Don’t be a yahoo, fans
Hope all are healthy for postseason run
There was a time, just days ago, with heads bowed and voices quivering, that the Yankees spoke of the health and well-being of Didi Gregorius.
And why not. The slugging, pull-happy shortstop tore cartilage in his right wrist while sliding headfirst into the plate with the deciding run in the Yanks’ 11-inning, post-season-clinching 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles last Saturday, and the day-after headlines were ominous.
“Didi’s postseason status for Yankees in doubt,” was how MLB.com played it, and then, just two days later, there was more bad news. Center fielder Aaron Hicks was removed in the fourth inning of the Bombers’ 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays with what was later described as a “tight left hamstring.”
We take you now to Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s pregame media session late yesterday afternoon at Fenway Park, prior to the opener of the New Yorkers’ three-game series against the Red Sox that’ll close out the regular season.
The Yankees lineup had already been tweeted out, and for the first time in a week it included Gregorius. Hicks was in there as well, for the first time since Monday.
“It’s nice to write all these names down,” Boone said. “Excited to have (Gregorius) and obviously Hicksie back in there, so hopefully we can go out and get off on a good note this weekend.”
So, yes, Aaron Boone is happy.
Yankees fans, naturally, are happy.
And listen up Red Sox fans: You should be happy as well.
In the event you haven’t received your daily email reminder, the Red Sox have already established a franchise record for victories in a season with 107 going into last night. And the Yankees, hardly slouches, went in with 98 victories. This means that if the Yankees take two or more games this weekend it’ll be the first time in history both they and the Sox have hit the century mark in wins in the same season.
Yet there’s a crazy new Border War going on between the Sox and Yankees, as fans of both teams compete to see who can wring their hands the hardest.
For Yankees fans, the hand-wringing was over the wrist injury to Gregorius, and before that the right wrist injury that idled matinee idol Aaron Judge for nearly two months.
For Red Sox fans, the beall, end-all injury to fret over is Chris Sale’s shoulder. He simply hasn’t been his old self since a couple of stints on the disabled list, to the degree that any time Sox manager Alex Cora says the word “shoulder” everyone in the room sits up and leans in.
If you’re a Red Sox fan celebrating injuries to Gregorius, Hicks, Judge and others, you’re a yahoo.
If you’re a Yankees fan celebrating whatever may or may not be going on with Sale, you’re a yahoo.
Assuming the Yankees get past the Oakland A’s in the wild card game and return to Fenway Park to face the Red Sox in Game 1 of a best-of-five Division Series, you should want both squads to be playing high-octane hardball with healthy bodies. You should want Sale carving up the Yankees’ batting order and you should want Judge swinging for the fences.
Think back to all the big games you’ve watched over the years. Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning was epic. Bird vs. Magic was epic. And the outcome notwithstanding, Yaz vs. Goose Gossage with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of the ’78 playoff game was epic.
More of that, please. More Didi. More Hicks. More Judge. And, yes, absolutely, more Sale.
Again, there’s just as good a chance it will be the Oakland A’s who arrive at Fenway next week. As Cora said yesterday, “They’re very athletic, just like their name. ... They are more athletic. They can run. They can do a few things. Base-hit to right field, they go first to third. It’s different. The bullpen, everybody has been talking about them. (Jeurys) Familia, (Blake) Treinen and all of those guys, they’re pretty solid.”
Fine, then. Whether it’s Red Sox vs. Yankees or Red Sox vs. A’s, you want the stars, not the stand-ins. If it ain’t fun that Gregorius and Hicks were in the lineup last night, there’s just one word for you: yahoo.