April 29 at Yankee Stadium. Book it now.
You’re going to see the most vicious, hellacious booing since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009.
April 22 at Fenway Park? Take it or leave it. Shouldn’t be much of anything.
First will come Jacoby Ellsbury’s return to Red Sox Nation in a Yankees uniform, and a week later, Robinson Cano will wear Mariners Northwest Green into The Bronx. That the two men are likely to receive wildly different homecomings underlines myriad truths about this still-stunning pair of address changes.
One is that Cano is a far better player than Ellsbury. Another is that the Yankees will miss Cano more than the Red Sox will miss Ellsbury because of relative roster depths.
Most of all at this point? Cano is off to a very rough start in his life as an ex-Yankee.
“Every one of us in our life, no matter who you are, has a decision often to make: Do I stay where I am versus go to another opportunity for a lot of money?” Yankees president Randy Levine said Friday, as the team introduced Ellsbury at a Yankee Stadium news conference. “People understand that. That’s very reasonable. Nobody begrudges him. I respect him for making that decision.”
Of course, many, many people don’t understand that. Don’t comprehend how any human being could look at a seven-year, $175 million offer and interpret it as disrespect. Shoot, they can’t even get past the profoundly over-hated not running on groundballs thing.
Cano created waves by using his introductory Mariners news conference Thursday to lament his breakup with the Yankees.
“I didn’t feel respect,” he said of the team that signed him as an international free agent and developed him. “I didn’t get respect from them.”
The second baseman accepted a 10-year, $240-million offer from the Mariners. Ellsbury’s negotiations with the Red Sox, the club that drafted and developed him, got only as high as five years and $80 million before the Yankees — anticipating Cano’s imminent departure — got him to sign for seven years and $153 million.
On Friday at the Stadium, though, Ellsbury wasn’t there to talk about the past.
“I’m not really going to get into that right now,” he said, when asked about his talks with the Red Sox. “It was seven great years. The fans treated me great. … It was an unbelievable first spot in my career, and I’m definitely looking forward for the next chapter.”
Look, respect is in the eye of the beholder. I can understand Cano’s frustration. The Yankees went gaga over new arrivals Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran and less so over Cano, who topped the free-agent field by a few lengths in quality. Seven years and $175 million is a fair offer, but not an overwhelming one for a player with Cano’s track record.
That discussion is so last week, though. Now let’s talk about presentations and peace-making gestures.
Ellsbury or his advisers — Scott Boras is his agent — had the presence of mind to purchase an advertisement in Friday’s Boston Globe, thanking the folks up there for his two-championship run. Cano sent out a very nice message on Twitter Thursday — “Thank you New York & my amazing fans for the support thru the years” — but for now, at least, you still reach a greater audience with the newspaper. Plus the ad costs a few bucks, which creates the perception of generosity. Anyone can tweet.
Fenway Park, like most stadiums, has become more corporate in recent years, which means it’s harder to rile up the fans. Mark Teixeira anticipated a heavy storm of hating when he chose the Yankees over the Sawx prior to the 2009 season. And when Teixeira showed up at the Fens wearing the Yankees’ road grays, he generated very little noise. Ellsbury never seemed to connect much with Red Sox fans, in part because he missed so many games with injuries. I bet there are only token boos — “I guess we should boo” — on April 22.
The Stadium, too, is nowhere as fiery as its predecessor. Yet goodness, a large percentage of Yankees fans do not like Cano. They fail to make the correlation between his lack of intense baserunning and ability to play in 160 games a year. They can’t appreciate that $175 million could hurt his pride.
It’s all too bad, because Cano deserves to be remembered among the Yankees greats even though he took off after nine years. Perhaps time will heal these wounds.
For now, though, bring some Tylenol to The Bronx on April 29. It’s going to be a bumpy night.