Pleased To Meet You. Garbage Time at Yankee Stadium

"See?! I told you fans were bad for business!"

WHITESTONE, NY – Player fan interaction is back thanks to Cleveland Indians (they’ll always be the Indians to me) center fielder Myles Straw. During the final inning of last week’s Yankees-Indians game, the fans in the Yankee Stadium bleachers decided to have some fun.

When their team rallied back during the 9th inning of an ANALytically boring game, the Bleacher Bums decided to play their own version of hit and run.

They taunted and threw garbage at Indians left fielder Steven Kwon as he laid on the ground in agony, after crashing into the wall trying to make a catch. In defense of his teammate, Myles Straw did his best Spider-Man imitation and climbed the wall to get in the fan’s faces. They all seem amused at the player’s attention towards them. A player getting that close to a paying customer, especially in the far away seats, is unheard of.

Minutes after the Straw showdown, the Yanks’ winning run crossed the plate. More garbage rained down from the stands, aimed at Straw and right fielder Oscar Mercado. As words were exchanged, the Bronx Bombers did their best version of, The Yankees are coming!

The Pinstripers ran towards the trouble, led by their two so-called leaders, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. They played peacemakers as more interaction with the fanbase was produced. To prevent this trash from happening you can add more garbage cans by the stands, which would only lead to ASTROnomical accusations of cheating. Bang the can once for fastball, twice for curveball

The next day’s periodicals gave more ink to the interaction than the walk-off win. Should we blame security for causing this mess? That’s the easy way out, so I’m gonna take this midtown. Blame #MLB!

It starts way before the game. While the home team takes batting practice, the fans are outside the stadium waiting for the gates to open. When they’re finally let in it’s over. No BP, no autographs, no selfies. The players are chilling in the clubhouse.

Aristostle “Mugsy” Sakellaridis

The safety netted fences don’t help either. It keeps fans further away from their beloved heroes. MLB couldn’t care less. It would prefer for these paid admissions to stay home and watch the game on television. The TV revenue is their bread and butter anyway. What a breath of fresh air it was to see Straw and the Yankees interact with the fanbase even though it was under unusual circumstances. If throwing garbage at the players leads the fans to interacting with them, then let them litter.

That’s all I have today, leave your trash below and come tomorrow for our garbage collector Short Matt, seen moonlighting below.

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About Aristotle "Mugsy" Sakellaridis 119 Articles
Aristotle "Mugsy" Sakellaridis is the junkiest of baseball junkies. He plays in 4 leagues, well past his 40th birthday, and spends the winter in Florida shagging flies at Yankees minor league complexes. He's also a retired Riker's Island Corrrection Officer - having worked the night shift for 20+ years.