Should Fans Blame Owners or Players If MLB Season Is Cancelled

By Tony Mangia

While MLB owners and the player’s union present their proposals for the 2020 season to commence after the COVID-19 virus pandemic flattens out, a complicated financial and health concern battle is taking place between the two sides. But to fans looking in, the real question is whether the owners or the players will be held responsible for sealing or breaking a deal which ushers in a new season of baseball.

And most fans don’t care if they throw spitballs at each other, the only curve they care about isn’t a pandemic, it’s a pitch.

Photo illustration by Tony Mangia

It’s been over two  months since MLB locked its gates. The normal pent-up anticipation of a new baseball season compounded with the onset of the pandemic lockdown has left home-confined fans with a huge sports void many have never experienced in their lives. 

There were some intriguing major league storylines which were on the hot stove before the COVID-19 hit. They included would Gerrit Cole’s presence help get the Yankees over their World Series slump? Could Mike Trout win his fourth MVP — and two in a row — or are the Mets rotation and the Dodgers lineup as good as advertised. 

So without a 2020 season, fans will never get to see how many times an Astros player gets hit by a pitch either.  Come to think about it, if the season does resume with no fans in the stands, the villainous Astros might be the only team happy to welcome the stadium void because it means not getting booed incessantly at each away game. 

If the season does get a reboot, a host of intriguing developments might include how that newly instituted universal DH rule will affect the National League game strategy or how many times players get thrown out of a game for spitting. And how that forehead thermometer in the dugout becoming more important than the radar gun behind home plate?

It’ll also be interesting to see if any high-profile celebrity fans get use of the private viewing suites for a price. My money is on Jay-Z, Jerry Seinfeld or Charlie Sheen.  After all, Sheen did buy a whole seating section of an Angels game just so he could catch a foul ball.

All moot points if the season is cancelled.

Like most American’s lives, almost every aspect of MLB has been impacted by COVID-19. Besides the complete shutdown of the season, the Hall of Fame has since announced its annual induction weekend will not be held as planned this July. Instead, the Hall of Fame hopes to hold a tandem induction weekend in 2021. The draft, meanwhile, has been shortened to five rounds, with draftees receiving significantly less money over the next two years.

So, with plenty of time to contemplate — or stew — in solitude, who will the fans side with or blame if the 2020 MLB season is cancelled?

It’s logical to think that the typical sports fan can sort of relate to the players — more than owners — because most fans are usually salaried workers too. But those same fans might draw a line at that bromance with the professional athletes whom they often perceive as pampered prima donnas making in a single game what the average working stiff earns in a year … playing a game at that!

But their perception of fat cat team owners with stacks of old money isn't exactly relatable either.

So on those points, let's call it a push between blaming the owners and players.

Owners-1 Players-1.

Last week, the owners and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent a proposal to MLBPA and the two sides began negotiations to salvage the season and, in some cases, some franchises. 

The league’s proposal includes an early July target date for Opening Day. Other plans include the afore mentioned universal DH, an expanded postseason field, precautionary health measures and a revenue-sharing plan that would lead to players taking pro-rated pay reductions. Besides the minuscule health concerns, that pay cut  — for the lighter workload —  is already a major sticking point with the player’s union. 

And, if only getting paid for games they actually play chafes the players' rosin bags, well, that  is one negotiating issue where the average sports fan will most likely side with the owners and not the players. 

Owners-2 Players-1.

Several players have already spoken out since MLB's proposal was approved by the owners and submitted to the MLBPA —  and it includes a couple of big names. But, if it comes down to these highly-paid players refusing to take a pay cut causing the season to be cancelled, this might be the last straw for the fans when they take sides.

Can you say boycott?

Adam Jones, who played 14 seasons in the big leagues and is currently with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan, called on the game's star players to speak out against the proposal. Some have, including the Tampa Bay Rays Cy Young-winning pitcher Blake Snell.

“Bro, I’m risking my life. … If I’m going to play, I should be getting the money I signed to be getting paid.,” Snell opined. “I should not be getting half of what I’m getting paid because the season’s cut in half, on top of a 33 percent cut of the half that’s already there — so I’m really getting, like, 25 percent. On top of that, it’s getting taxed. So imagine how much I’m actually making to play, you know what I’m saying?

“I’m just saying, it doesn’t make sense for me to lose all of that money and then go play. And then be on lockdown, not around my family, not around the people I love …”

A lot of people trashed Snell for sounding motivated by money and not the game, but one one of the league’s biggest and most recognizable stars backed him.

“He ain’t lying, he’s speaking the truth bro. I ain’t mad at him.” said Phillies star, Bryce Harper, about Snell’s statement. “Somebody’s gotta say it, at least he manned up and said it. Good for him.”

Snell, as well as other players on his side, might see this as righteous, but many fans see him as greedy, self-serving and ungrateful to have a job. A lot of fans remember the baseball strike of 1981 and see this 2020 showdown as another hard-headed owners vs. over-paid players battle which leaves the fans out.

Think about all of the people out of work these days, struggling to pay their rents and mortgages and actually protesting to get back to their jobs. This might be the majority of the MLB fan base. It’s definitely not the main stream media talking heads and do-nothing politicians who preach to the masses about staying home while all that time they are still collecting a paycheck.

Score another run for the league. Owners-3 Players-1.

Granted, that with fans watching games on TV in the safety of their own homes and owners doing it from sanitized suites and mansions, it is the players who are taking all of the real health risks. But how much of a threat could it be for players to play in empty stadiums, with limited and distanced staff and personnel, special transportation, sanitized housing and the best preventive measures and professionals to keep them safe? You come in more contact with people scouring the aisles for toilet paper at Walmart.

And why wouldn’t games played in front of empty stands work? Fan-less baseball games seem to be okay in South Korea.

The KBO started regular season games in early May and could be a good template for how MLB can handle playing in front of empty stadiums. The world’s third largest professional baseball league has instituted new COVID-19 rules which include: players having their temperatures checked twice a day; everyone not in a baseball uniform, including umpires and athletic trainers, wearing face masks and gloves; if a player shows symptoms, he'll be immediately quarantined and they'll close the stadium where he played his most recent game; if he tests positive for the virus, contact tracing will figure out others who need to be quarantined for two weeks. 

And while nothing will ever replace the aromas and energy of a packed crowd, maybe teams could fill the stadium with piped in crowd noise and music to distract the players from boredom?

Not exactly peanuts and crackerjacks, but it’s glimmer of hope that someday you will be able to go back.

MLB’s proposed early July starting date would be enough time to see a leveling out of the pandemic curve and allow for at least an 82-game schedule. The owners have also proposed a 50/50 split of revenues with the players and that’s where it gets fiscally complicated. 

Without paying customers, concessions, souvenir or parking receipts, most of the income will be from broadcast rights (and there should be abnormally large audiences). MLB owners have already announced that they will lose $640K per game without fans totaling $4 billion in final losses by the end of the season. A lot of specifics of the bottom line have to be plainly laid out regarding this untested and hastily-conceived revenue-sharing system between the union and owners and all of the accounting angles that comes with it. Essentially, the players will still be get a paycheck — with a pro-rated paycut —while the owners take all of the financial risks with a shortened and ticketless season. It remains to be seen if the odd coupling of owners and players can share millions in profits without driving each other crazy. 

Outside of baseball tradition and continuity, there are many reasons to cheer for the reinstatement of baseball. First of which is that it’s a return to business as usual — or at least as much a return to normalcy in our lives we could hope for right now.

It sounds like the owners have laid out some reasonable compromises where they'll be looking at a probable financial loss, while the players risk a minimal health concern and at least get a paycheck. Money is really where it all seems to boil down to so I'd give the owners a slight edge over the greedy players for taking a hit on their bottom line. 

Owners win, 4-1. So you can hold the players responsible if the 2020 season is cancelled.

And if beaning Astros and a Yankees’ World Series revenge weren’t incentive enough for baseball to get back on track, Bartolo Colon has declared that he wants to slip a uniform over his portly, 47-year-old body one last time. 

So owners and players, if not for any other reason to come an agreement, just do it for Big Sexy.. 

Imagining the "new normal" when MLB opens the gates after the pandemic lockdown

By Tony Mangia

In just a few short months the whole world has been tossed upside down by the coronavirus. An invisible scourge which has disrupted our lives in everything from work, travel to sports and leisure time. In the United States we are experiencing what seem like cataclysmic changes to our lives and not only adjustments to our lifestyles, but to our freedoms as well.

We know business closures and confinement are just temporary sacrifices everyone has to make and whether through ingenuity, humor or just plain stoicism, most of us have weathered the hard times with flying colors. 

But exactly how short-term will these precautions be? Nobody seems to know.

Just like post-9/11, our way of life changed dramatically coming out of the ashes, but slightly over the long run when you look back. Airport security had become stricter and bothersome, but a necessary task. Thanks to the shoe bomber, even removing our shoes in line has become routine (Thank you Velcro lacing) and, just like airports, stadium security at public events will see some major changes after Covid-19. 

We’ve been through cultural and personal changes due to recent hardships before and have a history of overcoming adversity through adaption and innovation which someway became the norm.

WW2 brought about rationing, blackouts and other inconvenient precautionary measures, but also begot great advances in medical and technological innovations. 

The terrorist attacks at the World Trade center was the catalyst for many security procedures and similar changes in our way of life.

On a relatively smaller danger scale, even the Tylenol scare of the 80s tamper-proof bottles and the elimination of most capsule-type over- the- counter medicines — something we are grateful and complacent about now.

We coped and we overcame.

But what will the pandemic bring once we are allowed to attend sporting events after we get the okay to gather en masse?

What new patterns of behavior will we have to endure to enjoy the stadium experience again? 

Since Major League Baseball seems about the most logical professional sport which might be reinstated this summer, we’ll start there — and with my hometown Yankees and Mets. 

This is all speculation on a lighter note and a prediction that there will be an opening day with fans this season — albeit with the new precautionary and social distancing guidelines.

Let’s imagine the anticipation of the first pitch as newly set-loose fans file out of crowded subway cars and make their way to Citi Field or Yankee Stadium — both which will have instituted unfamiliar and stricter rules to adhere — after maybe months of isolation. Never mind the logic, but will fans have to line up on little marked boxes six feet apart  ... after they stepped off those mobbed trains. I imagine that the event staff will all be wearing face masks — probably in home team colors — and all ticket punching will be electronic so there is no physical contact. Cash might become obsolete in stadium settings. 

As you pass through the turnstile an event staffer will stick a hand-held thermometer to your forehead — checking each person’s body temperature — before allowing you to pass. A cough will never be looked at the same way as before.  God forbid you clear your throat before spouting off how the Astros cheated the Yankees out of a World Series or the Mets have once again been duped out of real ownership and are whisked off to a tent with a big red cross on its side where you will  be further questioned by people in haz-mat suits inside about your physical history.  

The surreal apocalyptic environment will continue once inside inside the arena or stadium.  There will probably be those six-foot spacing boxes at every concession stand and in the souvenir shops where over-priced Purell and official licensed team face gaiters will be big sellers. No more communal condiment tables to pump your ketchup and mustard anymore. Can't have more hand contact spots or any mingling areas than you need. And in the men’s room, every other urinal will sealed so there is no close contact or chance of spraying your neighbor. Oh yeah, thefts of toilet paper will become rampant.

Every other seat or more will be closed off, so there will be plenty of elbow room in the stands. The empty seats will be filled with cutouts of Jerry Seinfeld at Citi Field and Chazz Palminteri at Yankee Stadium. Sorry Spike, your face will relegated to Knicks game — whether you are boycotting them or not.  And in The Bleachers, like those metal pigeon repellers, the aluminum planks will be proportionately spiked to keep fans at acceptable distances. It's not like barbed wire ever kept the Creatures from doing anything they wanted anyhow.

So now with the fan attendance cut down more than half, the roar of a crowd will become a low murmur — sort of like every Tampa Bay Rays home game at The Trop.

Fan behavior will also be monitored. High-fives after a score or good play will banned. So will fist and chest bumps. Fan celebrations will be restricted to rapid blinking at each other.  There will be staff on hand — with six-foot rulers — to discipline drunk social-distance offenders and fans reviving The Wave, making sure they don’t make contact with anyone in the seats around them. And the time-honored ritual of fans passing down a hot dog or a beer from a vendor over to that poor soul seated in no-man's land will also be a big no-no.  

Baseball stadiums will be netted around the entire field to prevent fans from throwing an opponent's home run ball back onto the field. And, sadly for Mets fans, Mr. and Mrs. Met broke up during the quarantine period together. She got tired of listening to him excitedly talk about the possibility of J-Lo becoming a team owner and his joke about Miss A-Rod pole dancing to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” thus giving the 7th inning stretch a whole new meaning.

There will still be fun. Mascots will fire rubber gloves — with official licensed MLB team logos — from t-shirt cannons over the nets and there will be Lysol Spray Giveaway Night. Although it's too bad the Kiss Cam will become the I’ll Just Look Endearingly At You From Six-Feet Away Cam. 

But god forbid some wiry teenager does manage to get onto the field. That will entail a complete shutdown of the game because MLB has to protect those players.

When this whole lockdown confinement is over and things get relatively back to normal, many of us will have profoundly changed forever — probably a little more introspective and lot more cautious. The idle time gave us more time to think about family, relationships, finances, politics and health. I see a kinder more grateful fan who won’t let little things bother them as much ... except maybe how the cheating Astros robbed the Yankees of a World Series.

And then we can all wait for the first NFL touchdown celebration where players act out pandemic social-distancing.

My Odd Sports Phobia Has Become A Cautious Political One

By Tony Mangia

I’ve lived a lot of the past few years of my life under the quirky maxim that when it comes to any sort of first time meeting where you put your finances, business dealings, networking or health into the hands and/or decision of another person, it is never wise to wear your team, city or school allegiance on your head, your back or your sleeve. It’s a peculiar ritual — or de-ritual depending on how you look at it — where I check my attire before encountering any contractors, work superiors, medical technicians, repairmen and even doctors hoping not to offend them with that affiliation.

Silly maybe...  and possibly bizarre, but what if your mild-mannered dentist — who, according to my rationale, unbeknownst to you, turns into a frenzied Rangers fan in the Blue Seats from October until April — just noticed your Islanders jacket hanging in the waiting room. Sorry, twenty-six years of frustration just turned that quick filling into an excruciating root canal. Now you know his pain too. I even check the diplomas at doctor’s offices just to make sure they aren’t Georgetown or Villanova grads in case I start yapping about my St. John’s teams. We aren’t very good right now, but we are still deeply-embedded rivals. 

I am not all consumed by this anxiety, but sometimes my half-serious idiosyncrasy does trickle down to even more casual encounters. I mean who knows if that deli counter worker making your sub isn’t a Knicks fan and they notice strutting in wearing a Nets game shirt emblazoned with Kevin Durant on the back. That could mean one less meatball on that hero sandwich — or worse, they add something less tasty. A psychological one-upsmanship on their part. How about getting a flu shot at CVS right next to your “Big Blue” Giants tattoo and noticing the pharmacist is wearing a Jets jersey under her smock possibly means that pinch of a needle just turned into a punch.

Okay, fit me with a straight jacket, but are these thoughts any worse than knocking on wood, avoiding walking under a ladder or crossing your fingers? 

Call it a silly phobia or even outright paranoia (I call it a sort of street smarts), but for quite a while now I’ve always speculated that wearing my New York Yankees cap could be seen as bragging to some parties and the difference between a reasonably-priced $400 brake job and the same one for $500, if the estimate comes from a mechanic who’s a die-hard Red Sox or Mets fan.

And while having the same rooting interest with this person could roll the other way as an advantage, I think many people these days are more hurtful to their opponents than helpful to those of their own allegiance.

Hell, while I always poured an honest shot into everybody's cocktails when I bartended, if you were wearing an Eli Manning jersey, well… let’s just say that bottle stayed crooked a little longer. 

This twisted notion of other people’s inner hatred of rival teams and cities might come from my own personal malice towards disliked opponents and their fandom, but my reprisals never go much  further than a good natured ribbing and moving on with my life. Cheer and let cheer, I say.

I don’t know if there is any evidence that my odd conspiracy affliction has ever been scientifically diagnosed (rivalitis? teamophobia?), but I can’t deny that at first glance of someone wearing an opponent’s jersey my initial reaction is about how much I despise that team and associate that person with it as well. It’s not a serious and savage hatred, but a loathing most sports fans can relate to — especially when your team isn’t doing well and theirs is. You sort of groan inside.

These days group bonding has become more than just about sports and has been taken to another level and a potentially dangerous one — political affiliation.

Except for that annoying Boston pal who always says “wicked Sawx,” I find that I can still hang out and joke about sports with friends who cheer for teams which I openly hope break records for mediocrity. I can’t say the same about political parties. And since I am a Trump supporter, in some circles during these times, I might as well have leprosy.

The division between the two political parties (Lefties and Trump really) has divided this country like we haven’t seen since the ‘60s… the 1860s. It’s Yankees/Red Sox, Jets/Patriots, Giants/Cowboys and Rangers/Islanders rolled into one.

Sure I’ve been razzed in just about any city, from every team when I wear anything Yankees, but never been physically threatened of harassed. The Bronx Bombers just might be the Donald Trump of sports — you either love them or hate them. And just like there are idiot Yankees fans, there are plenty of dopes on the Right, but the fervor and vitriol I see from the Left makes me almost want to hug Mookie Betts.

I’m not going to pretend that the Right doesn't have its share of dirt bags, but the the nastiness and calculated underhandedness of the Left is what I want to address from my position as a Conservative.

Many of my so-called friends stopped returning my calls — if only for the offense of having a choice and voting for Trump. Previous BFFs now consider me an FU. It seems hysterical Liberals have to throw the F-word around a lot to get attention. One day having drinks together and now, within those same assemblages, I am about as welcome as AOC ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. I still don’t remember this sort of separation or exile during the Obama years. It was a rare time when Obama and politics came up at all in the company of people and I don’t remember any instances of assault or retribution against anyone wearing an Obama “Hope and Change” t-shirt  during his eight years as president if it did. And I surely never dumped a friend for voting for Obama.

Never mind the main-stream news media, you can’t even read a single Sports Illustrated article these days without the sportswriter somehow finding a way to slip in a subliminal or outright anti-Trump smack down. What really concerns me is how this misguided aggression by the left is affecting every day life of regular US citizens. This unbridled wrath from the Left leads me back to my original hang-up and how it now affects showing your political leanings in public.

It’s not so far fetched to think wearing anything “Trump” or even anything red could lead to an impromptu confrontation made even more dangerous because of today’s political climate at any time and in any locale. It’s in the news all the time. I’ve now begun to take my assumptions in a more serious light. Affiliating yourself with anything Trump puts a target on your back and has become dangerous in a public or private venue. 

Forget about Liberal lightweights who turn into anonymous mean girls on Twitter, I’m talking about how easily some crackpot Leftists get triggered by a word or go ballistic on MAGA hats in public. Normal pacifists, who never had a street fight in their lives, turn into wild-eyed lunatics at the mention of Trump. I’ve witnessed this phenomenon in person. They become the drunken Eagles fans of politics. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen Lefties gang up on politicians inside restaurants and physically intimidate Trump supporters leaving some of his rallies. Presumed Trump supporters are also at risk. Fast food employees have not only refused service to law enforcement officers, but who knows how far a deranged Never Trumper will take it considering what some of these cowardly burger-slingers could add to the take-out before they say, “Here’s your order, sir” with a sinister grin.

Despite how much the Right likes to think that these Liberal kooks only come out of their mommy’s basement to wreak havoc in public every so often, the fact is they are in our midst, on our streets, in our businesses and workplaces everyday.

So why wouldn’t I question how far some lunatics will take it? 

Is it possible some people have flunked an interview, lost a job, were refused a bank loan or got left waiting on a hospital gurney a little longer just because the attendant doesn’t like President Trump and the person under their watch had the audacity to express a different political view with a hat, pin or flag within their sanctum walls? 

Who knows what is considered offensive and could set a Leftie off these days? At the drop of a sneaker, the Betsy Ross flag was made racist by Colin Kaepernick and his plantation owner Nike. The international hand sign for “OK” now mean white power when held at a certain angle and who knows what new words or symbols Liberals will decide is a conservative “dog whistle” when they wake up and hashtag it. You'd better watch your P’s and Q’s. Oops, isn’t Q some sort of radical right-wing conspiracy group?

I’m not an activist and a torn Clash t-shirt was probably the most political thing I ever wore in my life ... back in the 80s. I don’t wear a Trump shirt or hat out of choice, but don’t like the fact that it can provoke a scuffle which could escalate into a full out brawl or worse — a viral tweet — if I did. I don’t need the hassle of some loudmouth pipsqueak who I could probably slap down in a second getting in my face. Who needs the aggravation? Nowadays, I continually find myself muting Fox News when I call my credit card or cable company in fear a bitter representative would hear it in the background and put me on an even longer hold or do something computery in order to make my life a technological hell. When I see a MAGA 2020 sign on somebody’s lawn these days, I instinctively take a quick glance around to see if some cowardly dirt bag is sneaking up to stomp it, then wonder how long it will be before they do. 

The possibility of anti-Trump sabotage is not so far-fetched. Thank about it. If these so-called progressive miscreants — so bent out of shape about refusing to accept Trump’s victory in 2016, — are frenzied enough to spit on an unsuspecting Trump supporter exiting a rally or harass an elderly couple going to a conservative meeting in public, what’s stopping a rotten few from stealthily defiling a meal or sneakily creating havoc in the guise of a company representative just because you don a Trump 2020 campaign shirt?

You see it all the time on social media where anonymous trolls, who never stepped into any sort of fight ring in their lives suddenly grow bold behind the keyboard of a computer, then spinelessly defame or dox people who have opposing political views. The radical Left seems to find joy in disrupting other people's lives more out of spite than principle.

They have taken their angry attacks and disruptions out of the political arenas — rallies, forums and town hall meetings — and taken it to public domain. Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife getting harassed at a restaurant or Vice-president Pence getting booed in the audience of a Broadway show. Just look at the outrage after Liberal darling Ellen DeGeneres had the gall to sit next to President George Bush in a private suite at an NFL game. Her own people cannibalized her.

But they are public figures and it’s frightening to think that someone could get beat up in a California bathroom just for wearing a MAGA hat (in Russian yet) like what recently happened to a man in a Hermosa Beach restaurant or a conservative  journalist being attacked by Antifa radicals in Portland before actually being portrayed as the criminal by left-leaning media. Even in good old tolerant and inclusive New York City there have been more a few cases of regular citizens going about their own business being publicly attacked for the triggering offense of wearing a MAGA hat or, like at a private party in Tennessee, being punched for just wearing a red one.

Just proving there are some serious cases of TDS out there and that the incidents aren't just isolated.

Take for instance a few disturbing and violent anti-Trump attacks which happened on three corners of the country in recent weeks.

In the first case in point, a video shows a peaceful group named "Students For Trump" at Arizona State University being confronted on campus by a wild-eyed man who yells obscenities and screams "slash their throats" in front of the table they were seated at before the creep slithered away.

Then, in New Hampshire, police arrested another joyless Never-Trumper for assaulting three people outside a polling station, but not before the 34-year-old bully slapped a 15-year-old boy across the face outside of a tent occupied by several Trump supporters.

Trump-hating man arrested in New Hampshire.

Last, but not least, another unbalanced Trump denier, according to police in Jacksonville, Florida, took his hatred to a higher level after he purposely rammed his van into a tent of pro-Trump volunteers who were registering voters in a Walmart parking lot. Luckily, no one was injured in the sinister act which could have spilled much blood.

After he was arrested, 27-year-old Gregory Timm tried to validate his four-wheeled assault by saying, "Someone had to do it." Timm is free on bail.

We’ve heard all of the perceived reasons the Left has so much hatred towards Trump. They have labeled him as racist, anti-LGBTQ and thuggish — using only the media’s slanted fake news stories and Twitter troll hashtags as evidence — as well as bombastic, childish and narcissistic (The last three of which I agree) and then tag anyone who supports this president in the same perceived way. I’ve noticed the recent violent tone in many of my old friends’ social media posts regarding Trump. One time acquaintances who I know never have, or couldn’t have, punched their way out of Elizabeth Warren’s paper teepee, now talk like the original Teflon Don, John Gotti, setting up a Mafia hit.

It isn’t hard to see where the disgruntled Left is getting its cowardly cues. Look no further than the sneaky Democrats in Congress and their partisan, closed door impeachment inquiry inquisitions… I mean “sessions” in the basement of the House.  Or the schools indoctrinating children by changing or erasing history to fit a Liberal agenda.

And then check out your institutes of higher learning. Wasn't it some anarchist college professor at NYU who organized his brainwashed lemmings into storming Grand Central Station with their confrontational anti-cop stance last month?

Call it precaution or paranoia if you’d like, but it’s not like I’m over-exaggerating the possibility of more troublesome scenarios. I grew up in and around the grittier streets New York City past and learned simple things to avoid confrontation early on — like never flash a wad of cash in public or make eye contact with that brooding loner on the subway. I didn’t walk down a darkened alley in a rough neighborhood just looking for trouble. I still follow those same rules now — even on safer NYC streets. The real threat nowadays to me isn’t homeless psychopaths or getting jumped, it’s getting mugged by Liberal mobs with iPhone cameras — the same annoying twerps who never threw down one-on-one in their entire lives now gang up on someone for having a different opinion. 

And just like I don’t go around robbing people, it doesn't mean I don't know how a hold up is done. Self-preservation is usually all about seeing a situation before it plays out. 

Nobody ever wants to say why didn’t I see that coming? 

Just ask the Democrats about 2016. Look what they've turned into.

Aaron Judge uses Brett Gardner's bat-slamming antics as Yankees odd new rallying motion

By Tony Mangia

The Yankees aren't happy with the target MLB umpires have put on Brett Gardner and his recent bat-slamming actions in the dugout but, Aaron Judge may have introduced a new, kinder and albeit less savage, team rallying motion derived from the antics of their fiery left-fielder.

There was a lot of talking about team unity — after Gardner was tossed from Saturday's game against the Cleveland Indians for banging his bat on the dugout ceiling in response to manager Aaron Boone being thrown out for jawing to the home plate ump — before Judge mimicked Gardner's double-handed rant at first base following his third-inning single and again from second base after a Judge double.

"no no it aint a shot at you guys" pic.twitter.com/Zw1O83Nncs

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) August 18, 2019

I'm sure a lot of twisted baseball fans — and probably some indignant and inefficient umpires — will see an indecent double-entendre in the two-handed motion, but — to the easily offended — the gesture might be less naughty than Gardner's in-and-out motion with a bat in a dugout cubbyhole during that same rant. And, if you believe Judge, the jerky up-and-down bat action just might become the Yankees version of the Rally Cap.

Maybe they can call it Gard's Up! or Wood's Up! They are Savages, after all.

"Yeah, he's one of the leaders of this team," said Judge. "We do a lot of crazy things in that dugout when we get on base. Just showing support for him. He's the leader of this team so we're just supporting him."

Gardner had been one of three Yankees kicked out of the game — CC Sabathia was the third — by first base ump Phil Cuzzi on Saturday, so before the game on Sunday, Boone warned his players that the umpires might be watching the dugout for more abuse of his lumber by Gardie and another excuse to toss him from the game.

When the Yankee Stadium Bleacher Creatures did their ritual role call at the start of Sunday's game, Gardner pretended to slam a bat on the dugout ceiling in return. Judge must have been watching and took it as a sign.

Gardy can't stop.

Gardy won't stop. pic.twitter.com/uNEj6bewqr

— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 17, 2019lll

Cuzzi worked home plate during Sunday's loss without incident although the Yankees could be seen shaking their heads at more than a few lousy pitching calls. But, with Gardner's bats on a leash, it didn't come to this... not in the dugout at least.

Here is the full sequence of the Boone ejection. Hot mics galore. pic.twitter.com/R6Vw0qw0qn

— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) July 18, 2019 

Yankees' Brett Gardner and Brian Cashman both victims of mistaken identity

By Tony Mangia

In two separate incidents Friday, a couple members of the New York Yankees family were both involved in dramatic incidents of mistaken identities by respective authorities hundreds of miles apart, but later absolved of any wrong doing after the infield dirt and exhaust fumes had settled.

Before rightfielder Brett Gardner got tossed out of a game against the Blue Jays up in Canada last night, general manager Brian Cashman was tossed by a swarm of anti-car theft police in Connecticut earlier in the evening — with guns drawn.

Gardner's bust and outburst in Toronto might have been witnessed by fans at the game and watching on the YES Network,  but it was the Yankees general manager's dramatic experience which might have been a little more TV show worthy after he was swarmed by “as many five patrol cars" and "between six and nine police officers” with “guns drawn” in Darien after being mistaken for an "armed car thief,” according to a report from the New York Post.

The only guns showing in the Gardner case were his biceps as he was restrained from going after umpire Chris Segal by Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

Cashman's ordeal began while was driving the vehicle from Yankee Stadium to the Norwalk, Connecticut Police Department on Friday afternoon to have it processed for evidence after he reported it stolen in the Bronx. When he stopped for gas in Darien, he was greeted with a swarm of police officers responding to someone in a white Jeep “that was brandishing a gun in a local doctor’s office.”

Combined with the fact that the NYPD never took the jeep off the "hot car" list, Cashman was told not to "make any rash moves" as he exited his vehicle. Talk about a trading deadline being over, this was one rash decision that even a MLB GM knew not to make.

“And that’s when apparently the circumstances radically changed,” said Cashman. “I had a welcoming committee descend upon me as I pulled out of that gas station … They executed a very tactful interception. They’re clearly very professional and trained and they asked me to turn my car off, exit the vehicle, walk backwards towards them … they were executing their duty.”

After a 15 minute process, Cashman was escorted to the Norwalk Police Department by Darien police in order to avoid a similar situation unfolding down the road. He was assured his vehicle was off the stolen car list.

Gradner's incident with The Man resulted from other player's barking in the Yankees’ dugout over a pair of questionable called strikes by Segal in the fourth inning, the first a strike-three call on Cameron Maybin and the second the very next pitch to Mike Tauchman.

After the Tauchman call, Maybin, seated in the dugout, yelled, “F—ing terrible, let’s go!”

Segal immediately responded: “Time, out, done!” and signaled someone was out of the game. When Boone inquired who had been tossed, Segal replied: “Gardner. He just told me I’m f—ing terrible.”

The obvious misidentification caused a stunned Gardner to emerge from the dugout before he blew up and had to be held back by Boone. Then it was time for Gardner's signature bat-bashing in the dugout.

“I told him I didn’t say anything,” Gardner said. “He told me I did say something. That’s why I got pretty irritated.” Gardner also called Segal “a liar.”

Later, a still agitated Gardner wasn't as diplomatic or forgiving as Cashman for the mishap. Asked if wanted an apology from Segal, Gardie plainly said, "Not interested."

So Mike Tauchman takes a strike...and Brett Gardner gets ejected?

That's what happened, and if this game can get any crazier, you can watch it here: https://t.co/i6xvpsa0pF pic.twitter.com/V5VQ2SHOuj

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) August 10, 2019