Jerome Miron-USA Today Sports
The newest member of the New York Yankees, first baseman Travis Ishikawa, had a rude welcome to Yankee Stadium last night in his first start with the team.
Ishikawa had two at-bats and struck out both times. Both at-bats were very ugly, each having awkward swings and misses, but he did not deserve what he heard from the Yankees fans after his second strikeout.
While walking back to the dugout, he was treated to a startling amount of boos for someone’s second career plate appearance for their new team. This was incredibly uncalled for by the fans, but I can’t blame them. The team wasn’t hitting again, and the fans took out their rage on the poor new first baseman who was most recently in the Baltimore Orioles farm system.
In the seventh inning last night, Lyle Overbay pinch-hit for Ishikawa, and promptly hit a solo homer to give the Yankees their first run of the night. The inconceivable thing about the move to claim Ishikawa is that he is a left-handed bat, as is Overbay. I would think if they did want someone to platoon with Overbay at first, they would at least try to find a right-handed bat to give Overbay a rest when lefties are on the mound.
Either way, Ishikawa’s introduction to pinstripes was less than dream-worthy. Striking out twice to a chorus of boos, getting pulled and seeing his replacement hit a moon-shot would make me never want to put that uniform on again. Hopefully, Ishikawa has more conviction and swagger than I have.
