No matter what happens this winter, Juan Soto will be a Yankee icon, but will the media let us enjoy it?

Excuse me? Hello? Yeah, me? In the back. Sorry, but I got a dumb question...

All due respect to the TBS announcers - the exit velos the sideline interviews, the cool  graphics - last night, did the play-by-play guy, Brian Anderson, have to follow Juan Soto's incredible, game-breaking hit by saying, "His price tag just went up." 

Yeah. That's what he said. I mean, was that necessary? Was it witty? Was it right? Would he have said it about, say, Alex Verdugo? Or any of the Cleveland Guardians? When Patrick Mahomes throws a TD pass, do they say, "Worth every cent!" Because that's exactly what he also said about Soto, as if he's a stone-hearted mercenary calculating his next contract while rounding third. Even fellow announcer Ron Darling jumped ship, wondering why they always must make it about money?

Look, I appreciate that Soto will soon be in line for a golden shower an avalanche of cash, when he becomes a free agent. And yes, the sports media always needs the simplest, crudest narrative possible, which is usually to assign money to everything. Next year, Soto might be a Seattle Mariner, just as Joggy was, or even play for the crosstown Mets, like Luis Severino and Harrison Bader.  That will be his choice, which he will have earned. But does that mean the world series requires Soto to be replaced by a dollar sign avatar? If so, I hope the announcers remember to bring up Shohei Otani's deferred cash payments, a voodoo salary structure, which will outlast the polar caps and make Bobby Bonilla Day look like a trip to the 7-Eleven for a pack of cigs. 

I say, fuck them all. Soto is one of the best things that happened to the Yankees in 15 years. He is the most expressive and entertaining batter since Reggie Jackson. He is wonderful to watch, and he never phones in an AB. When he was hurt last summer, we fell apart. Every Yank fan knows what's coming: Hal will either pony up the cash - because, after all, we are the New York Fucking Yankees - or Soto will go somewhere else (and, by the way, make the biggest mistake of his career.) Hopefully, Cooperstown Cashman will figure something out. (And didn't Cash look like an old man in the owner's box? Dorian Gray. What happened? Or has it been that long...?)

But is it impossible to let us simply enjoy our first trip back to the world series in a generation? Must they make it about money? Because that worn-out narrative about George Steinbrenner demanding results - that's as old as our last championship. Kids growing up today have no memory of the Yankees buying Catfish, or Reggie, or any of them. If the Yankees win the world series, they will ride down the Canyon of Heroes in a cloud of confetti that is unrivaled anywhere in the world. I believe that such an experience will change hearts and minds, though apparently not the MLB announcers, who will simply see wallets being drained and unfulfilled betting parlays.

Look, this site has a lot of old-timers, who can be quite cynical at times. The Yankees have done that to us. But really, when it comes to old school disillusionment, we got nothing on TBS.