Last week, Rawlings announced their 2026 Gold Glove Finalists. Perhaps surprising to some (but not Colorado Rockies fans) was the inclusion of Rockies first baseman TJ Rumfield along with Matt Olson and Ty France.

“It’s not easy to do in your first year,” said Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer via a phone call last week.

Of Rumfield’s defense, Schaeffer said, “It was impressive, and it was steady.”

Rumfield became one of five rookies since 1901 to have a season with at least 1,150 innings at first base and have seven or fewer errors, joining Todd Helton (1998), Travis Lee (1998, ARI), Freddie Freeman (2011, ATL), and Nolan Schanuel (2024, LAA).

It’s worth considering, then, how he compares defensively with his fellow finalists as well as what he brings to a rebuilding Rockies team.

Considering the competition

As a reminder, Rumfield was acquired by the Rockies via trade from the New York Yankees.

“TJ, I think, has always been a fairly underrated prospect,” said Amir Mamdani, Rockies director of baseball operations, via text message. “I think in part because he doesn’t meet the archetype of a typical 1B slugger.”

He continued, “I think TJ’s gift, which we were fortunate to see on display for 155 games, is the fact that he has a tremendous feel to hit. Has always put the ball in play at an impressive rate, and while the power has been more modest (15-20 HR a season), he’s always held his own offensively as he moved up through New York’s system, and ultimately seemed pretty blocked there, behind Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt, and others.”

The Rockies were happy to take advantage of the Yankees surplus.

In 2026, Rumfield saw his first year of MLB play, and he made the most of it. Matt Olson of the Atlanta Braves is 32 and is already a three-time Gold Glove winner. San Diego Padre Ty France, also 32, has won a Gold Glove as well.

Rumfield is the only newbie of the group, and while he did win an MiLB Gold Glove for first base in 2023, this announcement is another way to announce the rookie’s arrival.

Now to the numbers.

Here’s how the three finalists compare defensively in terms of standard defensive metrics as shown by FanGraphs:

Olson has played significantly more defensive innings (1424.0) than Rumfield (1156.1), and both are well ahead of France (1030.1). Although Olson has one more error than Rumfield, given the number of innings he logged, it’s difficult to hold that against him. Olson also started and finished more double plays than either of the other finalists. By this metric, Olson has clearly made a case for his fourth Gold Glove.

Consider, then, what the advanced defensive metrics show, again, per FanGraphs:

Although France leads the trio in defensive runs saved, Olson again has the better numbers in terms of outs above average and fielding run value.

Rumfield had a 2026 that placed him (rightfully) in the Rookie of the Year conversation, but the numbers indicate that he is not a Gold Glove front runner.

Still, it’s been a tremendous season for the Rockies first baseman.

“For him to be mentioned among Matt Olson and Ty France,” Schaeffer said, “those are two really good defenders, and I’m proud of TJ for the work he put in every day to get there.”

Considering what he brings to the Rockies

Schaeffer is quick to acknowledge what Rumfield means for Colorado.

“For a big man over there, which a lot of first basemen are, his hands are soft,” Schaeffer said, “and he makes pretty much every play over there — difficult plays.”

And it’s not just the plays that Rumfield makes; it’s also how he anchors his infield teammates.

“He’s got the athletic ability to read hops,” Schaeffer said, “and for me as an infielder myself, the the biggest thing for a first baseman was giving the rest of the infielders confidence that you can make a great play and not make the best throw, and your guy’s going to pick you up over there, and TJ does that on a consistent basis.”

Schaeffer added, “I think he makes life easy, way easier for [Ezequiel] Tovar and for [Kyle] Karros, and for whoever was playing second base — Willi Castro — and they know that. So they can try to make more difficult plays because they know that he’s going to pick them up on the backside.”

Rockies general manager Josh Brynes agrees.

“I thought receiving throws, like the wingspan picks, all that stuff, it felt like he saved a lot of errors or converted outs,” Brynes said over the phone, adding, “Just the infielders, their freedom of making any kind of throw is enhanced.”

Although the rebuilding Rockies are coming off a less-than-stellar season defensively, Rumfield was a stalwart at first, which Schaeffer sees as key for any successful defensive unit.

“I mean, (if) you have a really good first baseman, you can do more things. Kyle Karros can try more crazy plays where you have to be free to do it. And if you have any inkling that your first baseman isn’t going to catch the ball, you can’t make those plays. And same thing with Tovar on that side of the on that side of the diamond,” Schaeffer noted.

He pointed to other MLB first basemen to illustrate his point.

“When Christian Walker was in Arizona, he anchored that good infield that they had. Matt Olson anchors that infield. Even Freddie Freeman in L.A — they throw it over there, and they know he’s going to catch everything. So you see really good infields anchored by first basemen that receive every throw.”

Mamdani concurs.

“Defensively, I think it’s a credit to him and all the work he’s put in,” Mandani said.

“He and Andy González worked a lot this year, whether it be the red machine, or other defensive drills, and I think if you look at his contribution both from a statistical standpoint with range and defensive runs saved, but even in terms of his receiving at first base. The number of plays he made, even anecdotally, to make scoops, or catch balls as a big target that other first basemen wouldn’t be able to get to, he was just incredibly steady over there, and I’m happy for him that that’s being recognized.”

It would not be unreasonable to consider Rumfield’s season “Helton-esque.”

Even if Rumfield isn’t a Gold Glove winner in 2026, that’s some high praise, and he’s set himself up to build on this year going forward.

“It’s a testament to him and the work that he put in, because I think (with) defense, there’s skill involved certainly, but a lot of it is sort of effort and practice and focus,” said Ian Levin, Rockies assistant general manager of baseball operations, over the phone.

“And he puts in the time, he puts in the effort, and he’s done it throughout his career prior to coming to us, and then we see it with us. So, just the the ability for him to to do that, put into action, and now actually become a Gold Glove finalist for it, I think is huge credit.”

“Just to be a finalist, that’s awesome as a rookie to be among those (players),” Schaeffer said. “TJ, he set a high bar for himself in his first year.”

The Gold Glove winners will be announced on November 1, 2026.

This story was updated to include comments from Rockies general manager Josh Byrnes.

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Shohei Ohtani kept his message to fans short.

“Thank you,” he wrote in an Instagram caption.

The 2026 season was by far Ohtani’s most disappointing campaign in a Dodgers uniform. His first two seasons in LA ended with World Series titles, but Ohtani’s third year ended in collapse.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for Dodgers’ early exit in the postseason, but the team’s mismanagement of Ohtani will remain a focal point in why one of the best rosters to ever be assembled in baseball fell overwhelmingly short of the Fall Classic.

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Ohtani dealt with multiple injuries in 2026 and could have very well been shut down in the summer to ensure better health come October. But that never happened.

Instead, the Dodgers let Ohtani continue playing until it became painfully clear the injuries had derailed his offensive production.

The 2027 season will be a key turning point for the Dodgers as the offseason is sure to bring changes in LA. But Ohtani has made it clear that he intends on remaining a two-way player next year.

The Dodgers will have to create an efficient plan for the aging Ohtani to do so, especially considering the implications his workload will have by October.

Ohtani hit 30 home runs and sported a sub-2.00 ERA, but his season ended in catastrophe because of the way his health was managed throughout 2026.

Dodgers fans are inevitably disappointed with the results as a three-peat seemed feasible given the star power on the roster. But the talent wasn’t enough to even muster a win over the Brewers in the National League Championship Series and that’s something the Dodgers will have to wrestle with in the coming months.

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Cardinals on My Time is back for the winter in a little different capacity! With the offseason and winter looking questionable at best and the Cardinals sitting in an awkward spot, I decided to take the opportunity to expand my podcast a little bit.

Since writing all things St. Louis Cardinals for the past few seasons, my attention around the league has significantly dwindled and I cannot have that happen. Rather than just reading through articles or trying to find new podcasts, I decided to bring the external talent to me and then share it with those of you who are in the same boat. I am fortunate enough to do that through the platform called MILLIONS, which is where I will be hosting my LIVESTREAM podcasts before publishing them later on normal platforms.

In my MILLIONS debut, I was joined by Jessica Kleinschmidt who was previously of MLB.com and NBC Sports covering the Athletics. Through our conversation, I quickly realized she was the perfect person to have one and discuss the impending winter of negotiations and hearsay. Jessica is a self-proclaimed CBA professional, so it was great to hear information from someone with ties to players and owners while also discussing what could happen this winter.

CBA talks are going to go to an interesting place during the MLB offseason

In the episode, we covered plenty but I really wanted to get into comparing the make up of both the A’s and Cardinals. The more Jessica talked, the more it seemed like these are teams sitting at a similar point in their building for the future. The Cardinals obviously have Chaim Bloom as POBO, but yesterday the Athletics also announced their own POBO, Taylor Smith, who had similar lineage to Bloom and is probably going to do things that look like what we saw in St. Louis.

When we spoke CBA, we got into what the lockout will mean for the fringe 40-man players and the Rule 5 draft. Jessica and I are both smitten by Rule 5 stories and hope that the process stays in some capacity, but it will be interesting to see how teams around the league handle their player protections by the 40-man deadline. The negotiations will probably get messy with a lot of players vs. owners conversations happening beyond the salary cap commercials we are already seeing during game broadcasts.

Finally, Jessica teased that she is going to be diving deeper into her Athletics coverage in some capacity, but could not announce the full details just yet. By the end of the episode, I was glad to have expanded from rehashing the same Cardinals conversations we hear every week and get some more look around MLB. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you drop a like, comment, and/or subscribe on your favorite platform!

On Thursday at 6pm, I will be having Double-A pitcher Michael Watson on MILLIONS and prospect guru Kareem Haq will help me lead the conversations. I will be posting a link to that stream on my socials but if you follow on MILLIONS, you will get notified when we go live.

I hope to have plenty more for you all in the near future. Thanks for sticking with me!

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

The Guardians are not in a World Series, so a certain number of Guardians fans are playing everyone’s favorite game, “Blame the Manager.” Is that fair?

First, I think we should all acknowledge a couple truths. Stephen Vogt has won three division titles in three years, leading two striking comebacks to do so the past two years. He has led his team to two ALCS appearances in three years. He has done so with limited resources on the roster through no fault of his own. If you would like the Guardians to fire Stephen Vogt or trade him to Seattle, please, and I say this as respectfully as possible – touch some grass, find a God of your choosing, and learn ball.

Now, just because Vogt is a great manager does not mean he is incapable of mistakes. Let’s take a look at the four most common objections I have heard to Vogt’s managing this postseason:

Objection 1: He Overused Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, Erik Sabrowski, Daniel Espino and Shawn Armstrong:

Cleveland pitchers threw 97 innings this postseason – This group of pitchers who made up Vogt’s circle of trust threw 42 of those innings. In those 42 innings, they put up a 2.57 ERA, a 3.05 FIP and a 9.64/2.14 K/BB/9. Let’s be clear – if a given pitching staff puts up those numbers for any playoff series, you would expect to win that series. However, if we stop the count before last night, this same group of players threw 36.2 of the teams 89 innings and put up an incredible 1.72 ERA, 2.34 FIP and 10.31/1.96 K/BB/9.

Guys, we all know that Smith, Gaddis, Sabrowski and Armstrong were overused. We know that Espino probably saw Caminero one too many times. But, the reason it happened was because it was still Vogt’s best shot at winning this series. He recognized his best weapons and put them in position to carry him over the top. Smith and Gaddis ran out of gas at the very end (notably, Armstrong and Espino remained extremely effective), but this is because Vogt was lacking the weapons he needed to reduce their usage, not because he was attempting to run them into the ground.

Aside from the disappointment of Parker Messick being unable to provide something like his regular season output (likely due to some combination of inexperience and fatigue), I find myself left with the most regret that Colin Holderman was hurt. I would very much like to try this Tampa Bay series again with a healthy Holderman able to take some of the innings that ended up going to Hunter Gaddis and/or Cade Smith. But, that’s something we will never know. For 2027, I have hopes that the team can make Slade Cecconi a high leverage option and that Daniel Espino will take another step forward as a high leverage guy, as well as counting on a full recovery for Holderman. If the group that is currently here can stay reasonably healthy (and, probably replace Tim Herrin with a veteran lefty), I really like their chances of not running Smith, Gaddis and Sabrowski into the ground to try to advance in a round of the playoffs.

Note that many of us armchair managers on social media were predicting disaster having Armstrong pitch for a fourth time against the Rays… and he said through the top of the order again. If pitchers execute, reliever familiarity doesn’t help much. And, that was the plan in going to the Guardians’ best pitchers so often.

Bottom line – this group of pitchers pitched a ton of innings because, even with the risk of fatigue, they were Vogt’s best chance at winning baseball games given the options he had. The one area I would like to see Vogt and the team experiment with, here, is trying to make sure their best relievers face different parts of the order when entering… but this often conflicts with the handedness advantage. I’m not convinced the idea of reliever familiarity penalty trumps the handedness advantage… or the idea of putting the guys with the best stuff in the game as much as possible. Vogt’s moves here, thus, track with a good process leading to an, unfortunately, bad result.

Objection 2 – He Should Have Started Angel Genao Over Brayan Rocchio:

Angel Genao finished the season from mid-August through September with a 40 wRC+. Brayan Rocchio is now an established major league player, while still young, and has to be counted on to put up a good at-bat and come through with a hit in a big spot at some point, leaning on his usually solid contact skills. Brayan Rocchio failed at almost every juncture. He was successful at almost every juncture as a hitter in 2024. That’s baseball for ya. But, Vogt had no option on the roster clearly better than Rocchio at shortstop, both fielding and hitting. I would like Genao to get a shot to win the shortstop job in spring training (which will probably be in MAY, but, whatever…), but for right now, sticking with Rocchio was the best choice.

Some folks will point out that Vogt pulled the rip cord on Angel Martinez. Vogt, rightly, recognized that Martinez is a lefty-masher option and that Petey Halpin is more of a threat vs. LHP than this current version of Angel. It also allowed him to get the benefit of Kwan’s defense in left and the potential benefit of good centerfield defense from Halpin (Halpin did not provide particularly excellent defense, but the potential was worth a shot). Genao has not proven himself against either LHP or RHP, so going with the established and experienced option to take those at-bats in Rocchio was the right choice, for now. Should the team have been more aggressive about pursuing a right-handed hitting veteran to play shortstop against LHP and take the bench role from Genao for these playoffs? I think so, but I also barely even raised the possibility of that at the trade deadline. I can understand why it wasn’t a priority, but the options Vogt was left with led to sticking with Rocchio.

Objection 3 – He Should Have Given Tanner Bibee a Start:

Why didn’t Bibee get a start? The answer is simple: Bibee had a 4.36 ERA/4.52 FIP, a 7/2.4 K/BB/9 and gave up a 12% home-run/fly-ball rate in 2026. In September, Bibee had an ERA of 7.36 and a 4.83 xFIP. He was giving up a lot of loud contact. The team decided that Bibee would become their “break-glass-in-case-of-emergency” pitcher for a game that went into extra innings. At that point, relying on his veteran moxie and experience would be the best option available, despite his inability to miss bats and penchant for surrendering the long-ball… but not before then.

Folks, I simply can’t argue with the reasoning. It’s statistically sound. Now, would I have, personally, objected to handing Bibee the ball for game six and saying, “Give us all you got?” Absolutely not. I would have appreciated the boldness and dealt with the consequences. But, it’s incredibly likely those bombs off the bat of Diaz and Caminero just would have happened earlier in the game. Maybe it would have been easier for me, emotionally, to see Bibee competing and getting smacked around than Smith or Gaddis running out of gas after great performances these playoffs… but that doesn’t mean my feelings should have guided the process. Also, the bullpen game for game six was actually more effective than it seems. Herrin gave up an 85 mph sure fly out that beat an outfield shift and a bad jump from two outfielders for a double, Cantillo gave up a 69 mph fly out to Caminero that would have avoided any damage in his outing, and, heck, Caminero hit a foul-pole homer off a splitter six inches inside off the plate. The Rays deserve credit for all this… but I don’t think game six was a disaster in terms of pitching plans from Vogt and the Guardians AT ALL.

Objection 4 – He Should Have Stuck with Foster Griffin Longer in Game One and Four of the ALCS:

We have now come to the one objection I find to be of the most merit in criticizing Stephen Vogt, and the place where I think he and the team’s decision-makers probably find themselves with the most regret this morning. Griffin pitched 10.1 innings in these playoffs and put up a 3.48 ERA/0.78 FIP with a 13/0 K/BB/9. Folks, those are ace-type underlying numbers, to be honest. Yet, repeatedly, Vogt only allowed Griffin to face a lineup approximately one time through the order. Why? During the season, Griffin had a 2.35 ERA first-time-through-an-order and a 4.41 ERA second-time-through-an-order. I promise you that this data is exactly what was on Vogt’s mind when he would remove Griffin… as well as mentioned above, his knowledge that his five best options to navigate a lineup outside of Gavin Williams resided in his bullpen.

I think we can now say, after seeing the bullpen on fumes in game six, that it would probably have been a good risk for the Guardians to allow Foster Griffin to go deeper into games in these playoffs, specifically in game four of the ALCS to try to save wear and tear on the bullpen (specifically avoiding a second inning from Matt Festa later in the game). With that said, this would have required Griffin, with his issues second-time-through, facing Yandy Diaz again. Griffin had a 4.04 FIP against right-handed hitters this season and Diaz has a career 145 wRC+. Junior Caminero, quickly coming up after Diaz, has a career 152 wRC+ against LHP. Griffin vs. these two players second-time in a game is a very bad matchup. However, if you can give yourself a chance at avoiding the second Matt Festa inning, it is a risk you might take and see if Griffin can work around these two. At the same time, if it goes extremely well, all you do is probably give yourself a reason to use Smith, Gaddis and Sabrowski in game four when they actually got rest. So, I don’t think the outcome of this series changes, but I do think Vogt and the Guardians need to steel themselves to try to get a little more from their starters the next time they make the playoffs, consequences be darned. May fans who watch a Guardians’ starter get lit up second-time through an order in the future remember Matt Festa for two innings and Cade Smith and Hunter Gaddis on fumes. There is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t aspect to this decision.

Some folks feel similarly about Joey Cantillo. Friends, Cantillo had a 3.6/10.8 K/BB/9 in the playoffs. He was perpetually one pitch from disaster and Vogt did well keeping him from making that pitch. Exposing him to more opportunities would not have made sense.

Bottom Line:

There are, of course, other potential objections: should the team have bunted more? Attempted more steals? More hit-and-runs? It’s hard for me to argue that this offense should have intentionally put themselves at risk for making more outs. Should Jo Adell have made more starts in right field? Both Adell and DeLauter are not good fielders at the moment. Should Patrick Bailey have caught Messick in game two of the ALCS? Maybe? I can find good logic and sound reasoning behind every decision Stephen Vogt made this series, even in the places where I might have wanted a different choice. …That’s all you can ask of a manager.

In summary, my argument is that the Guardians have a very good manager, not only of the clubhouse but of in-game decisions. We just need to give Vogt more weapons in his arsenal to avoid another disappointment next time he puts this team in position to make a World Series run. Dolan and Blitzer, do whatever you can to keep this man helming the ship here forever.

As a society, we love endings — we celebrate graduations and retirements, we turn the season finales of our favorite television shows into social gatherings, we flood the movie theatres and turn the culmination of Marvel’s Infinity Saga into the biggest communal experience in the history of cinema. While our love of endings isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does sometimes cause us to pay less attention to the journey than it deserves. These days, Marvel movies get judged as good or bad by fans almost entirely based on how “necessary” they are to the leadup to Avengers: Doomsday. The groundbreaking prime of Game of Thrones, which has transformed fantasy television as a genre forever, often gets forgotten in the uproar of a final four episodes that can at best be described as divisive. And, in sports, the highs and lows of an eight-month baseball journey gets forgotten amongst the irritating week known as the American League Divisional Series.

It’s the journey that I want to reflect on today — or rather, my own personal journey through the 2026 season. You see, heading into the season, my brother and I set a goal for ourselves: to, at long last, make it to 20 Yankees games this season. This is, of course, a reasonable goal only because we both work near subway lines that lead directly to the Stadium, and have work schedules that allow us to reach 161st St. before first pitch rather easily. Because of this, we can take advantage of, for example, somebody selling field level tickets on Stubhub for $10 because the forecast has it below freezing by the third inning.

While Mother Nature did her best to keep us from our goal, we did in fact manage to make it to 20 games this year — just barely. And, as we have been reviewing the season over the last few days, I have thought about all the cool stuff we experienced live this year, and how these experiences, filled with quite a few firsts, reflects a journey that goes beyond statistics on a page, or a postseason disappointment.

Opening Day

So many diehard fans that I know love going to Opening Day, and honestly, I get it. For the first time since the previous autumn, baseball — real, meaningful baseball, not spring training — is back. And yet, actually attending Opening Day was something I never truly considered: baseball is the one sport that still does Opening Day, not Opening Night (let’s just ignore that Netflix business that happened in San Francisco), and as a teacher…well, it’s not exactly acceptable to take days off for leisure. This year, though, the Yankees’ home opener fell on Good Friday…which meant school wasn’t in session. My brother maneuvered his schedule so he could take the day off, and we headed to the ballpark to watch Aaron Judge and Ben Rice go deep, Will Warren spin 5.2 innings of two-run ball (the first of eight or nine Warren appearances we attended), Cody Bellinger make a miracle catch, and the Yankees down the Marlins, 8-2.

In a lot of ways, Opening Day felt very much like a normal game, or at least it did, after the pregame introductions. Still, it was probably the largest, most engaged crowd of the regular season. I still get chills thinking about the excited murmur that went through the crowd when the PA announcer said, “Number 45” during the introductions, and the entire stadium realized that Gerrit Cole, still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, was in attendance. And I absolutely got a kick out of the fact that, after Aaron Judge and the aforementioned Cole, the biggest cheer the Bronx reserved was for…Matt Blake. Hey, the fans know who is important (side note — Brian and Hal, pay that man!).

Knicks in Five

On the diamond, Wednesday, May 6th was a fairly miserable day. Corey Seager hit a first inning home run off starter Will Warren (hey, I did say we saw him a lot), the Rangers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before Judge homered to drop the deficit to five, and it was raining on and off before it began pouring late. Yet, it was one of the most fun games I attended this year. Because as the rain came down, everybody in the seats hopped up into the concourse, and began to watch the televisions as Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks went on a late run to down the Philadelphia 76ers, 108-102 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Stadium was buzzing to such an extent despite the lack of drama on the field that, standing in right field, Judge kept looking up at the crowd with a confused look on his face until a young kid braved the rain, ran down to the wall, and yelled to him that the Knicks were winning; a thumbs-up was the response.

As it would turn out, that would not be the only Knicks-themed game I would go to. On June 17th, just a few days after downing the San Antonio Spurs and winning the Knicks’ first title in 53 years, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart were invited to Yankee Stadium to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. As Knicks fans and Villanova alumni, my brother and I of course jumped at the opportunity to go, and we were joined with us by a buddy of mine who is a Knicks fan despite growing up in Arizona. So imagine his excitement when Paul Goldschmidt, who spent the first eight years of his career with the Diamondbacks, belted a three-run homer off Tyler Davis in the fifth inning. A pretty memorable first visit to Yankee Stadium, huh?

On the Road

It had been a long time since I had gone to see the Yankees on the road — since before COVID, at the very least. This year, though, the Yankees headed down to Philadelphia at the end of July, and so, this year, we took the Amtrak down to the Land of Brotherly Love to catch a game with college friends. As it would turn out, that would be the day that LeBron James announced his intent to sign with the Sixers, which injected a bunch of energy into what was already expected to be a dynamic crowd.

And we were treated to one of the best games I have attended, honestly ever. The first batter to reach base for either team? Paul Goldschmidt, who led off the top of the fourth with a solo home run. The first time multiple baserunners were on base at the same time? When the Yankees loaded the bases in the fifth, but they failed to get a runner across the plate. Between Cam Schlittler and Jesús Luzardo, the starting pitchers combined for 14.1 innings, allowing just seven hits and one walk while striking out a whopping 21 batters. Earlier this week, Matt noted that this was, according to GameScore, tied for the Yankees’ most dominant performance of the season, and well, the Yankees needed every inch of that performance.

Schlittler’s dominance (and Brent Headrick’s Houdini-esque escape in the 8th) only tell half the story, though. New Yorkers travel well, and Philadelphia is only ninety minutes from Penn Station by Amtrak. Sure, Citizens Bank Park wasn’t exactly Yankee Stadium South in the same way that the Wells Fargo Center (or whatever they call it now) becomes MSG South during the NBA playoffs, but the crowd was very much divided — and with such a close game, the tension was so thick it could be cut by a knife. 10/10, would absolutely recommend doing if you have the chance.

Amongst the Creatures

Yankees/Rockies isn’t exactly a primetime matchup, really ever, so naturally, my brother and I were more than happy to grab some well under-priced tickets on Stubhub and go on a Wednesday night in September, right before the school year truly got underway. We weren’t exactly paying attention to where the seats were — we got them fairly last-minute, so we just saw the price, the fact that they had access to the Pepsi Lounge (hey, the food in there is fresher than most other spots in the Stadium), so we were as surprised as could be when we realized that we were not simply sitting in the bleachers, but amidst the Bleacher Creatures, just a few spots down from the guy in charge of the Roll Call.

The game itself wasn’t much to write home about. Warren put together a good outing against a meh opponent, and the Yankees lineup struggled to get anything going against Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano. Well, except when they got two outs in the third. A single, a double, and a walk later, and suddenly George Lombard Jr. came to the plate with the bases juiced…and he responded with the first grand slam of his career — and the first grand slam of the season. The Stadium, of course, went nuts.

What I remember most from that game, though, isn’t the grand slam, but a revelation I had. Ever since Nick Swisher, I’ve heard quite a bit about the relationship between the right fielder and the Creatures, but never quite understood it. There was quite a bit of…I don’t want to call it banter, exactly, between them, but it was clear that Aaron Judge recognized many of the season ticket holders, and would occasionally react to them. And apparently, you know who spent a lot of time interacting with them, relative to his time in the Bronx? Juan Soto. I now get why they treat him like jilted exes.

Double Trouble

The final weekend of the season was, to put it bluntly, a disaster. Thanks to an impending storm, Saturday night’s game — CC Sabathia Day — was moved to Friday afternoon and turned into a single-admission doubleheader. It ruined Josh Hart bobblehead day, as fans who bought tickets to get it (guilty as charged) but who couldn’t get off of work (I don’t teach on Fridays this semester, so I was good) lost their chance…and that’s before we got into the ballpark. Sabathia got to see his number retired in front of half a dozen fans; ok, I’m exaggerating, but when the right field bleachers aren’t able to sustain a “Thank you, CC” chant, you know the crowd is just, well, not there. To top it all off, the Yankees were an absolute disaster in the first game, going on to lose 10-2 in a game that wasn’t even that close. The second game was much better, but by that point, I’d been on my feet for hours (I didn’t go to my seats, as they were in the upper 400s, but instead watched the game from the various terraces throughout), the storm had started to dump buckets of water on us, and frankly, the game was meaningless.

Nonetheless, it was an awesome day. As I noted in the Five Worst Defensive Plays of the season post last week, I got to check “inside-the-park-homer” off my baseball bucket list. I got to watch CC Sabathia get his number retired — the first Yankee whose entire career in pinstripes I saw to receive the honor. Sabathia and Hart each threw a strike from the rubber as their ceremonial first pitches (in truth, I think Hart’s was a tad better). I talked baseball with some random fans throughout the ballpark, including some who remember going to the original old Yankee Stadium, before the renovations in the 1970s. And, for the first time ever, I was recognized by a student “in the wild” (i.e., not at school); trust me, hearing “Wait, Mr. Griffin?” outside of the confines of the school building will throw you a bit — and I’ve been told that feeling never quite goes away, either.

Game 162

The Yankees only played 161 games this year, with the single-admission doubleheader that Friday night being the final two games of the season. Nonetheless, they did at least go through the motions of pretending that they would play that Sunday. When I got to the Stadium, it was clear from the jump that, while Major League Baseball may have insisted they try, in the off chance that the Yankees and Braves met in the World Series (hah! — but yes, had that occurred, this game would have mattered for home field advantage), the Yankees had no intention of playing. The security guards outside knew they weren’t playing. The workers at the concessions stands knew they weren’t playing. The grounds crew…I can’t say for certain, because I never actually saw the grounds crew actually spend any time on the field, but I’m going to guess they knew, too. For their part, the Yankees never even submitted a lineup (which unfortunately robbed Elmer Rodriguez of one day of service time). Even so, we waited for three hours in the rain.

So what did we do for three hours, you may wonder. That’s right — we watched football! The Yankees put the Giants and the Jets up on the scoreboard, split-screen, thus turning Yankee Stadium into the biggest sports bar in the city, and they only officially cancelled the game once Jevon Holland came down with the game-clinching interception in the end zone. My guess is, they figured everybody who was left would simply go across the street to the bars to watch football, so they might as well make that sweet, sweet concession money, which…uh, fine. Go spend that money on Teruaki Sato, Hal!

Down Goes Boston

The season began with my brother and I attending our first-ever Opening Day, so it was rather fitting that it would end with our first-ever postseason game — and fortunately, our first-ever series clinching win. A season ticket holder that we know wasn’t able to use his tickets to Game 2 against the Red Sox, so he sold them to us (rather than use Stubhub) in order to ensure that Yankee fans would get the seats.

I had heard over the years that October in the Bronx was different, and I had some semblance of what that means — I vividly remember hearing, and more truly, feeling the Stadium rock while driving home from New Jersey on the Deegan during the 2019 Wild Card Game. Nothing, however, truly prepared me for the vibes inside the Stadium. The best comparison I can make, to be honest, is the student section of a Villanova basketball game (from back in the days of Brunson and Hart and Mikal Bridges, i.e., when they were dominant). From Tino Martinez throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to walking out of the Stadium as something that rhymes with “Buck Foston” echoed throughout the Stadium.

Closing Thoughts

I could, honestly, keep going — from watching Amed Rosario sprint back to the dugout in 30-degree weather just minutes before hitting a game-changing three-run homer back in April to the statistically improbable fact that the 4 train only won two of the 19 possible subway races. For the sake of the editors, and for the sake of the readers, though, I will stop here…well, after one more thing. All indications are that this winter will yet again be one of the longest we have seen, with Rob Manfred and MLB’s leadership dead-set on union-busting for the second time this decade. As the hot stove goes dark, and the baseball diamond sits idle, it is this journey that I will miss, and these memories that I will cling to, not the disappointment of Judge and Stanton missing so much time this year, or the heartbreak of an early postseason exit. Because while I desperately want to see the Yankees host another parade down the Canyon of Heroes, I always return to baseball not for the postseason, but for the months-long journey there — and all the friends and memories we make along the way.