Yankees Focus On Gun Violence Nationally But Stay Silent On The Bronx

YANKEE STADIUM, NY — About 40 years ago, Detective Sgt. Frank Bruno of the 44th Precinct watched the New York Yankees celebrate Bobby Murcer with gifts that included a guitar, a new car, a new television. And a 12-gauge shotgun.

Bruno told columnist Jimmy Breslin, "I think that the last thing that the people of The Bronx need is a new shotgun."

That day, Breslin also talked with a Bronx deputy district attorney whose office was just a few blocks from the stadium. Ed McCarthy told Breslin, somewhat factiously, that he was afraid Murcer was going to toss the gun up into the stands "as a prize for the faithful."

In his piece on the Yankees, Breslin wrote, "in America there are two separate countries and in the Borough of The Bronx they are within mere yards of each other."

Little has changed.

On May 26, the Yankees — and the Tampa Bay Rays, whom they were playing that day — got a lot of praise for spending three hours tweeting facts about gun violence.

They started with this:

"In lieu of game coverage and in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Rays, we will be using our channel to offer facts about the impacts of gun violence. The devastating events that have taken place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable."

They then proceeded to tweet 21 more times about gun violence. Eleven tweets focused on facts and another 11 tweets cited from where those facts came, no doubt making math teachers around the country proud that the Yankees showed their work.

Since then, the team tweeted another 101 times as of Friday at 5 p.m. Not one of those tweets were about guns in any form.

It's easy to point out that well, at least the Yankees did something. And certainly no one who follows the team on Twitter thinks that the Yankees don't care about gun violence.

But when they talk about "intolerable" incidents happening elsewhere, it leaves you wondering about how they feel about the violence in their own backyard.

As of Friday, there have been 22 shooting incidents in The Bronx's 44th precinct, leaving 26 people with gunshot wounds. While both of those numbers are down from last year, the number of murders has climbed to eleven, up from eight at this time last year.

The Yankees have not tweeted about any of those victims.

From 2000 through 2021, there were 445 murders in the 44th Precinct.

The Yankees, who joined Twitter in 2009, did not acknowledge the deaths.

The scores of police officers and detectives who work every day to make the area safer?

No recent tweets about them either.

The Yankee's former captain did not mention gun violence, or The Bronx.

No one expects the Yankees to solve the world's problems. But it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that this newfound awareness of gun violence might include the dangers that face their local fans.

A 40-year-old man took his 6-year-old son to see the Yankees open a series against the Orioles three days before the Yankees spent a few hours tweeting about gun violence.

The Yankees had Gerri Cole, their ace, on the mound. Unfortunately for the father and son – and for the Yankees – Cole didn't have his best stuff that night and the Yankees lost the game 6-4.

So, about three hours after the dad and his son had arrived, they started walking home to their apartment blocks away from the stadium.

A man followed the Yankee fans into their building lobby and pulled a handgun.

He pointed it at the father and son, demanding money.

The son watched in terror as the dad turned over $30, the gunman flee and his dad began to shake. The son was left with nightmares.

This was also not tweeted about.

A sergeant with the NYPD who is familiar with the case but couldn't speak publicly, said the department was concerned about the safety of the father and son because the robber with the gun is still out there and "it's a bad neighborhood."

Maybe it's too much to expect from a team that gave a shotgun to one star and currently employs another who, while never charged, admitted pulling a gun on his girlfriend.

The player apologized for his judgment, but insisted that he never hurt her, as if having someone pull a gun on you doesn't cause it's own special pain.