today’s shutout at the hands of the Phillies is not an aberration. Instead, it’s a repeat of box scores we’ve seen far too often.
We’re looking for answers, and even if we had them we don’t have the power to make the necessary changes.
So all Yankees fans can do is watch or not watch, which may be the most powerful tool we have, drawing YES ratings down.
Only then, when the almighty dollar in advertising revenue declines, is there a chance the suits at Yankee Stadium offices will listen.
Even so, it befuddles and angers me. How did it all come to this…
Here’s What Readers Are Saying…
Allan Mounce Zero chance of any meaningful change happening – there doesn’t appear to be any significant heat coming down from the top showing that it’s death by apathy at this stage. The days of The Boss tearing up a coaching staff after a run like this are long over, we’re in the days where unless there’s a piece of Waterford Crystal or a watch to hand out, don’t expect to see him. That is until the end of the season, whereby he’ll crop up & give it the “we didn’t achieve what we set out to – which is a World Series” statement.
Theresa Engel Hard to even watch anymore. And all Boone can say is we have to do better!? I think that’s pretty obvious because we can’t do much worse.
Sal Presti I’m holding my breath until Britton, O’Day, and Voit make their returns.
Richard T Hajeski Yup. Some of the fans who respond here are revolting, indeed.
Adam Thompson What are you taking about the Fans on here have been saying “it’s early” since April and still are they are blind on seeing what’s going on and they anything bad we are saying we are not fans. This is the worst Yankees team in 30 plus years!
Ed Harding It is amazing how fast “It’s early” becomes “too late” Author’s Note: Yogi said it best when he quipped, “It sure gets late early out here”, referring to the shadows in left field at the old Stadium.
Michael Bragg Steve Contursi Hal does not give to shits about a winning organization his dad may have seemed a bit of a tyrant at times but he loved to win, nothing wrong with that quality
Rich Grobarcik Adam Thompson When people bring out weak or bad points about the team, they are called spoiled, not real fans, criers, etc. Since when can’t people make comments about what they are seeing? This is not DPRK !!
Joanne Gaumer Hal won’t do anything until the fans stop coming to the stadium.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
