Yankees Superstar Taunts Royals Fans Who Booed Him: 'That's The Reaction I Wanted'
The Kauffman Stadium crowd was at fever pitch on Wednesday night, and Kansas City Royals fans focused their ire on one New York Yankees star in particular.
It wasn't Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, or even Giancarlo Stanton. It was the Yankees' newest star, trade deadline acquisition and new Royals tormentor Jazz Chisholm Jr.
After Game 2 of the series at Yankee Stadium, Chisholm expressed his feelings that the Royals "got lucky," and proclaimed his confidence that the Yankees would still win the series. He even took to social media the next day, sharing an analytics breakdown of the hard-hit rates of both teams in that game.
Safe to say, Royals fans didn't take too kindly to Chisholm's disregard for their team. And when on-field introductions happened before Game 3, they lustily booed Chisholm as he took the field. The booing continued throughout the game.
"I ain’t never seen nobody boo a bum, you feel me?" Chisholm said, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
Chisholm went 0-for-4 at the plate, but his Yankees certainly got the last laugh. A Stanton eighth-inning home run put the Royals on the brink of playoff elimination on their own home turf. And it appears Chisholm wore no ill effects from the hostility at Kauffman Stadium.
"I wanted it. That’s the reaction I wanted,” Chisholm said. “I’m glad that we got it. It got our juices flowing. It got us going. It got the team going. We loved it."
If Royals fans didn't get in Chisholm's head, or any of the Yankees' heads for that matter, it's far from the end of the world. These are professional athletes, and base-level taunts from spectators aren't supposed to bother them (though, of course, we know they sometimes do).
However, what would be the end of the world--or at least an exciting season--would be a Yankees win on Thursday night in Game 4. With Yankees ace Gerrit Cole taking the mound, it's do-or-die for the Royals and free-agent-to-be Michael Wacha.
Can Royals fans urge their squad to a victory over the supremely confident Chisholm and his Yankees? We'll all be watching with bated breath.
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Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org