The real problem.

Many of you have wondered how it is that your New York Yankees seem to have such trouble even detecting injuries, much less healing or avoiding them in the first place.  Here is the answer:



No, this is not Brian Cashman's brain, and Brian Cashman's brain with the Core of Four.  This is non-color MRI imaging, and color imaging.  The color imaging—surprise, surprise—shows a lot more.

I experienced this firsthand about 13 years ago, when it looked like I might have a brain tumor.  Don't worry, it just turned out to be some loose change rattling about.  Boy, was I relieved—thought I'd lost it in the couch.

Anyway, when they weren't certain with the black-and-white, they went to the color, which I'm sure costs some ungodly amount more.  That is, about the equivalent of ten minutes of Rat Dog sales at the Stadium.

Whattaya wanna bet that the team that took "Penny wise, pound foolish" to an art form insists on going repeatedly to the black-and-white imaging first, in order to save money?  (Below, incidentally, is a picture of what our beloved owner and his GM were doing during this spring's latest plague of injuries.)



Chances are, this didn't make much difference when it came to Aaron Judge, who was diagnosed within a couple weeks of reporting his injury, and without playing in any games.

But it may well have annihilated the career of Luis Severino—with all due respect to Aaron, a much more important piece in the Yankee pennant puzzle—once and for all, by letting him pitch for a year-and-a-half, on-and-off, after what we can see now was obviously a very serious injury.

So, a few bucks saved on MRIs, and a few hundred million lost by forgoing another couple championships.  Hey, maybe Coops will get lucky again.  Maybe the coronavirus will cancel the first half of the season.