Joey Gallo drops NSFW quotes about Yankees tenure before return to New York

Dodgers outfield slugger Joey Gallo is a unique player who arrived in New York to slug for his childhood favorite team the Yankees at the exact wrong time.

If he’d started the 2022 season in the Bronx, no one would’ve viewed him as a potential savior. Unfortunately, he was called upon at the ’21 deadline when the team was flailing offensively, and seemed as good a bet as any to be able to put 20 home runs into the short porch in a matter of minutes.

When his swing-and-miss side took over and left him comparatively powerless, though, the fans got ruthless. They already had swing-and-miss, all-or-nothing guys. They wanted Paul O’Neill, not their fifth Giancarlo Stanton. Fair or not, Gallo walked into a bees nest in New York, and was never able to get right before departing to Los Angeles at the ’22 trade deadline.

In a raw and honest interview (subscription required), Gallo details pressing daily and keeping himself in the lineup so people would “get the f*** off [his] back” after he finally recorded a hit.

Sadly, as it so often does from New York to Milwaukee to Dallas, playing with that type of a mental hold on yourself didn’t pay off. Gallo attempted to respond to New Yorkers’ anger by creating a chip on his shoulder, but he accidentally chipped away at his own psyche.

Now, in Los Angeles, he clearly feels comfortable to play the kind of game he abandoned in New York by digging himself too deep into his process.

Dodgers’ Joey Gallo thinks New York was a different animal with Yankees

Since heading to LA, Gallo hasn’t been much different than he was during his Texas Rangers days. He still strikes out (20 times in 44 at-bats). He still mostly leaves the yard when he makes contact (nine hits, three homers). He still will frustrate you a few times before hitting a moonshot and making it all worth it.

In Los Angeles, as the Dodgers streak towards a potential record-setting finish, he’s done more than enough to get the fans on his side, though. In New York, during a similar record push, Yankee fans just could not get past Gallo’s shortcomings. They couldn’t look past his contributions and see that, in the bigger picture, things looked pretty rosy.

Hence, why Gallo felt like he was “just trying to survive” for a full season’s worth of games, which is no way to go through a career.

Gallo’s going to get the postseason shot he was chasing in the Bronx with a far more complete team on the opposite coast. He’s going to enter October in a better headspace. And he’s going to miss, then miss, then miss, then mash.

It’s Gallo’s way. It’s how he survives. And it works, if you give him space.

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