Sorry I haven’t Squawked in a while. Joe Girardi Squawker Jon put me on the bench until I get my numbers up. But then he wouldn’t let me Squawk to get my numbers up. Talk about a vicious cycle!
Seriously, I’ve been training for the New York City Marathon, and my life is pretty much work and marathon training. I’m up to 14 miles at a time in my long runs, and this week I’m going to run over 37 miles overall. Since I am as slow as molasses, this means a huge time commitment. Plus, I’m very tired from all of this running, so I need to get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Combine all of those things, and my Squawking has kind of fallen by the wayside. Sorry, readers!
Anyhow, the Subway Series happened this week, and while it’s not quite as buzzworthy as it once was, it still attracted packed houses each night. And Squawker Jon and I were at Wednesday night’s game at Yankee Stadium.
We noticed that the 7 Line Army folks had several sections in the upper deck in the ballpark for their annual Bronx Invasion. Who’da thunk it that my Yankees would let the Mets try to take over the ballpark? The 7 Line Army people have had a shirt for several years that says, “Take Back New York.” The shirts this year? “Took back New York.” Yikes!
We 
also noticed that instead of the back-and-forth competing chants of “Let’s Go Yankees” vs. “Yankees Suck,” we heard some “Let’s Go Mets” and “Mets Suck” chants. So the Mets are really getting into Yankees’ fans heads. Not that I’m bitter or anything.
Also, I’m one of the gazillion people in the world obsessed with Pokemon Go. So I couldn’t help but notice that there are a number of Pokestops in Yankee Stadium, like this Monument to Jeter and a Mariano Rivera one as well.
Since it takes me over three hours round trip each day on my commute, I’ve caught a lot of Pokemon going back and forth from Staten Island to Manhattan. I’m up to Level 17 and have caught 82 different Pokemon. Don’t judge. I also caught a new (for me, at least) Pokemon when I was at Yankee Stadium called Drowzee. Squawker Jon thought the name was fitting, given the state of the Yankees! Heh.
When the benches cleared during the game after Mark Teixeira was plunked, I couldn’t help but notice that they played “Why Can’t We Be Friends” over the P.A. system. Interesting!
There were very long lines to get into the ballpark, which means we barely made it inside before the game started. And we hadn’t even reached our upper deck seats before Curtis Granderson hit his leadoff homer.
We were sitting next to an English couple at the game who asked if they could go behind home plate to take a picture. I told them that they could in the upper deck, but that if they tried to stand behind field level seats in Yankee Stadium, they wouldn’t be able to see anything!
A-Rod wasn’t playing, even though Matz is a southpaw. He also didn’t play against Bartolo Colon, although he has great numbers against him. Joe Girardi seems determined to keep him on the bench forever. My view: it’s a sunk cost. If you’re not going to play him, then go ahead and release him and move on. This current situation isn’t good for anyone.
I’ll write further on this during this weekend, as well as my thoughts on Brian Cashman’s wheeling and dealing. My quick assessment: I approve of the moves, but let’s not give Cashman a plaque in Monument Park just yet.
