Yankees believe they are up to the challenge as they embark on unprecedented season shortened by coronavirus
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, right, talking with pitching coach Matt Blake, center during a pitching batting practice at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, July 16, 2020. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
On this Opening Day, life is very different.
Many of us have lost jobs, maybe loved ones, to a global pandemic. We don’t leave home without wearing a mask. For months now, everyone has been fighting a war against an invisible foe.
The Yankees exist in this world, too. But on Thursday night, at Nationals Park, they have a job to do, and the mission starts over again, albeit for a 60-game season. Despite the sport’s four-month shutdown, then learning to play the game under conditions no one could ever have imagined, manager Aaron Boone will hand the baseball to Gerrit Cole, his not-so-new-anymore $324-million ace, with an unflinching mantra for 2020.
“Nothing changes for us -- nothing,” Boone said Wednesday on the eve of Cole’s showdown with the Nats’ three-time Cy Young winner, Max Scherzer. “Never has. And I think that’s one of the really good strengths of our guys. They’re really good at bringing a certain intensity, a certain focus, a certain neutrality to every single day.”
This year offers plenty of excuses. It’s easy to question why baseball is being played at all as the nation still struggles to contain the coronavirus. And for a team like the Yankees, a perennial favorite to advance to the World Series, the daily obstacles that stand in the way of winning No. 28 are unlike any they’ve faced previously.
How do you prioritize the scouting reports about Trea Turner or Juan Soto or Carter Kieboom when you’re worried about the team’s results from the latest round of COVID-19 testing? Was there enough social distancing at the D.C. hotel? Should I have been more thorough wiping down that room service tray?
For months, the idea of having a baseball season had practically zero to do with baseball, and now players must perform in empty stadiums, spaced 6 feet apart in the dugouts, with cardboard fans staring back at them. On TV, you can look past the oddity. To be immersed in the bizarre, however, requires another level of concentration to overcome. The Yankees believe they possess that sixth tool.
“To me, the passion from the players is there to be able to do that -- the drive, the desire,” Cole said. “Will there be different things that we'll have to adapt to as compared to other seasons? Absolutely. Will there still be an adjustment period maybe as we as we begin the season? Absolutely.
“But as a player you go into every season with the mindset that you want to get the job done. And whether it's coronavirus protocols or whether it's grinding through a 162-game schedule, there are going to be things that try to derail you. And so it's your job to to stick to your guns and stay disciplined. To stay focused through the season. Aaron's right -- it doesn't change.”
Additionally, the Yankees are spurred by a sense of unfinished business, a message that Aaron Judge relayed to his teammates in that somber visitors clubhouse at Minute Maid Park last October. The pain of another ALCS boot by the Astros, for the second time in three years, burned throughout the winter. Mostly the same Yankees’ cast had to wait even longer for a shot at redemption, so it’s only fitting they return to the stage Thursday night against the defending world champs. In the Yankees’ mindset, the virus-related hurdles are just part of the process now.
“We're in this to win it,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “Our players had a chance to opt out and they’ve all opted in, because that’s how they’re wired, and not just in a COVID-19 season. They love to compete. And in this particular case, it’s a 60-game season, rain or shine, COVID or not, we’ve got a lot of people in here that are wired the same way. They really want to say, when the dust settles, we’re better than everyone else. And they’re thankful and appreciative for having the opportunity to at least try to prove that.”
Cashman’s right. The fact this opportunity even materialized is remarkable in itself. Not only did DJ LeMahieu, last year’s team MVP, just return a few days ago from his own bout with the coronavirus, but closer Aroldis Chapman -- who is still testing positive -- will be watching Thursday’s game under quarantine at his home in New York.
The threat isn’t going away, either. Wins and losses are only part of the equation in 2020. Just making it through the next day healthy is a daunting challenge. The Yankees have been brilliant at overcoming the more conventional injuries during past seasons, and that mental strength, along with arguably the deepest roster in the majors, should work to their advantage as they attempt to navigate this “new normal.”
“I just try to trust in the character of our guys,” Boone said. “We've been through a lot as a team -- they've been through a lot these last few years. And I feel like they do a really good job of of dealing with whatever adversities have come their way. This year is going to present a whole new different level of adversities and I feel like we are cut out to handle that.”
For the Yankees, the championship mission is the same. But it starts with an Opening Day that will be unlike any other.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
