The subsequent time the son of a street workforce’s celebrity visits the Bronx, the Yankees could be clever to deal with him properly. Youngsters with lengthy recollections and extraordinary expertise enjoyment of revenge.
Within the Nineties, it was Ken Griffey Jr. Now, it’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Simply as Griffey tormented the Yankees repeatedly in his prime, Guerrero, 24, is doing the identical in his. The newest punches came to visit the weekend in a collection victory for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Guerrero, their slugging first baseman, blasted a two-run homer to begin the scoring on Friday. On Sunday he did it once more, pulling a blistering liner into the seats close to the left subject foul pole with two outs within the sixth inning. The Blue Jays went on to win, 5-1, and the Yankees misplaced a collection for the primary time this season.
As he rounded first base, Guerrero pointed skyward. He stutter-stepped on his means round third. He kissed his wrists as he pranced house. The group booed, and Guerrero reveled in it.
“After all, you hearken to it,” Guerrero, who’s hitting .341, mentioned in Spanish by means of an interpreter. “However they’re not going to take that house run away from me. I’m simply going to proceed to run the bases and revel in it.”
Although Guerrero can’t be a free agent till after the 2025 Main League Baseball season, he vowed publicly final low season to by no means play for the Yankees. The declaration echoed one by Griffey, then with the Seattle Mariners, who was filmed signing autographs at previous Yankee Stadium and vowed: “In the event that they had been the one workforce that gave me a contract, I’d retire.”
Griffey’s stance got here from a sobering incident as a young person, when he was sitting along with his father, Ken Sr., on the Yankees’ bench earlier than a sport. A safety guard instructed the Griffeys that the Yankees’ proprietor, George Steinbrenner, had issued an edict to clear the dugout. They did, however not earlier than Ken Sr. identified that the son of a teammate, Graig Nettles, was taking grounders at third base at that very second.
The takeaway — {that a} white participant was given privileges not afforded a Black participant — emboldened the youthful Griffey, who hit 41 homers towards the Yankees in his profession, together with 5 in a five-game playoff collection victory in 1995. (Just one workforce, the Minnesota Twins, allowed extra homers to Griffey.)
Guerrero’s father, Vladimir Sr., by no means performed for a New York workforce in his Corridor of Fame profession, though his profession common towards the Yankees (.319, together with the postseason) is a bit higher than his .316 profession mark throughout the common season and playoffs. Regardless of the origin of Guerrero’s concern with the Yankees, it appears to chop simply as deeply.
“It’s a private factor,” he mentioned Sunday. “It goes again with my household, and I’m not going to speak about greater than that. Issues occurred prior to now and I’m simply going to depart it like that.”
Like Griffey Jr., Guerrero Jr. has thrived towards the Yankees. His slugging proportion at Yankee Stadium is .614, one of the best of any participant within the ballpark’s 15-year historical past (minimal 100 at-bats). His 12 homers within the Bronx are essentially the most he has hit in any street stadium.
“You get right here and also you get booed, and you’ll form of do one in every of two issues,” Blue Jays Supervisor John Schneider mentioned. “Reggie Jackson mentioned, ‘They don’t boo nobodies,’ so I believe Vladdy form of labored off of that a little bit bit. Everyone knows the form of hitter that he’s.”
Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, who blanked the Yankees for seven innings on Sunday, mentioned Guerrero basks within the heel’s function.
“It looks as if he loves taking part in right here,” Gausman mentioned. “He says he doesn’t like coming right here, however he performs fairly nicely right here. Anytime he comes as much as bat, we’re all paying consideration as a result of he simply hits the ball so exhausting. He’s a man that form of likes being the villain after we come right here.”
The Blue Jays’ George Springer has expertise with heckling; he performed for the champion Houston Astros in 2017, the yr of their sign-stealing scandal, and was among the many gamers booed by opposing followers as soon as the scheme was revealed. Springer mentioned Guerrero is calm by nature, trusting in his expertise and his course of. However it’s a subtlety that impresses Springer most.
“How he processes info is next-level,” Springer mentioned. “He’s a scholar of the sport in his personal means. The best way he goes about issues, I imply, he remembers the whole lot.”
Together with, fairly clearly, one thing from the previous that drives Guerrero to conquer the Yankees each probability he will get.