Yankees miss opportunity with first-pitch World Series selections

I want to discuss what is definitely a first world baseball problem and that is about the overall atmosphere – but maybe more – of the postseason, especially the World Series.

The teams involved should be thinking about more than just who throws the ceremonial first pitch, but who catches the ball (like I said, first world baseball issues). And no organization should do this more than the Yankees, who have such a backlog of valuable prospects and so much potential connectivity to supply their fan base.

And in the case of Game 5, something even bigger.

The Yankees have Hideki Matsui throw out the first pitch ahead of the final game of 2024 in The Bronx. That was a great pick: the World Series MVP of the last Yankee champion in 2009 and someone admired by Stadium fans for his overall excellence and dignity, but also for how great he was in big games.

But this is a World Series crushing in Japan. The games are in the morning and yet a tenth of the country’s TVs are tuned to the World Series – with the Japan Series simultaneously happening in the evening – and the total number of viewers exceeds those watching in the evening. United States.

The reason is obvious. The Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani, the most popular player in the world and, according to my unscientific poll of Japanese reporters, the most popular person in the country. The claims from this poll were that the second most popular mammal is Ohtani’s dog Decoy – and this was deadly serious.

Ohtani’s presence/popularity also helped the Dodgers land Yoshinobu Yamamoto over the other two most fervent pursuers, the Mets and the Yankees. And Ohtani turned the Dodgers into Japan’s team. And there are certainly team officials around MLB who believe that if Roki Sasaki becomes available in free agency this season (or sometime in the next few years), the Dodgers have a significant lead in landing arguably Japan’s best pitcher.

That’s why I think the Yankees had to send a statement before a pitch in Game 5 – with a pitch on multiple levels. That should have been delivered to Matsui by Masahiro Tanaka as a subliminal recruitment that: 1) Not so long ago the Yankees would win the duels for the best Japanese players; 2) A reminder that Japanese players can thrive and be happy here; 3) The return of another big game guy, in Tanaka, who the fanbase loves.

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Look, I don’t have all the itineraries of ex-Yankees, so who knows who might be asked but won’t be able to attend. But the Yankees should think about offering two-for-the-price-of-one connections. The way this works is that teams recommend who they want to throw out for MLB’s blessing, which usually happens unless the league has someone who absolutely needs to step in.

Derek Jeter threw the first pitch in Game 3. Perfect again. But he did that with Oswaldo Cabrera. This isn’t some Bank of America president who paid for the privilege and you’re sending every available Yankee out to get him.

Either the current captain, Aaron Judge, should have taken the pitch from the previous one. Or current shortstop who grew up in New Jersey idolizing Jeter, Anthony Volpe, should have. The two coming together for a photo after Volpe’s brilliance in Game 4 only emphasized how natural a duo that should have been.

Paul O’Neill threw out the first pitch for Game 4 and it was almost like AJ Burnett was around and, yeah, why not go to the field? The two have a tenuous bond at best, having never played together. If you choose O’Neill, someone like Tino Martinez would have been a good partner because of their ties as complementary high-end players.

But while O’Neill was well-regarded and should have been on the potential list, I think there would have been so many better choices. The Yanks tapped Andy Pettitte, Willie Randolph, CC Sabathia and for some reason Nick Swisher to throw away pitches in the first two playoff rounds (one is not the other). Really, the Steinbrenner family’s belief that Swisher is a beloved Yankee, elevating him to a front office voice and leadoff pitcher status, is a blind spot. In case the family doesn’t have access to Baseball Reference, Swisher’s .165 postseason batting average is the worst in Yankee history for anyone allowed to hit 100 times.

But I digress. How about Mariano Rivera or Orlando Hernandez for Jorge Posada? Martinez vs. Scott Brosius (the shocking home runs in the 2001 World Series)? Joe Torre for Joe Girardi (the only living Yankees championship managers)?

Is Reggie Jackson out because he now works for the Astros? Is Alex Rodriguez out because he’s Alex Rodriguez? Have Reggie throw at A-Rod and see if that disrupts the time-space continuum.

Do you want to tear down the house? I know Brett Gardner has stayed away from the Yankees angrily, including during this past Old Timers’ Day, because of the way the team-player separation went down. But really, do whatever it takes to bring back the last man to play with the Yankees from the 2009 champions. He was so influential as Judge’s leader and his lunch pail ethos endeared him to the fans.

Have him throw to Judge. Or have him throw to Bernie Williams – the center fielder of the last two times the Yankees won a title.

Sure, it’s a first world baseball problem. But the Yankees can do better here.