Juan Soto doesn’t appear worried; Yankees fans? Whole ‘nother story
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My house is a few miles from Trenton on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, and I spent part of Wednesday night relaxing on the back patio in my rocking chair, listening to the Yankees on the radio.
It’s not the same without John Sterling.
This night was different: I didn’t hear my neighbor yelling about the Yankees, who often infuriate him. Our backyards are small and separated by a fence and bushes, but Ernie is a Brooklyn native with a deep New York smoker’s voice that carries. When I’m off on a game day, I can often hear his cheering — and anger — from my kitchen.
I’ve written about Ernie before. He’s in his 70s and a retired Port Authority manager who worked in the World Trade Center. Indirectly, his life was saved on 9/11 by then White Sox star Magglio Ordonez. Ernie is still traumatized by what he experienced during his escape from the 71st floor of One World Trade Center, his hours-long walk to his mother’s house in Brooklyn and the deaths of many co-workers, especially the two women he had been drinking coffee with that morning.
When I’m outside, if Ernie sees me, he always wants to talk about how the Yankees are distressing him.
I usually hear the same thing: Hal Steinbrenner should be more like his father and get rid of Brian Cashman; Aaron Boone should be fired and replaced by Don Mattingly; Gleyber Torres should be traded, Giancarlo Stanton released.
He has vented a hundred times. Even when the Yankees are in the midst of really good seasons, like this one, Ernie’s usually not satisfied because he’s spoiled. The Yankees won a lot of championships when, as a kid, he adored Mickey Mantle. He saw them win two titles with Reggie Jackson and four with Derek Jeter.
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