By Pete Sabatini
On Friday night the Yankees return to the Bronx to begin their third home stand of the season. This trip home will be the longest of the year for the Yanks, a 10-game run.
The Yankees have a lot on their minds these days: injuries to nine active players, playing .500 baseball, and $200+ million worth of players playing $5 worth of baseball in front of empty $2,000 seats.
With all of that threatening the pinstriped empire, GM Brian Cashman and COO Lonn Trost are still having meetings with meteorologists trying to figure out why 47 home runs have been hit out of Yankee Stadium in its first 13 games.
That sounds like a lot doesn’t it? It should, it’s the most ever hit in any stadium’s first 13 games. You’ve heard the names: bandbox, launch pad. You’ve heard the theories: wind patterns, low fence, closer fence, new fence angles, bad pitching, bad luck.
Whatever it’s called, the team doesn’t want the new cathedral of baseball to make a mockery of the long ball. But other than pitchers trying to guard their ERAs for future contracts, fans love home runs. The real problem is having a .500 record for your money.
Yankee pitchers, not good on any mound, have the worst ERA in baseball at 5.64. On the road, Yankee pitchers are 4.96 and at the too-friendly confines are even worse at 6.79.
Slow starts are one thing and more than a month of bad baseball is something completely different. At this point, the Yankees may be one bad home stand away from a George-esque tantrum from Hank Steinbrenner.
While Joe Girardi can feel his seat beginning to get hot, Brian Cashman could spend a little less time with weathermen and a little more time on his product. If a team isn’t winning, a beautiful ballpark alone won’t bring people to the game forever – just ask the Baltimore Orioles.
With fan ire rising around faulty game postponement announcements, batting practice policies, and ticket prices, it may be time to worry about winning games and putting fans in the seats rather than keeping the ball from landing in them.
Pete Sabatini covers the Yankees at Examiner.com.
