Yankees Are Like Brokeback Mountain, Announcer Says
The Yankees were compared to Brokeback Mountain by an ESPN analyst who didn’t seem to understand the true plot of the 2005 film.
ESPN commentator Doug Glanville was calling the New York Yankees preseason matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday when he was talking about the number of injuries the team has suffered. In mentioning that Yankees coach Joe Girardi fields one of the oldest lineups in the majors, Glanville reached for a metaphor it seems he didn’t understand.
“They have basically Brokeback Mountain going over here,” Glanville said about the Yankees. “I mean everybody’s on the disabled list or hurt in some form or fashion.”
It seems from the context that Glanville thought the Yankees were like Brokeback Mountain in that many of the players have broken bodies, and not a comparison to what has become referred to as the “gay cowboy movie.”
Looking at the injury report, Glanville’s butchered Yankees Brokeback Mountain metaphor would ring true. The team is working through injuries to two of its biggest and well-known stars. Third baseman Alex Rodriguez is working on rehab for a knee injury and hopes to join the team sometime early in the season, though there are reports that the Yankees are tired of his diminishing play and connection to a performance-enhancing drug scandal in Florida.
Just this week, Yankees captain Derek Jeter was cleared for full activity after a long rehabilitation from a broken left ankle that he suffered in the team’s disappointing playoff exit last year. Unfortunately for the Yankees, that news came just as the team found out that Mark Teixeira will be out for 8-10 weeks.
Though many analysts predict that the Yankees will fall off this year — and could even miss the playoffs — the team has been active on the personnel front, reportedly going after Alfonso Soriano and the newly retired Chipper Jones. And even with the lowered expectations in past years, the Yankees have been able to persevere and excel as a tight-knit squad.
Maybe that’s what Doug Glanville was getting at in his Yankees Brokeback Mountain comparison.
