Blog Archives

The Yankees played their 100th game of the season last night, and without getting lost in the specific details of that disappointing loss, now seems like a good time to take a look at the broad view of the season. So here are 101 things about the Yankees’ 2025 season. As Vin Scully used to say, pull up a chair.

0
There are many amazing things about what Aaron Judge is doing this season, so this won’t be the last time he appears on this list, but this is perhaps the most amazing. He’s locked in a close race with Cal Raleigh for the league homerun title (Raleigh 38, Judge 36), which isn’t a surprise since he’s led the league in long balls two of the last three seasons. But here’s the shocker — Judge also has a comfortable lead in base hits with 128, outdistancing Bo Bichette, Trea Turner, and Bobby Witt, Jr., who are tied at 113. (One way to understand Judge’s dominance over the rest of the league is to look at the gap between Judge and second place. In this case, he’s thirteen hits ahead of second place, which is the same as the gap between second place and 26th place.) But back to my point. Judge has a chance to lead the league in home runs and hits. If that seems unusual, it’s because it is. It has happened exactly ZERO times in baseball history. This is a pretty special player we’re talking about.

1
This a franchise that always has only one goal — winning the World Series. It doesn’t matter there are people who will get their driver’s licenses this fall who weren’t alive the last time this happened, we all just accept that there is only one mission. Even if the team falls a few games short of this goal, as they did last season, a failed mission is still a failure. That view fuels desperation when there’s a three-game losing streak in May, when the bullpen blows a four-game lead in June, or when Anthony Volpe makes a throwing error in July. It would help to take a breath sometimes before grabbing the pitchforks and lighting the torches. It’s fine to have one goal, but it’s also okay to be measured in our response to the inevitable disappoints that this game with throw our way. (All that being said, I’ve bought in also. During the leadup to the World Series last October, I scoffed at all the Dodger fans I was walking around with t-shirts celebrating their National League Championship knowing that I would NEVER buy a shirt like that. I’m as guilty as the rest of you.)

2
The biggest problem that Anthony Volpe has is Derek Jeter. We were lucky enough to watch a generational player for two decades, inarguably one of the greatest shortstops of all time, and now we’ve got Volpe. Admittedly, he’s been in a funk for a couple months now, and I obviously don’t know how to fix him, but I think he only needs to be fixed a little bit. Dial back the swing in certain situations, hit behind a runner once in a while, and relax some in the field. We don’t need Derek Jeter; we just need Randy Velarde.

3
Volpe and Cody Bellinger are tied for the team lead with three triples.

4
The Yankees are four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays.

5
Giancarlo Stanton has five home runs, and I have absolutely nothing bad to say about him. Nothing.

6
The Yankees have a run differential of +109, better than every team in the American League, and just six runs behind the Chicago Cubs.

7
Aaron Judge leads all of baseball with a WAR of 6.9. (Just a tick below 7, so I’m cheating a bit here.)

8
Paul Goldschmidt and Jasson Domínguez each have 8 homeruns.

9
Infielder Jorbít Vivas has 9 hits.

10
The Yankees are ten games above .500, which kind of tells you all you need to know.

11
Max Fried has eleven wins.

12
Anthony Volpe has made 12 errors this season, leading the team and leading all major league shortstops.

13
D.J. LeMaheiu scored 13 runs before his Yankee career came to end when he was DFA’d earlier this month.

14
Jasson Domínguez leads the team with 14 stolen bases.

15
Carlos Rodón has given up 15 homeruns this season, the highest total on the team. Even so, he’s generally been great, exactly what the Yankees were hoping to get when they signed him three years ago.

16
Only 16 different Yankees have come to the plate this season, a number that seems surprisingly low.

17
Cody Bellinger has 17 homeruns, but that only tells part of the story. He’s been a huge addition to this team, and I hope he sticks around. (I mean, unless Spencer Jones turns out to be the real deal and is starting in center field next year.)

18
Cody Bellinger has 18 doubles.

19
Austin Wells has walked 19 times.

20
Yankee leadoff batters have hit twenty homeruns.

21
Austin Wells has the highest average launch angle on the team at 21 degrees. (Actually 20.9)

22
Yankee third baseman have combined for an OPS of .655, which is 22nd in baseball.

23
It isn’t difficult to imagine a world in which Don Mattingly is the next manager of the New York Yankees.

24
The Yankees have been caught stealing 24 times, tied with the Reds and Red Sox for the tenth highest total in baseball.

25
Oswaldo Cabrera struck out 25 times.

26
As a team, the Yankees have 26 saves.

27
Not including position player Pablo Reyes, the Yankees have used a preposterous 27 pitchers this season. Twenty-seven!

28
Will this be the year the Yankees with their 28th World Series? Only time will tell.

29
Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have each walked 29 times.

30
The Yankee staff has 30 wild pitches this season, the thirteenth highest total in the game.

31
Ben Rice has 31 RBIs.

32
Fernando Cruz has appeared in 32 games.

33
Jazz Chisholm has an OPS+ of 133, meaning he’s 33% better than league average.

34
Oswaldo Cabrera played only 34 games before his injury this year, and I really miss him.

35
Tyler Matzek has faced 35 batters.

36
Aaron Judge has 36 homeruns.

37
Paul Goldschmidt has 37 RBIs, good for seventh-best on the time. Probably not what most envisioned.

38
Yankee batters have been hit by pitches 38 times, which is 17th in baseball.

39
Carlos Carrasco has given up 39 hits.

40
Jazz Chisholm has scored 40 runs.

41
Ian Hamilton has 41 strikeouts.

42
Mark Leiter, Jr., has allowed 42 hits.

43
Aaron Judge leads baseball with an OPS of 1.175, which is 181 points ahead of Shohei Ohtani in second place. There’s a similar gap between Ohtani (.993) and Junior Caminero (.812), forty-three spots lower.

44
Ben Rice has scored 44 runs.

45
The Yankees have 45 losses this season.

46
Trent Grisham has scored 46 runs.

47
Will Warren leads the staff with 47 walks.

48
Ryan Yarborough has allowed 48 hits.

49
Devin Williams has 49 strikeouts.

50
Oswaldo Cabrera had 50 at bats at home.

51
Cody Bellinger has 51 hits with the bases empty.

52
Jorbít Vivas has 52 at bats.

53
Anthony Volpe has 53 RBIs, which is fourth on the team. No matter how many times I notice this, it still blows my mind.

54
Ben Rice ranks eleventh in baseball with a 54% rate of balls hit with an exit velocity of 95MPH or higher.

55
The Yankees have 55 wins this season.

56
Cody Bellinger has scored 56 runs, the third highest total on the team.

57
Paul Goldschmidt has scored 57 runs.

58
Yankee pitchers have induced 58 ground ball double plays, which is 25th in baseball.

59
The Yankees won 59 of the first 100 games last year, just four games better than they are right now.

60
Aaron Judge has 60 RBIs when facing right-handed pitching.

61
Based on run differential, the Yankees should have 61 wins instead of 55.

62
Aaron Judge has 62 extra base hits — 24 doubles, 2 triples, and 36 homeruns.

63
Yankee designated hitters have 63 RBIs.

64
The Yankees have stolen 64 bases, tied with the White Sox for 18th in baseball.

65
The Yankees have hit into 65 standard double plays, which is right in the middle of the pack — 15th in baseball.

66
The Yankees have hit 66 homeruns against National League opponents, more than any other American League team.

67
The Yankees have hit 67 homeruns in day games, trailing on the Chicago Cubs, who have hit 70 in six more games.

68
Jazz Chisholm has 68 putouts.

69
Trent Grisham has started 69 games in center field, and he’s been great.

70
Anthony Volpe has struck out 70 times against right-handed pitching.

71
Trent Grisham has 71 hits.

72
Aaron Judge leads the team with 72 walks.

73
Clarke Schmidt struck out 73 batters before his season came to an end.

74
Max Fried has given up 74 hits to right-handed batters. (He’s also been just as good as the Yankees hoped when they signed up this off season. I can’t wait to see what this team looks like when he’s paired with a healthy Gerrit Cole.)

75
Jazz Chisholm has struck out 75 times.

76
Anthony Volpe has 76 hits.

77
Oswaldo Cabrera has fielded 77 chances.

78
Gerrit Cole, Clarke Schmidt, and Luis Gil have combined for 78.2 innings pitched this season, and obviously that’s all from Schmidt, who won’t pitch again for a year or so. If we’re being charitable, we have to admit that it’s remarkable that a team could lose 60% of its projected starting rotation and still be in contention.

79
Max Fried has struck out 79 right-handed batters.

80
J.C. Escarra has 80 at bats. Given his backstory, I’m sure he’s cherished every single one.

81
Austin Wells has appeared in 81 games.

82
Aaron Judge has 82 RBIs.

83
Trent Grisham has appeared in 83 games.

84
J.C. Escarra has an OPS+ of 84.

85
The Yankees have hit 85 homeruns at Yankee Stadium, trailing only the Dodgers (96) for most homeruns at home.

86
Trent Grisham has 86 total bases on the road.

87
Carlos Rodón has struck out 87 batters with the bases empty.

88
Someone named Brent Headrick has appeared in eleven games and posted an ERA+ of 88. If he were sitting right next to me right now I’d never recognize him.

89
Aaron Judge has scored 89 runs, tops in the American League and just five runs behind Shohei Ohtani.

90
BaseballReference.com gives the Yankees a 90.5% chance of making the playoffs.

91
Cody Bellinger has appeared in 91 games.

92
Mark Leiter, Jr., has an ERA+ of 92, which means he’s eight percent worse than league average.

93
Yerry De Los Santos has faced 93 batters.

94
Anthony Volpe has struck out 94 times, which is a huge problem.

95
Aaron Judge has an average exit velocity of 95.2 MPH. Only O’Neill Cruz (96.2) is higher.

96
Max Fried and Will Warren have each given up 96 hits.

97
Cody Bellinger has 97 at bats against left handers, hitting a robust .361 with an OPS of 1.042.

98
Will Warren, #98, has started 21 games, tied for the most in baseball.

99
Probably the best player any of us will ever see wearing Yankee pinstripes.

100
100 games down, 62 to go. Let’s go, Yan-kees!

[Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

Baseball is often described as a game of inches, but it’s probably more accurate to call it a game of millimeters. Games are often decided by plays which are determined by the smallest of margins. If Luis Gonzalez’s bat had been just a millimeter or two farther beneath Mariano Rivera’s cutter in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, the ball would likely have been a pop up to short rather than a bloop that floated over Derek Jeter’s head. If Rivera’s pitch the year before had been just a millimeter or two lower towards the sweet spot of Mike Piazza’s bat, the 2000 World Series likely wouldn’t have ended on a deep fly ball to Bernie Williams.

We don’t usually think about these things, but with the Yankees struggling to win games lately, plays like this are magnified. If this team is able to right the ship, make the playoffs, and win a World Series, I have no doubt that we’ll be looking back at the play Cody Bellinger made in the seventh inning on Sunday against the Mets. With no outs and Francisco Lindor on first base, Juan Soto roped a line drive to left. It seemed like a sure base hit, which would’ve been problematic enough given the Yankees’ slim 6-4 lead, but when Bellinger raced in looking to make a play on the ball, disaster seemed certain. If the ball had gotten past him and rolled to the wall, Lindor would have scored easily with Soto ending up on third. Sure, it would only have been 6-5 at that point, but it would’ve been the beginning of the end.

But instead of that doom’s day scenario, Bellinger actually made the play, picking the ball out of the air just millimeters before it hit the turf and then firing a perfect strike to first to double up Lindor. Had it happened in the first inning on a chilly evening in April it would’ve turned heads, but given the circumstances — with his team riding a six-game losing streak and on the verge of being swept in the Subway Series — Bellinger’s play was one of the best we’ve seen this year and certainly one of the most important in New York’s season. But it almost wasn’t. It’s a game of millimeters.

I suppose it isn’t time to panic just yet, but it’s past time to be concerned. One game shy of the season’s halfway mark, the Yankees sit at 46-34 with a suddenly uncomfortable half-game lead in the American League East. They enjoyed a seven-game lead in late May, and most experts agreed that it was genuine. The surprising strength of their pitching staff combined with an elite offense had powered the team to one of the top records in the game, and expectations were high.

And then June arrived. While it wouldn’t have shocked anyone if Carlos Rodón had turned back into a pumpkin or if Clarke Schmidt had reverted to his previous four-inning form, the problem was with the offense. Take a look…

The counting stats will look at least a little bit better after the last four days of June, but the OPS numbers don’t lie. Jazz Chisholm missed all of May, so he’s hot right now instead, but everyone else in the lineup has declined either a little bit (Judge, but we’ll allow it) or a significant amount (Volpe, Bellinger, Grisham, Rice). Goldschmidt hasn’t just declined, he’s cratered to the point that anyone paying attention has to realize it’s time for a straight platoon at first base with Goldschmidt and Rice.

If you need evidence beyond what your eyes have been telling you, consider this. Rice is slashing .263/.358/.514 against righties, well over a hundred points better in each stat than he is against lefties, and Goldie is at .408/.494/.711 against southpaws, numbers that are staggering in comparison to the counter — .244/.287/.330. Think about that. This team has a first baseman that’s slugging .330 against righties.

The dip in individual offensive numbers has exposed this team’s larger problem. They are simply allergic to — and stop me if you’ve heard this one before — situational hitting. Aaron Judge should continue doing what he’s doing — swinging hard at every pitch that’s to his liking — but everyone else needs to look in the mirror. (Or at least angle that mirror so it’s reflecting an image of Cody Bellinger, the only hitter in the lineup who appears to alter his swing with two strikes.)

I don’t need to see a sacrifice bunt every time a player reaches base, but hitting to the right side with no outs and a runner on second would be nice, especially in extra innings. Winning is easy when you hit eight or nine home runs in a three game series, but when things begin to go sour as they have over the past three weeks, an extra run here or there can mask some of the individual slumps plaguing the lineup, and the dividends would extend beyond the boxscore. Don’t you think it would help Anthony Volpe to hear some cheers and get a few pats on the back for a ground ball to second base? And couldn’t that morale boost lead to a more relaxed at bat the next time he steps to the plate?

Some things just make sense. But what do I know?

[Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

As I look back over my 48 years as a Yankee fan — I can pinpoint the date of indoctrination, August 29, 1977 — there can be no question that most enjoyable era was the late 90s and early 2000s, but what’s interesting to me is that the postseason runs and World Series championships aren’t the only highlights. What really stands out in my memory are the games against the Boston Red Sox.

Because I was geographically removed from the Yankees out here on the West Coast, my knowledge of the rivalry came from books about the 1940s and ’50s and all the stories I learned about Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. I remember watching the playoff game in 1978 and celebrating Bucky Dent’s home run, but in my eight-year-old mind it was just a dramatic win to move my team forward in the playoffs; I didn’t feel the thrill of watching a rival go down in defeat.

But then when the Yankees entered their golden era in the 1990s, pulling the Red Sox along with them, I finally understood. Every game during those days was theater, with villains in every corner of Fenway Park. When I took the family to see a game at the Old Stadium during its final year, I happened to be standing at a souvenir stand looking at a television screen showing highlights of a Red Sox win. The fan next to me looked up at the image and said, “Fuckin’ Youkilis.” He looked at me for agreement, but noticed I was holding my three-year-old daughter. “Oh, sorry about that,” he said.

“Oh, don’t worry. I feel exactly the same way. Better she learn it now than later.” (Spoiler alert: that daughter is now a sophomore at Boston University and, because she’s nineteen, loves nothing more than joking about becoming a Red Sox fan.)

So whether it was Pedro or Nomar, Manny or Papi, Varitek or Pedroia, the Red Sox have always had a cast of characters worthy of fear or hatred or both.

These Red Sox? Not so much. But it’s still the Red Sox, and it’s still Fenway Park. Here’s hoping the Yankees get a couple wins this weekend, even if there’s a little less theater than we’re used to.

A recording of Game 5 of the 2025 World Series still sits on my DVR, but not because there’s any danger I’ll ever forget it. The truest words that Yankee manager Aaron Boone has ever spoken came in the aftermath of that game when he emerged bleary eyed from the clubhouse to face the media and answer questions about one of the most shocking defeats in the long postseason history of the greatest franchise in sports.

“As I said to the guys, obviously it stings now. This will sting forever.”

I said something similar to my wife the next day as I was trying to put my life back together. “As long as I live, I will never get over that game last night.”

I could say that confidently because twenty-four years later I still haven’t gotten over Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, and I still wear the scars of the last four games of the 2004 ALCS. Keep in mind, my connection to this organization is measured only by the dozens of Yankee caps I’ve worn over the past 47 years, the seven World Series titles I’ve celebrated, and the thousands of games I’ve watched. This team is a part of me, so obviously losses like these are more than just disappointments.

But I’m at least self-aware enough to know that I don’t really know. I can’t possibly know what it feels like to begin working with a purpose in January, report to spring training in February, ride busses across Florida in March, endure the trials and tribulations of a six-month regular season, and then fight through two playoff rounds in October only to have the journey end in the most inexplicably painful way imaginable.

What I do know is that there are coffee mugs and mouse pads and t-shirts with the FOX chyron from that fateful top of the 5th inning, souvenirs that celebrate one team’s devastating collapse rather than the other’s improbable comeback. I know that I’ve catalogued the comments and asides I’ve gotten from Dodger fan friends and family here in Southern California, each remark innocent in its delivery but cutting nonetheless.

But I can’t know how many times Aaron Judge has thought about that dropped fly ball or how he will feel when he inevitably gets a sarcastic standing ovation before his first at bat at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. I can’t know how often Nestor Cortés has replayed the pitch he threw to Freddie Freeman, or whether or not Gerrit Cole had flashbacks during PFPs in spring training.

Will those demons get in the way during these three games, or will they drive the team to success over the weekend and through the rest of the season? Paul O’Neill frequently reminds us that the white hot brilliance of 1998 might never have happened had it not been for the October disappointment of the year before, so maybe we’ll see something similar this year. Maybe.

But I don’t think we’ll get an answer to that this weekend. Instead we’ll get constant comparisons of Judge and Shohei Ohtani, frequent reminders of last October and some of the more distant Octobers, and breathless predictions of another matchup in this year’s World Series. And we’ll probably get some good baseball.

And me? At some point I’m sure I’ll check my DVR and navigate to the folder titled “L.A. Dodgers @ New York Yankees.” I’ll watch the first inning as Judge hits a rocket into the right field stands and the crowd explodes with relief, I’ll watch Jazz Chisholm follow with a home run of his own, I’ll scan ahead to Stanton’s bomb in the third, and I’ll remember how it all felt. But then I’ll watch the fifth inning, and I’ll wonder what might have been.

[Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

You bet your ass they do. This game? This series? It’s about a lot more than the meeting of two first places teams with eyes towards the World Series. This is the Yankees and the Mets and a three-game series in the Bronx that promises to be sizzling all weekend.

Say what you will about Shohei Ohtani and his World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, but they won’t play a single regular season series with the voltage of these three games in New York. Trust me. I live roughly half way between Dodger Stadium and Angels Stadium, and I don’t even notice when the Dodgers and Angels hook up. Dodgers vs. Giants only really matters in San Francisco, and while the Dodgers-Padres rivalry is blossoming, it’ll be another decade or so before people pay attention outside of the 619 area code.

But these three games in Gotham? They’re gonna be different.

Oh, and look at me burying the lede. There’s this guy named Juan Soto who plays for the Mets. If there’s one thing we can count on tonight, it’s that he’ll be booed mercilessly. The Bleacher Creatures had best hurry their way through the Roll Call in the top of the first, because once Soto climbs into the batter’s box, every pair of eyes in the Stadium will be trained on #22, and every set of lungs will be erupting in anger.

The Yankee haters around the country will shake their heads at entitled Yankee fans who expect every great player to want to play in pinstripes, but that’s not the problem. I could never begrudge a player’s decision to sign with the highest bidder (and unlike so many fans I don’t blame Hal Steinbrenner for drawing a financial line just a few million dollars south of the moon), but I still haven’t forgiven Soto for the manner in which he left.

The last time we saw him on our side of the field, the Dodgers were only midway through their first case of champagne and Soto was announcing that he was a free agent available to any of the thirty teams in baseball. He dutifully read from Scott Boras’s script, ignorant of the salt he was pouring into millions of open wounds. And so I’m sure he’ll be booed like few other opposing players ever have in Yankee Stadium. (Oh, and I think we can also bank “We’ve Got Grisham!” chants echoing through the park at some point, which would be nice.)

Will any of this bother Soto? Probably not. He seems to have pulled out of his early season funk, and the moment will be right, so I expect him to respond with a big series and at least two or three home runs. The question will be whether or not Yankee pitchers can limit the rest of the potent Mets lineup, and whether or not the other New York team can manage a Yankee offense that’s looking more and more like the best in baseball.

And just so I don’t finish this piece without mentioning it, Aaron Judge is pretty, pretty, pretty good.

All of this together makes for the most anticipated regular season series since the hey day of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry in the early aughts. And I can’t wait.

Let’s go, Yank-ees!

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Aaron Judge is unlike anything we’ve seen before. In recent years people have begun to describe unique athletes like Judge as unicorns, a practice that’s become so common that now we’ve got an actual herd of unicorns galloping across the sports landscape. But in the baseball world, there’s Aaron Judge, and then there’s everyone else. (Okay, okay. Shohei Ohtani is probably the ultimate unicorn, an alien unicorn, but let me know the next time he puts on a glove.)

In Judge’s rookie season of 2017 he hit 52 home runs on his way to winning the Rookie of the Year and a questionable second-place finish in the MVP voting. He hit .284 that season, and he followed that with batting averages of .278, .272, .257, and .287 while hitting 27, 27, 9, and 39 home runs. That debut season seemed like a bit of an anomaly, but the waters he had settled into seemed just fine. He was the type of middle-of-the-lineup presence that a team could build around for years to come. Every team in baseball would be happy to have a player who could hit thirty to forty home runs while batting .275, even if it came along with a boatload of strikeouts.

And then 2022 happened. The American League record 62 home runs leap off the page, but Judge led the league in almost every batting statistic that matters, coming just five percentage points away from a batting title that would’ve earned not just the Triple Crown, but the ultra rare Triple Triple Crown (leading the league in runs, home runs, RBI, batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, walks, and total bases). It was an otherworldly season.

And then 2024 happened. Judge hit only 58 home runs, but he was arguably even better at the plate than he had been two years earlier, producing possibly the greatest single season of any right-handed batter in history, and he won his second unanimous MVP award.

This year, just for fun, he’s hitting .415 though 25 games. Hitting over .400 for any twenty-five game stretch is pretty impressive, but to do so while also leading the league in essentially everything else is absolutely ridiculous.

As Yankee fans we were blessed to watch Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all time, for nineteen years. It’s quite possible that fifteen years from now we’ll realize that we just finished watching the greatest right fielder of all-time also. So pay attention. You’ll want to tell your grandchildren all about it.

[Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

So did anything happen of note in Yankeeland during the off season? Let’s see…

First there was Juan Soto. I think I knew it was coming while I was sitting on the couch shortly after the Yankees’ self-destruction in the final game of the World Series. As the Dodgers were celebrating on the Yankee Stadium infield, I told my wife (a passive Dodger fan who grew up in a Dodger household thirty minutes from Dodger Stadium) that I would never get over that loss. Twenty minutes later manager Aaron Boone would share that he’d told the team, “This stings, and it will always sting.” Twenty minutes after that — and after we had heard from one devastated Yankee after another — Juan Soto looked into the cameras and, presumably with suffering teammates standing within earshot, announced that he was a free agent available to all thirty teams.

The timing of an announcement that only told us what everyone already knew was worse than salt in the fresh wound. We know that baseball is a business, but it was telling that Soto couldn’t even respect the moment. It was akin to standing up at your grandmother’s funeral and asking when the will would be read. So even though I was disappointed when he signed with the Mets a few weeks later, I was neither surprised by his decision nor bothered that the Yankees had allowed themselves to be outbid. Is it petty that I can’t wait to hear the boos the first time he returns to the Stadium? Perhaps.

But then there was Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt. It was a free agent haul reminiscent of 2008 when C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett arrived in the Bronx, and when reliever Devon Williams was added via trade, optimism was high. The Yankees suddenly had one of the best starting staffs in baseball, a dominant bullpen, a much improved defense, and perhaps a more balanced offense. They were the overwhelming favorites in the American League, and even though the Dodgers were playing with Monopoly money and creating a team that appears significantly better than their 2024 version, I still felt great about the Yankees’ chances at improving on last season’s result.

But then.

Gerrit Cole was scratched from a spring training start because he wasn’t feeling right, and I was mildly concerned. The team announced that he was flying north for tests, and I was more than a little nervous. After they got those test results back and that announced Cole was seeking other opinions, I knew the worst was coming. When everyone finally admitted that Cole would need Tommy John surgery and miss the 2025 season, the news came just a week or so after we heard that last year’s Rook of the Year, Luís Gil, would miss at least three months with an arm injury of his own, and just a week or so before we’d learn that Giancarlo Stanton, inexplicably, had tennis elbow in both elbows and would also begin the year on the injured list.

It was a lot.

The Yankees take the field in just a few hours, and even with all of the injuries, I’m still looking forward to the season. We’ll get to watch Aaron Judge again, we’ll finally get to see a full season of Jasson Domínguez, the star we’ve been wishing on for seven years now, and we’ll get to watch the continued development of Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. We’ll get to watch baseball. Oh, and like it or not, there will be beards.

Let’s go, Yankees!

[Image Courtesy of WikiMedia Commons]

The greatness of Rickey Henderson was undeniable, even if it took baseball people longer than you’d think to recognize that Rickey could do more than just run. The Man of Steal burst on the scene with the Oakland Athletics not just by stealing more bases than anyone had before him, but by stealing more bases than anyone had thought possible. He bent reality in the way that only the greatest players can, but because people are the way they are, his early achievements were viewed from a deficit perspective.

Critics complained that he was selfish, that stolen bases in the ninth inning with his team down by four only tarnished the record, or they claimed that he was incomplete player, never mind the fact that at just 23 years old when he stole a preposterous 130 bases in that 1982 season, Rickey also scored 119 runs and led the league with 116 walks. The year before he had won a Gold Glove.

His greatest years, however, were still ahead of him. After being traded to the Yankees prior to the 1985 season, he thrived on the biggest stage in the game, becoming the only player in our lifetime to score more runs (146) than games played (143) while stealing 80 bases and slashing .314/.419/.516 only to lose the MVP to teammate Don Mattingly. Rickey would eventually get his MVP five years later after his return to Oakland when he stole 65 bases while hitting 28 home runs with a staggering 1.016 OPS.

How good was he? Without question, he was the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time. Bill James, the godfather of statistical analysis, once said that Rickey was so good that if you could split him into two players, you’d still have two Hall of Famers. (Here’s a discussion about that.)  To that point, if we disregard his slugging numbers and his 3,055 career hits and focus on the true through-line of his career, the stolen base, the numbers are mind boggling.

• His 1,406 career stolen bases is just one steal shy of being a full 50% better than Lou Brock’s second place total of 938. For perspective on that, the top four active stolen base leaders (Starling Marte, José Altuve, Trea Turner, and José Ramírez) have a total of 1,480 steals.
• During the twelve-year stretch from 1980-1991, Henderson led baseball in steals eleven times.
• Seven years after the end of that run, in 1998, Rickey again led baseball with 66 stolen bases for the San Diego Padres at the age of 39.

The statistics eventually become mind-numbing, but the true measure of any legend lies in the mythology that grows up around them. Did Rickey really frame his first million dollar check rather than cash it? (Yes, but still got the money.) Did he really tell Jon Olerud that he had once had a teammate who also wore his helmet in the field, forgetting that the former teammate was actually Jon Olerud? (No, but it’s a good story.)

Everyone in Rickey’s orbit had a good story to tell, even me. I collected baseball cards growing up, and when the hobby exploded in the 1980s, I began going to card shows, not just to grow my collection but to collect autographs. Rickey Henderson was a guest at a card convention in the spring of 1986 during his second year with the Yankees, so I drove down to the freeway so I could pay ten or twenty dollars for the autograph of one my favorite players.

Most of the players who appeared at events like this simply churned out one signature after another, earning their appearance fee by mindlessly repeating autographs on balls, bats, and photos for an hour or two. They were often bored or disinterested, sometimes surly and dismissive. Rickey was none of these things. He had far too much energy to be trapped in a folding chair behind a plastic table, and his eyes darted around the room, taking in everything, but connecting with no one.

When I finally made my way to the front of the line, Rickey’s eyes stopped on mine. We were in Orange County in the mid ’80s. If the world outside that hotel was predominantly white, that said nothing about the demographics of the hall we were in that afternoon. It’s likely that Rickey and I were the only two Black people in the room, and Rickey’s darting eyes were keenly aware of that. He took one look at me, extended his hand and said — and I will never forget this — “What’s happenin, soul brother?”

I was sixteen years old, filled with the typical insecurities of adolescence, but because I had spent my life growing up in places like Naperville, Illinois, and Irvine, California, I had never been comfortable in my own skin simply because that skin wasn’t the same color as the kids at school or the people in my neighborhoods. I was different, and it would be years before that discomfort would go away.

Rickey could never have known any of this, but he saw me. I didn’t quite know what to make of it in that moment, but it’s something that’s stayed with me in the three decades since. When I heard the news that Rickey had passed, appropriately dying the same year his Oakland A’s did, I eventually thought about the afternoon in Oakland when two friends and I sat in the right field bleachers and watched Rickey grab his 939th stolen base, but my first reaction was to think back to that day at the card show when a legend reached out and connected with me.

I wouldn’t be a Yankee fan were it not for the Kansas City Royals.

In the summer of 1977 when I was almost eight years old, my family drove from Detroit to New York City for a vacation in the Big Apple. We saw dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History, walked in Central Park, and went to the top of the Empire State Building. All the stuff. But the highlight of the trip came on the day when my parents let me choose what to do. I was a huge baseball fan, so I asked them to take me to a baseball game.

The Yankees were playing the Royals that day. Catfish Hunter got the start, and Chris Chambliss hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead that turned into a win when Sparky Lyle finished things up in the ninth. I hadn’t yet forged any bonds with the Tigers, so the die was cast that afternoon. I’d be a Yankee fan for life.

This matchup with the Royals in the ALDS is bringing up all kinds of memories, and not just my own. The game-winning home run that I witnessed wasn’t the first time Chambliss had broken Kansas City hearts. Just the year before he had led off the bottom of the ninth with the game tied in the decisive fifth game of the American League Championship Series and struck one of the most memorable home runs in Yankee history, sending the Bronx into bedlam — actual bedlam — and sending the Yankees to the World Series.

That playoff loss was the first of three straight the Royals suffered at the hands of the Yankees, one of which famously left Kansas City shortstop Freddie Patek crying in the dugout.

But revenge for the Royals would eventually come when they served me the first heartbreak of my Yankee life. After dropping the first two games of the 1980 ALCS, the Yankees took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh at Yankee Stadium. Tommy John got the first two outs, but after he yielded a double to Willie Wilson, John was lifted for Rich Gossage, hopefully for a seven-out save. But Gossage give up a single to U.L. Washington and then this happened.

As if that weren’t enough, then we had the Pine Tar Game three years later. All of this contributed to what was, for a time, the greatest rivalry in baseball. You don’t think so? Ask George Brett. Still don’t think so? Watch this absolutely insane clip from Game 5 of the 1977 ALCS.

This week’s matchup with the Royals might not include all this drama, but then again it might. Buckle up, everyone, and Let’s Go, Yankees!

I really don’t care that the Orioles celebrated their playoff clinching in the Bronx, and I only marginally care that Gleyber Torres continues to remind me of perhaps my favorite Aaron Boone quote of all time. (Name that quote in the comments for extra credit.)

Here’s the one thing I truly care about — the Yankees will clinch tonight. Book it!

[Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons]

With just nineteen games left to play, the American League East, inexplicably, is still completely up for grabs as the Yankees and the Orioles are locked in the most polite game of musical chairs you’ve ever seen, with each team standing back and doing its best to usher the other into the lone chair remaining. There’s been some good news recently from the Yankees, with the return of Luís Gil and Clarke Schmidt from the injured list and the return to form of Gerrit Cole, but with each step forward comes a step back. Aaron Judge has been wearing a Kryptonite necklace for the past two weeks, Clay Holmes has finally lost his closer job, and Alex Verdugo is still playing left field instead of Jasson Domínguez.

So what will these next nineteen games bring? Pull up a chair, and let’s find out.

Whatever happens over the next five weeks and hopefully more, please take a minute to appreciate something we might never see again, or, more optimistically, something we’ll be watching for the next ten years. There’s been nothing in my lifetime quite like the combination of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, two otherworldly talents hitting back to back in the order. I once wondered what it would’ve been like to watch Ruth and Gehrig every day, and now I know. It’s pretty, pretty, pretty good.

[Photo Credit: WikimediaCommons]

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Okay, hear me out.

What if these are the glory days, the good old days, and the beginning of a golden era all happening right before our eyes? What if in December when Juan Soto signs a mega deal to stay in the Bronx he says something like, “Winning the World Series was great, and I can’t wait to win a few more, but it was during that run in early August when I realized that I never wanted to play anywhere else, that I wanted to listen to the Bleacher Creatures chanting my name for the next fifteen years, that I wanted all of my at bats to come with Aaron Judge standing in the on deck circle. This is home for me.”

With the June swoon seemingly behind them, things are looking up for the New York Yankees. Sure, there are still huge concerns about Clay Holmes and Marcus Stroman and Nestor Cortes, but there are encouraging signs elsewhere. Anthony Volpe seems to have found another serving of chicken parm, as evidenced by his 1.026 OPS since the all-star break; Austin Wells looks more and more like the best catcher on the roster, slashing at .340/.444/.520 during that same stretch; and even though his Yankee stats are dramatically skewed by two games, Jazz Chisholm has a nice .300/.364/.700 line since he arrived.

Meanwhile, Aaron Judge is Aaron Judge. The run that he’s on isn’t just about the last three months, it stretches through the last three seasons. During that time he’s slashed at .302/.429/.670 and averaged 47 home runs and 103 RBIs (with 49 games left to play this season). Aaron Judge isn’t hot, he’s just Aaron Judge. This is who he is.

So maybe we’re through the hard part. Maybe.

Let’s go, Yankees!

Saturday afternoon’s debacle was the 100th game of the season for the Yankees, and they now sit at 59-41, but that obviously doesn’t tell the whole story of this seesaw season. So let’s take a deeper look by the numbers.

1
The leadoff spot in the order has been a problem for the Yankees for quite a while now. Brett Gardner held the job for years, DJ LeMahieu was great in 2020 and 2021, but this year has been a struggle, with five different players hitting at the top of the order, Gleyber Torres, Anthony Volpe, Alex Verdugo, LeMahieu, and finally Ben Rice. Anthony Volpe seems to have the tools to do the job for the next ten years, but right now the Yankees are struggling to find someone to hit in the coziest spot in all of baseball.

2
The Yankees are two games behind the Baltimore Orioles in 2nd place in the American League East.

3
We’ve only seen three wins from Gerrit Cole, but in his last two starts he’s thrown 12 innings, allowed 11 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs while striking out 15 in wins over the Orioles and Rays. He seems like the the Gerrit Cole we remember.

4
Here’s the most perplexing statistic about the team that’s scored more runs than any team in baseball. Juan Soto and Aaron Judge lead the major leagues in on base percentage by a long shot, but the spot behind them has been absolutely anemic. No team’s cleanup hitters have been worse than whichever player Aaron Boone pencils into that slot.

5
The Yankees are averaging (just a touch under) five runs per game — actually 4.95, which is among the best in the game. No team, in fact, has scored more than their 495 total runs.

6
Carlos Rodón’s last six starts have been awful. He’s 0-5 with an ERA of 9.67, and he’s allowed 55 baserunners (including 9 home runs) in just 27 innings. Batters are slashing .336/.410/.656 over that stretch. If I hadn’t watched all this, I wouldn’t believe it.

7
There have been seven different starting pitchers — Nestor Cortes, Carlos Rodón, Marcus Stroman, Luís Gil, Clarke Schmidt, Gerrit Cole, and Cody Poteet.

8
When Oswaldo Cabrera finished a blowout game on the mound, it was the eighth position that he’s played as a Yankee, all positions but cacher and designated hitter.

9
Carlos Rodón has nine wins; Nestor Cortés has nine losses.

10
Ben Rice has ten extra base hits — four doubles and six home runs — and his three home run game earlier this month was one of the highlights of the season.

11
Clarke Schmidt only had 11 starts before an injury sidelined him for a few weeks, but he was good while he was out there. His return, hopefully next month, would be a nice boost for a rotation that’s been struggling.

12
Even though there’s been a lot of concern about the Yankees’ inability to throw out opposing base stealers, they actually rank 12th in opponent steals per game.

13
The Yankees have hit 13 triples, which is sixth in the American League.

14
Aaron Judge has grounded into 14 double plays, most in baseball.

15
Marcus Stroman arrived with the reputation of being a ground ball pitcher, but he’s struggled with the long ball this season, coughing up 15 home runs and headed for what will easily be the highest home run percentage (3.4%) of his career.

16
Trent Grisham has walked 16 times.

17
Marcus Stroman has been good, probably about as good as most were hoping. How could? His ERA+ of 117 tells us that he’s been 17% better than league average, which isn’t bad for a fourth or fifth starter.

18
The Yankees are currently 18 games over .500 — which means they’d finish 90-72 if they go .500 the rest of the way.

19
Luís Gil has been the surprise of the season for the Yankees. He didn’t project to be in the rotation, but he’s made 19 starts, and about fifteen of them have been brilliant. He had three straight bad starts from June 20-July 2, but in his last two starts he’s looked like the world beater that he was in April and May.

20
Carlos Rodón has twenty starts and has given up twenty home runs.

21
Clay Holmes has 21 saves and went to the All-Star Game, but it’s the blown saves that we remember. If the Yankees have plans for October, they’ll need to upgrade the bullpen.

22
Gleyber Torres strikes out 22% of the time (22.4%), which slightly below league average.

23
Gleyber Torres has 23 extra base hits — 15 doubles and 8 home runs. In his first few seasons it looked like Gleyber was on his way to the Hall of Fame, but this appears to be who he is now.

24
Aaron Judge leads the team with 24 doubles.

25
Austin Wells has scored 25 runs. He’s not Mike Piazza, but he’s beginning to look more and more like the catcher of the future.

26
The Yankees have used 26 actual pitchers this season, plus two position players.

27
José Treviño has 27 RBIs.

28
Giancarlo had 28 extra base hits (18 home runs and 10 doubles) before his current injury. His bat has been missed, even if his baserunning hasn’t.

29
Anthony Volpe has walked 29 times.

30
Jahmai Jones has appeared in 30 games.

31
Gerrit Cole has allowed 31 hits.

32
Giancarlo Stanton has a strikeout rate of exactly 32%, which is the highest on the team.

33
The Yankees have hit 33 sacrifice flies, which is second best in the league.

34
Aaron Judge is the most fearsome hitter on the planet, but his 34 home runs tell only part of the story.

35
Reliever Jake Cousins leads the team with a strikeout rate of 35.2%.

36
The organization continues to build its reputation for finding and fixing relievers. This year’s success story is Luke Weaver. He’s appeared in 36 games and posted a 2.47 ERA.

37
The Yankees have played 37 games against the American League East, compiling a disappointing record of 17-20.

38
The Yankees have stolen only 38 bases this season. Only the San Francisco Giants are worse, with 31.

39
LeMahieu’s OPS+ is 39, which is preposterously low. This means he’s a staggering sixty-one percent below league average. His slash numbers are somehow even uglier. Since he has fifteen walks but just three doubles, he somehow entered Saturday’s game with a lower slugging percentage (.207) than on base percentage (.275), which is hard to do. I’d guess there are at least five players in the Yankee system right now who could play third base and top these numbers. It’s time to stop running him out there.

40
Closer Clay Holmes leads the team with 40 appearances.

41
The Yankees have 41 losses this season.

42
Yankee fans were spoiled by Mariano Rivera, and we knew it.

43
Ian Hamilton has a ground ball rate of 43%. (Well, actually 43.8%, but we aren’t rounding.)

44
DJ LeMahieu has a wRC+ of 44, which is 56% lower than league average. This is the worst on the team.

45
Forty-five different players have appeared in pinstripes this season.

46
The Yankees have played 46 games at home, compiling a 26-20 record.

47
Oswaldo Cabrera has struck out 47 times.

48
Number 48 on the roster, Anthony Rizzo, was a drag on the lineup when he was healthy. Ben Rice isn’t exactly Don Mattingly, but I don’t think he’s Kevin Maas, either. It would be disappointing to see Rizzo back in the lineup this season.

49
On June 12 the Yankees finished the day at 49-21. They’ve won ten games  in the five weeks since then.

50
Oswaldo Cabrera has made 50 put outs at third base.

51
Oswaldo Cabrera has 51 base hits.

52
Trent Grisham has appeared in 52 games, which is far more than expected. He’s been solid in center field, but hasn’t produced much at the plate. (.188/.292/.376)

53
Oswaldo Cabrera has started 53 games at third base.

54
The Yankees have played 54 games on the road, compiling a 33-21 record.

55
Judge has cooled off recently, but he’s still on pace to hit 55 home runs this season.

56
Gleyber Torres has 56 singles.

57
Aaron Judge has played 57 innings in right field.

58
Luke Weaver has 58 strikeouts.

59
As Aaron Boone is fond of saying, the wins in April and May count just as much as the ones in August and September. He’s not wrong.

60
Sixty percent (60.7) of Aaron Judge’s balls put in play have had an exit velocity of 95MPH or higher.

61
Anthony Rizzo has 61 assists.

62
Yankee pitchers have hit 62 batters, most in baseball.

63
Nestor Cortés has given up 63 earned runs, already the most of any season in his career.

64
Luke Weaver and Michael Tonkin, two of the hardest workers in the bullpen, have combined for 64 appearances.

65
Game 65 was once of the best games of the season. The Yankees and Dodgers were scoreless all night until Teoscar Hernández doubled in two runs in the eleventh. Aaron Judge drove in a run in the bottom half, but the Dodgers held on for a 2-1 win.

66
Juan Soto has 66 RBIs, ninth most in baseball.

67
Clarke Schmidt has 67 strikeouts.

68
Aaron Judge has 68 unintentional walks.

69
Jose Treviño has 69 total bases.

70
Juan Soto has struck out 70 times, while walking 80 times. If this trend continues, it would be the fifth straight season with more walks the strikeouts, an impressive feat in this day and age.

71
In Game 71, the Yankees suffered a walkoff loss to the Royals. It seemed like nothing at the time, but it marked the end of a brilliant start and the beginning of a five-week malaise.

72
In Game 72, the Yankees beat the Red Sox 8-1 in Fenway Park. Alex Verdugo went 3 for 5 with a double, a home run, and four RBIs. It was clear in that moment that the Red Sox had made a huge mistake in trading him, as Verdugo was a key part of the best offense in baseball. And then Verdugo completely disappeared.

73
Aaron Judge has played 73 games in the outfield, 4 in left, 63 in center, and 7 in right.

74
Aaron Judge has walked 74 times this season, second best in baseball.

75
The Yankees have spent 75 days in first place.

76
The Yankees have played 76 games against right-handed starters, going 48-28 in those games.

77
Anthony Rizzo’s OPS+ of 77 is by far the lowest since his short rookie season of 2011.

78
Marcus Stroman has 78 strikeouts.

79
Juan Soto has an OPS+ of 179, which means he’s 79 percent better than league average. Aside from the Covid-shortened 2020 season, this is the best season of his career.

80
Juan Soto leads all of baseball with 80 walks.

81
Marcus Stroman has stranded exactly 81% of the baserunners he’s allowed.

82
Anthony Rizzo has a wRC+ of 82 according to Fangraphs, which is much lower than Ben Rice (118) and lower than all but two Yankees with significant at bats (Oswaldo Cabrera, 79, and DJ LeMahieu 44).

83
Tommy Kahnle has faced 83 batters in his 23 appearances.

84
Alex Verdugo has 84 hits. But not many of them have been recently.

85
Alex Verdugo has an OPS+ of 85, and his abysmal stretch over the past five weeks has been a big reason why the Yankees have struggled during that same period. He peaked when he hit a home run on the first pitch he saw upon his return to Fenway Park, and he’s been statistically the worst hitter in baseball since. He’s probably also cost himself tens of millions of dollars.

86
Aaron Judge leads all of baseball with 86 RBIs.

87
Ben Rice has 87 at bats, roughly 87 more than expected.

88
Gerrit Cole has recorded 88 outs.

89
Probably the most significant under-the-radar injury the Yankees have suffered this season was to #89 Jasson Dominguez. Were it not for his oblique injury, he’d likely be DHing in the Bronx right now during Giancarlo Stanton’s absence.

90
Giancarlo Stanton has struck out 90 times.

91
Ian Hamilton has an ERA+ of 91, nine percent below league average.

92
Juan Soto has played 92 games in the outfield, 89 in right and 3 in left.

93
Fangraphs currently projects the Yankees to win 93 games. (Actually 93.6)

94
The Yankees have hit into 94 double plays, the most in baseball.

95
Anthony Volpe has struck out 95 times, more than anyone but Judge. This is obviously a problem.

96
The average exit velocity of the balls put in play by Aaron Judge is 96MPH. (96.2)

97
According to Fangraphs, the Yankees have a 97% chance to make the playoffs. (Actually 97.9%)

98
Game 98 was the worst loss of the season for the Yankees. They had appeared to right the ship and were a pitch away from sweeping the Orioles and moving into first place heading into the all-star break. But Anthony Volpe bobbled a routine ground ball to allow one run, and then Alex Verdugo misplayed a routine fly ball into a two-run, game-winning double. It was a devastating loss in the final game of the first half.

99
No matter what happens, there’s still Aaron Judge, #99.

100
One hundred games down, just 62 (and hopefully a dozen or so more) to go. Let’s go, Yankees!

With apologies to Elizabeth Barret Browning, I offer a sonnet to sum up where we are right now…

How do I worry? Let me count the ways.
I worry to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, with losses every night,
To Sox and O’s and then to Jays and Rays.
I worry to the level that every game
Is life or death, revelation in plain sight.
I worry truly, hoping I’m not right.
I worry darkly, with each runner left on base.
I worry with the scars of twenty-two,
That fiery start mere ashes in my mouth.
I worry with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost heroes. I worry they’ve gone south,
And lost their way; and, beneath the boos,
I shall but worry deeper after death.

On June 13 the Yankees led the Royals 3-2 in Kansas City with two outs in the ninth inning and closer Clay Holmes on the mound. With two strikes on the batter, Holmes appeared poised to secure the save, and the Yankees appeared poised to sweep the series and earn their 50th win. But Kyle Isbel singled, and three pitches later Maikel Garcia doubled in the tying and winning runs. It was disappointing, but all it really meant was that the Yankees were 49-22 instead of 50-21. It didn’t matter at all, because they were still the best team in baseball.

Since then? Not so much. How bad have these Yankees been? Since that afternoon, they’ve posted a 7-17 record and lost seven of eight series. (They split a four-game set with the Blue Jays.)

Aside from the feel-good story of Ben Rice, there have been no bright spots. The starting rotation has been in a shambles, players who were exceeding expectations have regressed to the mean or even below, and even the mighty Aaron Judge has disappeared, going eight games and counting without an extra base hit or an RBI.

If there’s anything close to a silver lining, it’s this. The Baltimore Orioles haven’t taken advantage. During this same four-week stretch the O’s are only 12-13, going from 2.5 games behind the Yankees in the A.L. East to only two games ahead, which means that even after all of this time wandering in the wilderness, the Yankees could actually emerge from this weekend’s three-game series in Baltimore alone in first place.

It’s not impossible. Is it?

Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons, public domain.

Let me give you something good to think about.

We’ve never seen a player like Aaron Judge. Never.

Buckle up! Here’s hoping our man is on his game!

Two great men who were born within weeks of each other in 1931 passed away recently. The one you know is Willie Howard Mays, Jr., one of the greatest players who ever lived.

We’ve been measuring baseball players for a hundred and fifty years, first counting the things we could see, like balls hit over a fence or the number of times a fly ball was picked out of the sky, then eventually with mathematical equations that would’ve made Babe Ruth shrug and then slug another beer.

By any measurement you care to use, Willie Mays was elite. If the folks in Cooperstown ever decide to create an inner circle, a Hall of Fame Hall of Fame, Mays will be a first ballot selection. With 660 home runs, twelve consecutive Gold Glove awards, and 24 All-Star selections, this kid from Alabama by way of the Negro Leagues was more than just great. He did things on the field in the 1950s and ‘60s that no one had ever seen, at least not in the white major leagues.

But nothing on the back of his baseball card can begin to define Mr. Mays. He is among that handful of players who seems more mythology than history, but with Mays the stories are generally true. He really did stop to play stick ball in the streets of New York as he walked home from the Polo Grounds. He really did run out from underneath his hat each time he rounded second. (Never mind the fact that he wore that hat a size or two large to be sure it happened that way.) Even his nickname, “the Say Hey Kid,” was better than everyone else’s.

Mays was only three years into his career, just 23 years old, when he produced arguably the most famous play in baseball history. In the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Cleveland’s Vic Wertz launched a rocket over Mays’s head, a ball sure to find the depths of the Polo Grounds’ cavernous center field. Many have said that it wasn’t Mays’s greatest catch, but it happened on the game’s greatest stage, so that was enough.

With the 24 on his back facing the plate, Mays outran the ball, the ball fell into his glove, and America fell in love with Willie Mays. The iconic play was captured in Arnold Hano’s seminal book A Day in the Bleachers, a fan’s eye account of that entire game. When I spoke with Hano about that play as part of a larger interview, the writer explained it simply. “He outran the ball, I mean that’s what it amounted to. In fact, I write in the book that he started to look over his shoulder and then thought better of it. I think what he did, he probably had great peripheral vision. He probably looked over his shoulder just to make sure the ball was where it should be. I think that’s what happened, now that I think back on it.”

Now that I think back on it — and it says something else about Willie Mays that I can think back on a play that happened fifteen years before I was born and remember it as if I had been there — I see Mays racing back and making the catch, but before anyone can appreciate what he’s just done, he’s already spun back around like an Olympic discus thrower and fired the ball back towards the infield, finishing the play on his hands and knees, his hat lost somewhere behind him.

Mays was in the first wave of Black ballplayers raised in the Negro League era to become superstars in the white major leagues. Though he arrived four years after Jackie Robinson, his journey was no less fraught. He was already one of the most famous men in America when his New York Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, but in the eyes of many he was just a boy. He fit in New York City, but when he and his wife drove their Cadillac into the nicer neighborhoods as they searched for a home in San Francisco, they were met with resistance. They were met with reality.

When Black baseball fans across America looked at Mays, they saw not just a hero of mythical proportions, they also saw themselves. They might not have been able to smash a ball into the seats or glide effortlessly into the gap to watch a triple die in their gloves, but they knew the same discriminations and indignities that he knew.

Maybe that was why my father was drawn to him. In the late spring of 1969, my Black father and white mother drove from their home in Detroit for a vacation out west. They’d been married less than a year, they had a child on the way, and all was good in their world.

They travelled up the coast to San Francisco, and they saw all the sites. They walked along Fisherman’s Wharf, they rode the street cars, and they went to Candlestick Park to see Willie Mays. Growing up in an American League city long before interleague play, this would’ve been my father’s first and only chance to see Mays. Going to San Francisco without stopping for the Say Hey Kid would be like visiting the Louvre and skipping the Mona Lisa.

Somewhere on a hard drive I’ve got the scan of a picture my father took that night. The photo is blurry, but it shows a right-handed batter in a Giants uniform, so it can only be Mays. Not as blurry is the image I imagine on the other end of the camera. My father is looking at a legend, my mother is sitting beside him, and I am the dream that floats between them.

Less than a week later, my father had a heart attack and died during the night in a motel room in Seattle. His last baseball game was my first, and even though I wouldn’t come into the world for another five months, I like to believe that my love of the game began that night in San Francisco.

Four years later, in October of 1973, my mother remarried. His name was Frank, but he was always Dad to me. My father had passed away before I was born, but my dad raised me to be the man I am today.

When a friend texted me on April 27th to tell me that Willie Mays had gone into hospice, I got the news while sitting alone in the Oakland airport just six hours after my dad had died, his own hospice journey having ended that morning. As I sat there waiting to board my flight home, a circle closed.

In 1972 the 41-year-old Willie Mays was traded from the Giants to the Mets, allowing the legend to return to the city where he had first become a star, but he was far from the player New York fans remembered. That final season and a half was notable only because it gave reporters a reference point any time any aging star reached the end of their career. Even fifty years later it isn’t unusual to read that trite admonition: “You don’t want to go out like Willie Mays, dropping fly balls in Shea Stadium.”

It always seemed such a self-centered observation, as if the decline of a legend had anything to do with the player he once had been. Wasn’t it more admirable to hang on to the game you loved? Wasn’t there something beautiful in a desperate devotion to linger years after many thought your time had passed? If Mays wanted to keep playing, let him. I simply couldn’t understand why anyone might have thought otherwise.

And then my dad fell into the cold grip of Alzheimer’s, and suddenly it all made sense. Intellectually, he had always been Willie Mays, but then one day he began dropping fly balls.

Quite simply, he was the smartest man I’ve ever known. At about the time Willie was travelling from Alabama to New York, my dad was taking a train from Pennsylvania to Cal Tech, sharing a berth with a young actor named Leonard Nimoy who was on his way to the Pasadena Playhouse. (But when my dad told the story, it was always Lenny Nimoy, which somehow made it better.)

After Cal Tech he went on to earn a PhD from Case Western Reserve and embark on a long career as a chemist. As I was growing up, there was no question he couldn’t answer and nothing he couldn’t fix. One of my biggest regrets is that with all the hours I spent as a child “holding the light” as he worked deep into the night on one repair or another, I never bothered to pay attention. I still can’t fix a damn thing.

I still remember the cruel realization that my dad had slipped away. It was probably ten years ago, and there was something scientific that was bothering me. It might’ve been a question about how long it took my cell phone battery to charge or something similar, but when I picked up my phone to call him and ask, I put it back down before dialing. He wouldn’t know any more. He had been dropping fly balls for a while at that point, forgetting even the most important people in his life. The last time my family and I visited, he didn’t know us. We were just five nice people who stayed for a while and gave him a hug when we left. I cried as we pulled out of the driveway and headed home, not because he was dead but because he wasn’t. He was already gone.

When it was clear last month that his final days had arrived, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see him. But when my mom told me he had only another 48 hours or so, I got on a plane.

He hadn’t been conscious for a while, but my mom and I sat with him during those final days and hours, as much for each other as for him. She asked me what my favorite memory was, and several came back immediately.

There were general memories, like the dozens of baseball games he took me to, including the game at Yankee Stadium when I was seven, the game that made me a Yankee fan for life, but there were others. We entered the Pinewood Derby when I was six or seven, and it wasn’t even fair. The other dads dutifully carved their block of pine into something that resembled a car and slapped on some paint, but our car was serious. My dad bored two holes in the bottom and filled them with solder for extra weight, then took apart the wheel casing and dusted the axles with graphite to reduce friction. There were hundreds of other competitors, but they didn’t stand a chance. I’ve still got the car and the 1st place trophy it earned packed away in the garage.

When I once told him that I had waited until the last minute to do my science project, he didn’t blink. He went to the garage for some supplies and together we built an electromagnet. Years later I’d guide my daughter through the same project.

He had always been a better dad to me than I a son to him, and one way he showed his love was by constantly looking for opportunities to spend time with me doing something that I loved. My favorite memory came when I was much older, during a time when I was pulling and away and was trying to keep my close. While I was home during a break from college, he suggested we go to the driving range. It had probably been forty years since he had swung a golf club, but since I had been playing fairly regularly, he knew it would be something we could do together. We got a bucket of balls and took two spots on the range. He teed up with his back to me, took a mighty swing, and completely missed the ball. He pivoted a hundred and eighty degrees as the momentum of his swing spun him around so he was facing me, and I’ll never forget what came next. He laughed with a huge smile on his face, and while it might’ve been triggered by embarrassment, it quickly dissolved into pure joy, the joy that can only come from time spent with your son.

These two men, my father and my dad, somehow linked by Willie Mays, made me who I am. Nothing makes me happier than when my mother or someone who knew my father points out a physical similarity that’s been passed down through our shared DNA, but I’m old enough now to admit there’s a lot of my dad in me also.

When we’re driving somewhere and my wife asks me why I’m taking a strange route to a familiar place, I know it’s because of my dad. When I carry my shoes to the car and tie them at the stop lights, I know it’s because of my dad. When I tell a story that takes longer to get to the point than my listener might like, I know it’s because of my dad.

But when I sit with my son in Yankee Stadium this week, I know it will be because of both of them. I’ll think about my father making a pilgrimage to see Willie Mays, I’ll think about my dad playing catch with me in the front yard, and even though I’ll try not to, I’ll think about my son and the games he’ll watch without me after I’m gone.

With the Yankees in the middle of one of the more interesting stretches of their season (Dodgers-Royals-Red Sox-Orioles-Braves), things are looking good, even if we disregard Saturday night’s loss in Boston. Aaron Judge is the best player in baseball, Juan Soto is the best Robin in the history of Robins, and the Yankees have the best record in baseball. Oh, and the best part? Gerrit Cole will soon throw his first major league pitch of the season. As the weather’s heating up, so are the Yanks!

[Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]