Note to ESPN: There are no "ghosts" in Yankee Stadium. The park is 15 years old. Babe Ruth never played here.

Last night, after the great Aaron Judge blasted a mammoth, 8th inning HR to effectively sink the Dodgers, ESPN played a short clip with - I think it was Buster Olney - and the Captain. The first question: "Do you believe in ghosts?" 

Judge chuckled and said, "Sure."

The follow up: When you're out in centerfield, do you talk to the ghosts of Ruth and Gehrig, Mantle and DiMaggio? 

On this, Judge stammered a deferral, so forgettable I can't summon it. But here is what he should have said:

"No, you fucking dolt. The ghosts of Ruth and Mantle do not roam this stadium. None of them ever set foot in this park. It opened in 2009. That place you're referencing - the one with the history, with the past, with the great moments? - they bulldozed it. They tore it down, sold whatever they could, and troweled the rest onto slow barges to China. 

"They did this not because the old stadium was beyond renovation, but because they couldn't cheaply retrofit it with luxury boxes, for the billionaires and corporations.

"So, they leveled it and built a replica, one that looks like the old stadium - but with a steakhouse and a disco, using hundreds of millions  of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, and they called it "Yankee Stadium," as if it were the same one, and they still pretend that it's the same place. 

"So, there are no 'ghosts.' Ruth and Gehrig never gazed upon this stadium. Neither did Mantle and Maris. Paul O'Neill never played here. David Cone never pitched here. Those great moments before 2009, they happened elsewhere. And the Yankees haven't won anything here since that inaugural season, when the ownership bought the three best available free agents.

"So, recapping here, no. I do not converse with the ghosts of Ruth and Gehrig. But when I'm standing in right field, I'm not far from the Michelob Ultra Clubhouse, and as each game progresses, there are certainly grand conversations to be conveyed."

Insert sigh here.

Sorry to be such a pill. But I hate it, hate it, HATE IT when the Yankees gaslight us into thinking they play on sacred grounds, the House that Ruth Built, with our 27 world championships.

In fact, most of those world series rings came before any of us were born. In this millennium, nearly a quarter of a century, the Yankees are a middling franchise with fewer championships than the Redsocks. 

Which leads me to say, pardon my French...

They better goddamm fucking win this year. 

Right now, the '24 Yankees have their best shot of a championship since 2009. It's time to end the drought. Not only do they desperately need to win this year, but they must then keep Juan Soto and not dismantle the team like the old Florida Marlins. And if Hal Steinbrenner won't do it, a massive and unending chorus must demand a new ownership.

This weekend, the Yankees lost two out of three to the franchise that represents what the "ghosts" of Ruth and Gehrig used to play for. This bullshit about history and 27 world championships? It's starting to resemble those lost empires in a jungles of Mexico, which only show up on ground-piercing radar. 

People, this must be our year. There are no ghosts. There is no mystique. There are merely human beings who wear Yankee clothes. And if we're lucky, maybe someday - a long time from now - some young Yankee star will talk about hearing whispers from the great Judge. In the meantime, ESPN oughta cork the bullshit.