DANNY ONEIL

The Eye Opener: Current Mariner identified as former Yankee

Jul 13, 2017, 6:30 AM | Updated: 11:36 am

Four years a Mariner, but always a Yankee to some New York-obsessed media members....

Four years a Mariner, but always a Yankee to some New York-obsessed media members.

Given that it’s a city that brags about the lack of sleep, maybe it should come as no shock that New York has a hard time getting over itself.

The insistence of national sports entities who think the world revolves around New York is a little harder to figure out, however. That point was hammered home by the way Robinson Cano’s game-winning home run was billed by ESPN.com as: “Ex-Yankee Robinson Cano provides closing act at Aaron Judge’s All-Star party”.

Cue giant eye roll.

Go ahead. Twist yourself into knots trying to explain the editorial rationale of using that designation on Cano, who is now four years removed from pinstripes. Then you’re going to have to explain why Judge – who went hitless in Tuesday’s All-Star Game – was mentioned in the headline.

Nothing against Judge. He’s been absolutely awesome, the breakout star of the first half of the season, and his performance in the Home Run Derby was undeniably impressive. But anointing him as the star who can save baseball isn’t just premature, it’s kind of ridiculous when you consider that guys like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper have been on the scene for a few years now. Baseball hasn’t exactly been hurting for young, impactful players. It just hasn’t had any young, impactful Yankee players, which means the force-feeding of the national audience can begin now that Judge has arrived.

And if it was just a Yankees thing, I could almost understand it. The Yankees are the flagship franchise in Major League Baseball and rank second in the world in franchise value according to the Forbes ranking that was released on Wednesday.

Except it’s not just the Yankees. It’s the Knicks, too, who get center stage in offseason NBA news, which is downright baffling given how long that franchise has been an absolute also-ran. The Sonics have won more playoff games than the Knicks over the past 15 years, which is remarkable considering the Sonics have not existed for eight of those 15 years.

Yet we’ve had to sit as national NBA reporters waited breathlessly on whether the Knicks were going to re-run “Weekend at Bernie’s” next season by retaining Phil Jackson as general manager. They did not, which means we’ve now moved on to finding out what box of pastries the Knicks will be forced to accept in exchange for Carmelo Anthony, and if that empty-calorie scorer does happen to win anything of significance somewhere else, will he get described as an ex-Knick?

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