Opening Day

I'm getting tired of all the complaints about sporting events moving more and more to streaming services. This past week, it was the Yankees having their Opening Day game against the Giants on Netflix, that had George rolling over in his box. I could do without a Yeet-ing seal, Cousin Itt throwing out the first pitch, and Bert Kreischer, surprisingly keep his shirt on, hosting pre-game ceremonies. Netflix is only paying top dollars for MLB to showcase their other properties, and keep you subscribing.

I can sympathize with Ebenezer, who's been watching Opening Day on his 16 inch black and white TV for the last 80 years, but anyone under the age of 70 should easily be able to pull up the Netflix app on their smart TV. 

The broadcast itself, led by play-by-play man Matt Vasgerian and color guys CC Sabathia and Hunter Pence was well done. The only two noticeable issues I had was the design of the score bug and the green screen ad behind homeplate that was whitewashing out the centerfield camera. Other than that, it was great seeing the Yankees win in a laugher, winning their first game of what would become a sweep of their first series of the season.

As for the Yankee season itself, I have mixed expectations. I hate to come off like a "27 Ring" Yankee fan, growing up in the Core Four Dynasty spoiled me and the rest of my generation of fans. At what point is a perennial 90+ win playoff team that falls short of the World Series a disappointment? While most fanbases would love to see that type of consinstency, and as a Jets fan I'd die for even a season that isn't over before the Yankees first playoff series, this franchise has set unrealistic goals.

The hardest part is that it's hard to quantify what's holding this team back from reaching the mountaintop again and hoisiting their 28th World Series trophy. Aaron Judge is a monster and is putting up historic seasons, we had 6 other batters mash 20+ dingers last season. When your first 6 batters in the lineup are all All-Star caliber, you should be able to look past guys like Volpe and Wells, who can still provide the occasional clutch hit.

On paper, the rotation should also be towards the top of league. Max Fried has been pitching like a Cy Young winner for us while Cam Schlittler might be the most exciting young pitcher not named Paul Skenes. Carlos Rodon is more than servicable as a middle rotation guy, on top of the hope that Gerrit Cole can even 75% of what he was in 2024 after coming back from Tommy John surgery later this summer.

In a perfect world, I'd like to see some younger guys like Spencer Jones, George Lombard, and Jasson Dominguez play with the major league club, but the impatience of the fanbase has already tried running Anthony Volpe out of town.

I'm not going out on a limb, thinking that we'll see a similar story to the Yankee season as we've had in the past decade. A strong start will lead to a midseason swoon before righting the ship heading into October. if we luck out like we did in 2024, we can beat up on the weaker AL Central teams in the playoffs before getting smashed by the Dodgers in the World Series or we'll just get knocked out by our division rival, whether it be the Red Sox or Blue Jays, before getting that far.