There's a version of late May where a Yankees game on a Saturday night gets your full, undivided attention. This is not that version. The Knicks just punched their ticket to the NBA Finals, the city is vibrating, and somewhere in the middle of it Eric Hubbs is trying to lock in on the Bronx while his brain keeps drifting to MSG. Welcome to the best problem a New York sports fan has had in a generation.
Hubbs put the split-screen dilemma into words.
I'm struggling to watch this Yankees game without ignoring my focus on the Knicks in the NBA Finals. What a weird, awesome feeling
And look, the Yankees did everything they could to drag him back in. The game turned into a Ben Rice replay-review marathon, the kind of half-inning where you forget what sport you're watching because the umpires keep huddling around a headset. Hubbs co-signed the challenges but couldn't hide that the at-bat shouldn't have needed that much forensic work to begin with.
The Rice walk only arrived after a back-and-forth review sequence.
What a rollercoaster of Ben Rice challenges to get that walk *I agree with the use of both
Then came the moment that actually yanked his eyes off the Knicks tab. A play at the plate the inning before got a "call stands" that he was not buying — he's adamant the runner never touched home — and the very next half inning the baseball gods evened it out with a homer. Ball don't lie is usually a hardwood phrase, which is honestly fitting given where his head already was.
Hubbs framed the homer as cosmic payback for the missed call at the plate.
The most "ball don't lie" homer I've ever seen. What a bullshit "call stands" on the play at the plate where Pages never touched home the half inning before this
That's the whole vibe right now. The Knicks are in the Finals for the first time in forever, the Yankees are grinding through a regular-season Saturday, and the fanbase is being asked to hold both at once. Hubbs is just saying out loud what every Stoolie with two screens open is already feeling. Weird. Awesome. Very New York.