NEW YORK – The crowd went wild when Mike Tauchman started the game with success, and that was revealing.
It was just a soft single floating above the head of third baseman, not an explosion from Ruth. But hey, it was against everyone’s ace Gerrit Cole, and the Yankees think Cole will be just as good at dominating hitters as Kanye West to confuse everyone. Perhaps a celebration was, in fact, justified.
The thing is, the crowd went wild too when … Aaron Judge hit an infield single to shortstop?
When did Brett Gardner throw a miserable ball of dirt onto the grass?
When did Luke Voit commit a foul against the third base bench?
When did Clint Frazier throw a harmless foul down the first-base line?
Groan. After a couple of innings of what was slated to be the Yankees’ last intra-squad game on Friday night, it was clear that hitters facing Cole didn’t have the toughest job in the Empty House that Jeter built. .
It was the stadium operations clerk accused of pressing the “fake crowd goes crazy” button.
Look, everyone is doing the best they can here. That is not lost in a single soul. The game is trying to do what many consider impossible and safely complete a 60-game season in the coronavirus era, when only a few positive tests at the same time in various key markets could beat it all.
And no one believes it’s possible to really replace the sound of a real, live crowd with a recording of the MLB video game The Show 2020 without missing a beat. What are the stands without the creatures, anyway?
But, man, I couldn’t help but think of the times I have rolled a paper towel alone in my kitchen, thrown it in the trash and breaking the silence with: “Shoot, write down! Mike Eruzione! It was uncomfortable. It was out of nowhere.
Will this false noise from the crowd make things even weirder?
Would it be better to play in a stadium that is mostly silent except for the sound of the bat hitting, the ball hitting the glove and the music of the players?
I felt like this.
Manager Aaron Boone said he didn’t like it at first. He said it sounded like someone had lost the AM radio dial until he got used to it.
“I figured it out early in the game on a fly ball to right field to judge that, a routine fly, that the decibels went up or whatever,” Boone said.
Now, it wasn’t all bad. The white noise aspect of the buzz of the crowd during downtime was actually almost relaxing. If you closed your eyes, it was still hard to think that you were listening to a real crowd, but you wouldn’t have to break a tendon to do it. And with occasional music in between the entrances, the bright lights playing on the facade, and the giant sheet music glowing in center field, there was less “I Am Legend” feeling in the Bronx than usual.
They definitely did well on home runs. When Mike Ford and Miguel Andujar faced Cole in the fourth inning, the extra juice given to the false crowd was perfectly timed with the ball floating on the wall in right center field. It was especially at the point with center fielder Estevan jumping dramatically against the wall and missing Andujar’s shot. And when Gio Urshela hit one to left field in front of Dan Otero later, it was fine.
But some other times? Particularly when the ball was hit hard and there was a delay between when a crowd would really react against the sounding board that was catching up? Wow. It was also not great that the crowd seemed to have just two gears: regular talk and pandemonium.
Cole said it wasn’t exactly offensive. He said he liked it more than silence.
“Only the general energy of the people in the park is not there,” he said. “But it was probably a moment or two of being normal to some degree.”
Of course, without fans due to COVID-19, any baseball environment would need the equivalent of a Red Bull to work: something manufactured, something that jolts, something that is sweet for a second but leaves a fun taste in your mouth. the second you think about it.
In a weird baseball season, the false crowd noise might be stranger than the crowd noise, but the jury is still out.
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Brendan Kuty can be contacted at [email protected]. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
