Francesa: Been Too Long Since Yankee Stadium Has Felt True Playoff Electricity
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- October baseball in the Bronx isn't what it used to be. But perhaps things are about to return to normal.
That was Mike Francesa's sentiment during his monologue Tuesday, hours before the Yankees host the Twins in the American League wild-card game.
"It'll be interesting to see tonight if we're actually going to have one of those New York nights, the kind that have become so rare, the kind that we used to just basically write in," the WFAN host said. "We'd have 10 or 12 or 14 of them in a given season, but we haven't had them in so long. This new ballpark ... hasn't produced a whole lot of them, and it's been a long time coming, the kind (of games) where you can kind of feel the collective heartbeat of the stadium seven blocks away."
Francesa said the new Yankee Stadium has not intimidated opponents like the House That Ruth Built used to do.
"The old one absolutely scared opponents to death, because they knew, they just knew the other shoe was going to drop ... and more times than not -- an incredibly frequent number of times -- it did," Francesa said. "Those days are long gone. As a matter of fact, it's been five years since the Yankees have won a home playoff game."
But this is a new era of Yankees baseball, one led by Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Luis Severino, all of whom will make their postseason debuts Tuesday night.
MORE: Yankees' Wild-Card Lineup: Ellsbury At DH Over Headley, Holliday
"We'll see this new generation of Yankees, these guys who have never been part of this, the guys who have only heard about what this part of being a Yankee means -- October night, special nights, special moments, as the game progresses," Francesa said. "We'll see tonight."
Francesa added that there is pressure on the Yankees to win Tuesday, but not to beat the Cleveland Indians, the favorites to win the pennant, in an American League Division Series should they advance.
"After tonight, anything they do is completely house money as they look to the future," he said.
To listen to the segment, click on the audio player above.
