Yankees travel troubles continue; Will it ever end?

The New York Yankees have had one of the strangest schedules in baseball so far.  They’ve had five plus games rained out, are scheduled to play six double headers, and have been using planes, trains and automobiles to make their way through each and every road trip.  After a disastrous travel schedule where two of the four games against the Orioles were rained out, the Yankees barely made their way to Detroit.

After a quick trip to Detroit for a double header, the Yankees nearly got stuck there, barely making it out of the airport en route to Toronto for another two game series.  The reason for this hectic schedule has to do with the absolutely brutal weather the past two and half months.  The beginning of the season brought lots of snow and the most recent patch of rough weather has been a never-ending stream of rain and thunderstorms.

It may not seem like a big deal, but it has affected the Yankees’ play from time to time.  The Yankees were stranded in Dulles Airport (Washington D.C.) for an entire night following the rainout between the Nationals and Bronx Bombers.  As said before, they nearly got stuck again multiple times, first in Baltimore and then in Detroit.  According to multiple sources, they were actually sitting on the tarmac for about an hour in Detroit as their plane had mechanical trouble as well.

It’s been a rough go for Delta, the charter airline for the Yankees.  Delta is a major sponsor, as they have their sign directly on top of Yankee Stadium in center field.  While the Yankees will most likely not make the move for another airline, if their performance (I’ll get to that) is affected more by cancelled flights and plane troubles, they may not have a choice.  They’re the most valuable franchise in sports and to be treated like a second-rate ballclub is quite frankly insulting.

The Yankees’ performance hasn’t been hindered that much considering they have a 40-18 record.  However, trips to Kansas City and Texas have resulted in losses because of the layover in Dulles Airport and the crazy travel schedule.  Things will settle down once the Yankees finish up all of these doubleheaders, but who knows if playing all those games in a row will affect them.  Either way, the Yankee should be just fine, but they need a new airline.