Night in the Bronx: A half-full stadium, a prodigal son, and a rare moment of scorn from John & Suzyn

One superpower of modern Yankee teams is their ability to flounder. 

Whenever they seem on the verge of breaking out - of launching a winning streak - they magically bring forth a clunker. 

You wonder if or when this proclivity will ever affect game attendance, that is, the bottom line. Probably never, right?

Last night, the Yankees held "Re-Opening Day" in a city delirious over the perception - right or wrong- that the pandemic is history, the beer is free, anybody be mayor, and the good dope is back. Washington Square is a nightly Woodstock. The Boss is coming back to Broadway. With the Death Barge coming off a sweep in Buffalo, if ever the time seemed ripe for a full Yankee Stadium - 55,000 and up - it was last night. 

Well, they drew about 24,000. That's a Cleveland v Tampa Tuesday night crowd.  

Dismal turnout for a dismal team.

There can be unrelated reasons for the mini-crowd. Maybe fans aren't ready to cut loose. Maybe they don't trust newly opened health guidelines. Maybe they're stuck to the couch. Maybe this re-opening caught them by surprise. I dunno. I'm just sitting with the channel changer.

But here's a thought: Maybe the Yankees just don't look like anything special. Once again, last night, they fell on their faces. I've come to think Cashman doesn't need to find a lefty slugger or a fifth starter. What he needs is 100 games against Baltimore. The Yankees beat on tomato cans, then turn into Logan Paul against a solid team. I think the fan base knows this. 

The 2021 Yankees are a lousy product. If they were a shampoo, your hair would fall out on the third day. I wouldn't go to a game if I lived across the street and the internet was out. It's getting hard enough just to listen.

Nice to see James Kaprielian last night, though it hurts. All game, both YES and the The Master discussed how the Yankees traded the former first-rounder for Sonny Gray, and how it's taken Kaprielian years to make The Show. They framed it as a long, hard, heroic journey, and certainly, that is a valid narrative.  

But I think the Yankee-affiliated announcers conveniently short-sheeted the ongoing horror of that deal.  

In 2017, Oakland dealt Sonny to the Yankees at the deadline. We gave up Kaprielian, Dustin Fowler (now with Pittsburgh) and Jorge Mateo (now with San Diego).

Sonny had been a rock in Oakland - an ERA of 3.43 and a winning record. But in NY, his ERA rose by 30 points, and he went 4-7. Yikes.

The following year, he was worse - an ERA of 4.90. Thus, we shipped him to Cincinnati, where he then became an all-star and a Cy Young finalist (a 2.87 ERA.) 

Basically, in that deal, we received nothing but pain. (By the way, we traded Sonny for Shed Long, a good-looking 2B with the Mariners and a draft pick, which turned out to be TJ Sikkema, who has missed the last two years.)

Fuck me. In those deals, nothing worked for the Yankees. 

As we head toward the July 30 deadline, with a shaky team that might be better served by tanking for next year, I sure hope the Yankees remember Sonny Gray and James Kaprielian...

Because, gulp, Jameson Tailon looks like the next Sonny Gray.

Last night, both John and Suzyn were uncharacteristically critical of Aaron Boone's decision to pull Tailon with two outs in the fifth. Suzyn wondered how Tailon can ever gain confidence when the team shows none for him. John agreed. It's rare for the twosome to question a managerial decision, and - natch - they quickly chug-a-lugged their words when reliever Wandy Peralta recorded the third out. (A long drive that took Brett Gardner to the wall - foreshadowing what was to come.) 

Well, Peralta faced one-too-many batters, surrendering the three-run HR that sank the Yankees. So it goes.

I wonder: If a bad team sucks in a half-empty park, should anybody care?