"I mean, they're not crazy. Right?"

 

So May 1st marked the 104th anniversary of Babe Ruth's first home run as a New York Yankee. The Babe had had an absolutely wretched spring training, jumping into the stands at one point to fight a heckler—and nearly getting knifed in the bargain. 

Once the season started, he was no better. In April, he managed to hurt himself, insisted on playing centerfield (where he lost a game with his glove), and hit all of .226, with no home runs, and a Gleyberian 3 RBI in 9 games. 

He seemed to be living up to Red Sox owner Harry Frazee's characterization of him as an out-of-shape prima donna, and "one of the most inconsiderate men that ever wore a baseball uniform." 

The Yankees, favored in many circles to take the 1920 AL gonfalon, lost their first four games to Boston, while Frazee's My Lady Friends was enjoying an epic, six-month run on W. 41st St.'s Comedy Theatre—and soon to be the musical smash, No, No, Nanette.

The Red Sox were in first at 10-2; the Yanks sixth, at 4-7.

Then, on May Day, Ruth hit a titanic blast against Boston at the Polo Grounds, his favorite ballpark, and drove in another run with a double. Bob Shawkey pitched a four-hit shutout, and all was right with the world. The Babe went on to nearly double his own home-run record, with 54 on the season. The Red Sox would stink for the next 15 years.

So, is Aaron Judge about to go on a tear that will see him hit, say, 120 homers?  

Not hardly.

The other night on SNY's great sports wrap-up show, the estimable Anthony McCarron was on talking about what was wrong with Yankee bats. When he got to Judge, he repeated the same thing that all reasonable people are saying, which was something along the lines of:

"Judge will come around. The only other explanation for why he's doing so badly is that he's hurt, and the Yankees would not keep playing him if he's hurt. I mean, they're not crazy. Right?"

Oh, my. We've brought in Betty White from her Mary Tyler Moore years to give one of her classic riffs on Gavin MacLeod:

"Oh, Anthony. Poor, sweet, wonderful, rational Anthony. Of course the Yankees would play Judge while he's injured. They will play anybody when they're injured."

These are, after all, the same New York Yankees who played Anthony Rizzo last year for, what, three months after he was clearly concussed. 

The same Yankees who pitched Luis Severino for half-a-season after he had clearly hurt his arm pitching against the Red Sox in 2018. The same Yankees who played Judge himself for half-a-year, after he hurt himself at MLB's idiotic, All-Star Game home run derby, in 2017.

We're not even talking about just the Cashman Yankees. Our Bronx Bombers have made it a tradition to play all sorts of stars even when they're injured. 

They put the Babe into an exhibition game with an injured ankle, late in the 1923 season, even with the World Series looming. This is the same franchise that kept insisting Joe DiMaggio play with bad feet and legs their incompetent medical staff managed to injure—the same club that kept putting Mickey Mantle out there on one leg, and insisted there was nothing wrong with Roger Maris when he had a broken hand.

Just in case people haven't been paying attention, Aaron Judge is now botching balls in the field, too.

Aaron Judge has now hit into 10 double-plays—a figure that would give him 51 for the season, and easily smash Jim Ed Rice's record of 36. 

Aaron Judge is on a pace to strikeout nearly 200 times, a frequency we have not seen since the 208 in his rookie year.

Are the Yankees crazy? 

OF COURSE they're crazy! Crazy for maximum, short-term profits within the parameters of the cartel they belong to, without any regard to the long-term damage to their product, their brand, or the satisfaction of their customers.

They're crazy the way all of American capitalism has been, at least since the first devil's imp opened the first business school, and declared that all businesses were essentially the same. They're crazy the way GM could be the biggest car seller in the world for 75 years or so, and go belly-up in 2009. They're crazy the way New York landlords have basically filled the streetscape in much of Manhattan with buzzshops and nail salons, rather than ever settle on an affordable commercial rent.

Yes, they are crazy. And yes, Judge is injured. And no, they will not stop playing him until he has to be carried off the field.