New York Yankees: A Different Look At This West Coast Swing

While the New York Yankees six-game West Coast swing is crucial to their survival as a Wild Card contender, it’s even more crucial for the three rookies as they adjust to life on the road with a big league team.

It goes without saying that all games played at this stage of the season are crucial for any contending team. For the New York Yankees, their West Coast swing may be even more important as a gauge in observing how their young rookies handle the baseball intangibles that will largely determine their future.

For Tyler Austin, Aaron Judge, and Gary Sanchez, this will be their first road trip traveling with the team in “The Show” as the players refer to it. For them, it will likely be the first time they find their luggage waiting in their hotel rooms instead of having to carry them up themselves. It’ll also be their first time in an unfamiliar clubhouse creating such mundane but necessary obstacles to overcome, such as where’s the bathroom and does the home team provide a safe for my valuables?

The list goes on.

What time does the team bus leave from the hotel for the ballpark? Is there a second bus that leaves earlier or later that I can take? And where should I sit on the bus? Should I wait for the veterans to board or is team protocol first come, first served? Do I just board and take a seat towards the back and wait until one of the veterans  jokingly says, “You’re in my seat, rookie.”

And what about my meal money (about $100 per day), how is that delivered to me? Or do I pay in advance and then get reimbursed? Are there any good seafood restaurants in Seattle? If there are a few, who goes with me? Is it just better to stay in and order room service? What if I want to have a beer downstairs? Choices, choices, more choices.

Then, there are the on-field unknowns.

For Judge and Austin, what are the caroms like in the outfield? A reminder to myself – be sure to ask a coach to bang a few off the wall so I can find out.

Sanchez wonders about how much foul territory is behind the plate. And everyone wants to know what the ground rules are in this foreign ballpark. What side of the ballpark does the sun set? Can we expect shadows early in the game? All of which goes to show that in baseball there’s always a game within the game.

In the big leagues, there’s more to deal with than just your stats in the box score. In this video, you kind of get a sense that Judge will be able to handle whatever comes his way.

As a result, Joe Girardi and his coaching staff will be zeroing in on how these young men handle themselves over the course of the road trip. As observers, they will be interested in seeing how they adjust and react to those all-important baseball intangibles that we talked about the other day.

Next: Alex Rodriguez Most Memorable Moments In Yankees Career

As we discussed, what happens on the field is only half of what matters when it comes to evaluating major league talent. From the looks of it so far, all three are handling the adjustments to big league life well. As we know, when bad things happen, they usually surface when the team is on the road.

Sanchez is on fire while Austin can’t buy a base hit and Judge is looking for consistency. It’s the ups and downs of baseball. There’s nothing like it in any other professional sport. The good thing is when the next crop of talent arrives next year, these guys will hopefully be there to guide them through.