'First Take' Has Become Aware of the New York Yankees

Stephen A. Smith and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo got to talk baseball.

Stephen A. Smith is loving what he's seeing from his New York Yankees / ESPN

There are three teams from major media markets left standing in the quest to capture a World Series, so Major League Baseball made the First Take rundown on Wednesday. The full clip is below but here is a summation of how that played out.

Leading off was Stephen A. Smith who is feeling pretty good right now because the New York Yankees are up 2-0 on the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Championship Series. He believes pitching wins championships and the Yankees have gotten solid starts from Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole in back-to-back games. Closer Luke Weaver has also continued his dominance. Smith mentioned that the big boppers are bopping before offering his take that the New York Mets, level in their own series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, are actually inspiring the fellas in pinstripes.

"Yankees see what's going on," he said. "And they say wait a damn minute. This is New York, baby. This is Yankees. This is our town." This, to him, shows that the Yankees are "embracing the moment" in a way they haven't done since 2009, the last time the franchise won it all.

At this point Chris "Mad Dog" Russo had to jump in and say that Smith should calm down about the Yankees.

"Enough of the Yankees," Russo said. "As he said, the Royals and the Guardians? Really? They're the JV out of that American League Central."

It got pretty loud from there and there was some fond memories from the late-1970s bandied around.

Look, it's great that First Take gave some shine to baseball. Or, actually, is it? Because as a big baseball fan I am not entirely sure this was a value add. It actually felt like something that would be shown in a dive bar somewhere in the Midwest with the expressed purpose of radicalizing someone against East Coast bias. You'd have people who simply do not care about the Yankees suddenly locked in to every pitch rooting for their downfall. Which, again, might be the point.

The Guardians, apparently a junior varsity squad that lucked into the second-best record in the American League, will have a chance to claw back when the ALCS resumes on Thursday night. They are right now the best and only defense against another segment like this.

No pressure.

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