Stress and Mess

BY KEVIN KERNAN

I‘m back.

And like Johnny Nash sang in 1972, I can see clearly now. Cataract surgery in my right eye and then a week later in my left eye has made all the difference in this now bright and sharp 20-20 world, thank God.

So, I get to see even more clearly what is going on in baseball, stress and mess, included.

Aaron Judge’s stress fracture of the first rib is, unfortunately for Judge, a trip down memory lane. That first injury occurred back in September of 2019 against the Angels when Judge dove for a ball, but the exact extent of injury was not completely diagnosed until the following March.

At that time, I wrote in depth for the New York Post about Judge’s frustrations with the injury. And yes, there was a point that spring, where the Yankees brought up the possibility of Thoracic Outlet Surgery to Judge.

Like Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.’’

Judge was able to rest the injury, and, of course, he was able to rest with no real consequence to the season because Major League Baseball was shut down that crazy Covid spring of 2020 so the first regular season game for the Yankees was not until July 23 in that clownish 60-game season.

I’m no wizard at math, but that was nearly five months. With this latest right rib injury, the Yankees will revaluate in approximately “four to six weeks to determine level of healing and appropriate next steps.’’

That is an open-ended statement.

 In Yankee Land, injury history repeats itself.

In the postseason after the shortened 2020 season, the AL East second-place Yankees beat a team that was named the Cleveland Indians, 2-0 in the wild card series, but lost to the Rays in the ALDS in five games. Judge hit .111 against the Indians and.143 vs. the Rays, clubbing three home runs in the seven games.

Now known as the Guardians, and the Rays – who are still known as the Rays, but now their ballpark has a new and improved roof – again linger on the playoff horizon for these Yankees, who have had much trouble beating teams with a winning record. The American League is the weakest I can ever remember, so it would have to be a collapse of immense proportions for the Yankees not to at least make it to October.

The last time Judge had to sit out with this injury, he was 28. He’s 34 now. Will he heal as quickly?

During the last rib injury, Giancarlo Stanton was out with – you guessed it – a calf injury. In Yankee Land, injury history repeats itself. Back in 2020, Judge had also missed 110 games over the previous two seasons with a broken hand and an oblique injury.

This latest injury occurred in late April in Houston on a Judge dive in right field, similar to how the last time he suffered the injury. As he dove, he was trying to get out of the way of second baseman Jazz Chisolm. “The dive in particular, trying to avoid a teammate, it’s just an awkward situation where you put your body in a tough position,’’ Judge told reporters.

Judge aggravated the injury crashing into the wall in right field at Yankee Stadium on May 3 vs. the Orioles. At the time of the catch, analyst David Cone said of Judge, “He just about knocked the A off W.B. Mason.’’

In one of my many conversations with Judge through the years, I strongly mentioned to him, “You need to stop running into walls and stop diving for balls, you’re just too big, that is a lot of force.’’

Judge understood, but sometimes his competitive nature gets the best of him. At the age of 34, it is time to stop running into walls and diving for baseballs in right field.

The last line of the Yankees announcement on the Judge injury read: “Judge is expected to return at some point this season.’’

Expected is a scary word for Yankee fans when injury history repeats itself.

A FINE MESS: Look to Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox, who are still struggling mightily after the Sacked Seven were fired by wizard Craig Breslow. The Yankees can be thankful these “KNN’’ Red Sox can’t get out of their own way at home where Boston owns a 10-21 home record. KNN stands for Know-Nothing Nerds, led by Breslow, a former relief pitcher who built his team that cannot win at home. They cannot win at home because amazingly, Breslow built a team that is not built to take advantage of the Green Monster.

Ivy Leaguers are just smarter than you … they think.

On the road, the last-place Red Sox went into Saturday night’s game at Yankee Stadium with a 17-14 record. Fenway has become an analytic carnival. The Red Sox are dead last in baseball with only 19 home runs at Fenway.

Breslow also made one of the worst trades of the year, sending lefty pitcher Kyle Harrison to the Brewers right before spring training. Harrison is 7-1 with a 1.57 ERA for Milwaukee. The trade netted Breslow third baseman Caleb Durbin, who is batting .196 with one home run. Most of all, Breslow has made the Red Sox boring. Say what you want about the Red Sox, but they have never been boring in the past. The fans and tourists still fill up Fenway, and mindlessly sing “so, good, so good’’ every game just prior to the bottom of the eighth inning even when the Red Sox are losing 8-2 like Thursday afternoon at Fenway against the under. 500 Orioles. Compounding all this, the Red Sox also handed out outrageous contracts to young players and two of those players are now at AAA Worcester. Pitcher Brayan Bello is in the third year of a six-year, $55 million deal and utility man Kristian Campbell was given a $60 million deal and is hitting .227 in AAA. Injury-prone Roman Anthony isn’t playing and was given an eight-year $130 million deal.

SUPER-DUD: Talk about wasting money, look at the Padres. Manny Machado is batting .175. His 11-year extension signed in 2023 will pay him $350 million. Yikes! At the plate Manny looks dazed and confused. When asked about his hitting woes and weird mechanics he told longtime writer Barry Bloom: “I’m a baseball player, I’m not a theorist. You got something for me?’’

I’ve known Machado a long time, since Alex Rodriguez first introduced me to him when Machado was in the minor leagues. That is his nature to be combative. He needs to take that attitude into the batter’s box. His on-base percentage is equally pathetic at .262 while his slugging percentage is at .357. Machado is just one of many Padres struggling to hit. As a team they are batting .215, dead last in baseball, but that only tells part of the story. The 1969 expansion Padres batted .225, 10 points higher, that is how bad these Padres hitters are going in 2026. To make matters worse, Ramon Laureano is out for the season following hip surgery. The Padres are one game out in the wild card race, mainly because of all-world closer Mason Miller.

EXTRA BASES: Only five AL teams are over .500. The Mariners lead the West at only three games over .500. An under-.500 team could make the playoffs, and that would be fitting considering the level of play across MLB. If the playoffs started today the under-.500 A’s, who play in a minor league ballpark, would be the final AL wild-card team. Nothing says October like a playoff team from a minor league park, making the postseason with an under .500 record. As I have been writing for years, this is what happens when so many know-nothings are in charge of teams.

Yankees catcher Austin Wells is batting .166. I’m so old I remember when the Yankees had three catchers excelling like in 1961 when Elston Howard hit .348, Johnny Blanchard batted .305 and Yogi Berra hit .271. Yogi was moved to left field to get in the lineup in those pre-DH days when baseball was baseball and ruled the sports world … I’ve been listening to a lot of MLB games lately and Cleveland broadcaster Tom Hamilton is a true gift to game. This is how he introduced Jazz Chisholm’s at-bat the other night at Yankee Stadium.

“That will bring up Jazz Chisholm,’’ Hamilton began. “Well, he predicted the Yankees will win the World Series. He did that last night on the Jimmy Fallon Show. Pretty amazing you get on the Jimmy Fallon Show batting .239.’’

In defense of Jazz, Bob Uecker made 104 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and he had a lifetime batting average of .200. “Mr. Baseball’’ was the funniest man in baseball. He made his first appearance in 1971 when he moved from Milwaukee scout to the broadcast booth.

In his deadpan delivery that night, Uecker told Carson about the Senators leaving Washington and going to Texas: “Everybody talks about moving a team, in the case of Washington, I think they should leave the team there and move Washington.’’

A laughing Carson then showed pictures from Uecker’s six-year, 731 at-bat career and in the first photo, a shirtless Uecker is bending over backwards guzzling a beer being poured down his throat by a Cardinals teammate.

Carson said, “Obviously, it’s a locker room celebration.’’

“No,’’ Uecker said, “this is actually a picture of me getting ready for a game.’’

That brought the house down back when late night television was a joy to watch.