09 September, 2017
The Rays are in Boston this weekend and the Yankees are at Texas. "There's guys on this team that have family there, that have houses there".
"While we're here playing, my family is in Atlanta and I'm still anxious about them". And that's because the Rays as the "home" team will reap the rewards of a crowd that could be as much as three times what they normally draw in that sorry mistake for a baseball venue in Tampa.
"As far as his knee, it is fine but he talked about the maintenance program, staying ahead of it, and that's what they are trying to do". "I've watched weather.com more than I have any advance report on the Red Sox or anything like that".
"It's going to be very eerie on Sunday, if it's projected to hit at that point, that we're in the middle of playing a ballgame". There's people I know down there and I'm just anxious about them. "I think a lot of our thoughts will be back at home with our community".
Veteran Evan Longoria said he feels the players can do both.
"I think that's what they talked about, yeah", Girardi said. "If we weren't playing, what are we doing?"
Gary Sanchez will be in uniform tonight to face the Rangers, having completed his three-game suspension. In addition, a food convention and trade show, involving 300 catering companies and several thousand people, is being held at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Irma has affected a number of sporting events - the National Football League moved the Buccaneers-Dolphins game, originally scheduled to be played in Miami on Sunday, to Week 11 when both teams share a bye week; collegiate programs such as Florida State and Miami had their games against Arkansas State and UL Monroe respectively cancelled. With Hurricane Irma rapidly approaching Florida and with the greater Tampa area expected to be affected by the Category 4 storm, Major League Baseball once again had to find a new site for the series, as flipping the two teams' remaining home series was deemed unworkable.