CAN GERRIT COLE BREAK THE YANKEE UNLUCKY STREAK?

Source: CBS Sports

Fans and the media swarm on Gerrit Cole, who arrived in New York on Monday to face the media officially as a Yankee.  The crowning is today at the House that Ruth Built and the fanfare will be infinite.  But Cole follows a line of Bronx baptisms, that didn't exactly go as planned.  Can Cole break the Yankee unlucky streak?

"Cole will only be the seventh player feted at Yankee Stadium III, which opened for the 2009 season. The three big signings (A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira) who came aboard prior to the ’09 championship campaign ironically held their initial events at the old Stadium across the street while work continued at the new place," reported the NY Post.

Giancarlo Stanton, our last big seven-figure signing, came to us via the Winter Meetings in Orlando, where he was decorated a Yankee back in 2017.  He didn't make an early appearance at the Stadium. Stanton hasn't exactly been what the Yankees expected, but perhaps Cole will be different.

Source: Anthony J. Causi, NY Post

"Cole joins, in chronological order, Curtis Granderson, Rafael Soriano, Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran and Masahiro Tanaka, plus Boone. Of those six players, only Tanaka remains a Yankee, or even a currently employed player. None has played in a World Series as a Yankee," reminded the NY Post yesterday.

Cole appeared happy to be in New York, but not as excited as I had anticipated.  His one-word answers during a short TMZ appearance in front of the Mandarin Hotel were frankly lackluster and perhaps slightly aloof.  "Let's save the questions for the press conference," he bellowed as he signed autographs.  Slightly contradictory behavior if you asked me.  He followed with a slew of short answers, like "Of course" to a question about whether he was happy to be a Yankee.  What about being a Yankee is exciting?  "What doesn't excite me."  Interesting disposition from such a celebrity pitcher.  But it is early, and maybe he was told not to say much by his agent Scott Boras.

Let's see how Cole does today at his first official unveiling to the New York media and fans.  As a former fan himself, he knows what it is like to watch iconic players battle for wins in a city that is full of critics. Can he be one of those iconic players himself, who lives up to the expectations placed on him and the Yankees?  Time will tell, but God I hope so!

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof