In a significant loss for the “baseball isn’t boring” crowd, the New York Yankees spent a good portion of their Tuesday night matchup against the Oakland Athletics playing “The Bubble Gum Game.”
The game featured Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery and Matt Carpenter tossing wads of chewed bubble gum at a field drain that was in foul territory, a few feet away from the dugout. But it wasn’t just one or two pieces, there was a growing pile with dozens of chewed up bubble gum wads.
The bubble gum game started in the first inning and it really began to pile up by the fourth. Gross. And that’s exactly how Yankees play-by-play voice Michael Kay described it on the YES Network broadcast.
“That is, that’s kinda gross,” Kay said with disgust.
“It’s like golf, it’s like frisbee golf,” Yankees analyst Cameron Maybin explained. “They find a little marker on the field and they toss the gum, almost as if they’re playing frisbee golf.”
“And that’s all chewed gum,” Kay said, which Maybin confirmed. “I’m sure Danny Cunningham, the groundskeeper, loves it,” Kay added sarcastically as The Bubble Game continued to dominate their topic of conversation throughout the top half of the fourth inning.
Apparently, this isn’t a new trend, with Kay stating Paul O’Neill checked in to inform him they used to call it “Bubble Bocce Ball.” Remember when LeBron James was chastised for attempting to water bottle challenge on the Cavaliers bench? Imagine if he was chewing up, spitting out, and throwing bubble gum instead?
Isn’t that some sort of sacrilegious act? Yankees players haven’t been allowed to sport a beard since 1973, but soiling the field at The Cathedral of Baseball with chewed bubble gum is OK? And I know Major League Baseball loosened their COVID-19 health and safety protocols for the 2022 season but piling up that much-chewed bubble gum should never be accepted, pandemic or not.
With a day game Wednesday afternoon, the Yankees didn’t waste much time getting back to their bubble gum competition. Thankfully, Carpenter displayed that not all of the gum had to be chewed, choosing to roll it into a sphere by hand and sweat rather than dousing it in saliva.