New York, New York

It’s a hell of a town. The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down.

And sometimes things are just up and down in the Bronx. You need not worry about the Battery (it’s an area at the south end of Manhattan).

On Tuesday night, in his first at-bat at Yankee Stadium, Giancarlo Stanton struck out. This is not unusual for free-swinging sluggers but Stanton piled up strikeouts as if they were slices of corned beef for an overstuffed sandwich at the old Carnegie Deli. He struck out five times.

That’s five, if you’re scoring at home.

And the fans booed him. Yeah, well, New Yorkers. So what if you’re the reigning National League MVP and the guy who led the majors last year with 59 home runs? Whaddya got now?

Not quite 24 hours later, Stanton smashed a two-run homer (yes, to the wild cheers of the fans) in the first inning of New York’s eventual 7-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. And this is the kind of thing the Yankees are paying for – our Mr. Stanton has a base wage of $25 million for 2018.

In trying to reassemble what once was called Murderer’s Row, the Yankees acquired Stanton from the Miami Marlins, baseball’s Dollar Store. That gave them three monster bats in the lineup, with Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. Judge hit a mere 56 home runs as a rookie in 2017 and Sanchez smacked 33. You can see where this is going, going, gone – about 450 feet and over the wall. All three homered on Wednesday against the Rays, all with a man on base.

Stanton admitted hearing those boos on Tuesday, that he was “awful” and “had a bad day.” Wednesday had to be some consolation.

Having played in the relative quiet of Marlins Stadium for his entire career, Stanton may need to get accustomed to actual sound and passionate fans. They will let him know when they are happy and when they are not.

He made them happy on Wednesday. Now, what have you done for us lately?

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman