AJ Burnett gesture again draws attention to himself

The Yankees could end this tedious act of AJ Burnett's with a few quiet words--it wouldn't be hard. On the MLB Network they show a replay of AJ Burnett's reaction to a first inning home run he allowed to Oriole Felix Pie. Burnett turned around and lifted his arm in disgust. The MLB guys joked in effect that if one could lip-read, it looked like Burnett was saying a bad word. They also said the Orioles dugout appeared to take mild offense to Burnett's reaction, thinking Burnett implied how could a no-name like this get a home run.

• *******

Moving on to their best ESPN impression, the MLB Net guys make sure to ridicule and render mute the idea of being a Yankee fan.

• Al Leiter was their handy prop this go-round. Leiter spent most of his career as a Met, very little of it as a Yankee (I have no idea if he is a Yankee fan or not). He has done work for the YES Network but Goldman Sachs owns more of that than the Yankees and it shows.

They showed a clip of Robinson Cano's home run in the second inning of the Oriole game. They explained it in normal fashion, but since the Yankees were involved in the clip, hey, let's bash.

• MLB Net guy to Leiter (although Leiter hadn't said anything to elicit such a condemnation): You're such a Yankee fan.

• Leiter: Puts his head down, and smiles or laughs quietly.

• MLB Net guy: Well they sure paid you enough.

• Leiter: Looks sheepish, accepts barbs, must be guilty, softly says well they pay everybody enough....

Within a few minutes, an MLB Net guy directed another comment to Leiter about Yankee money.

• Leaving aside Al Leiter, the bashing and quiet acceptance of it is what many Yankee fans have been brainwashed into believing is what they must endure, the price one pays, etc. I've heard and read it countless times but it is not true in baseball or any walk of life. Negative comments especially in the internet era made often enough and over enough time become part of culture and spiral out of control.

No one mentioned the millions of Yankee fan revenue sharing and luxury tax that pays MLB Net salaries, limos, etc. (Time watching MLB Net approximately 7:30-7:40pm ET).

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