With the Captain-less Yankees looking at a 2-0 hole going into Tuesday night’s ALCS Game Three in Detroit, New York OF Nick Swisher suggested the obvious unthinkable after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Jeff Nelson the Tigers, calling it “just really tough” to perform for fans with such “a negative attitude”. Quoted by the New York Daily News’ Peter Botte, Swisher, “believes some fans made it personal with verbal attacks this weekend aimed at him and several inappropriate tweets about him to his wife.”
“(Saturday) night was pretty big. A lot of people saying a lot of things that I’ve never heard before,” Swisher said. “Prime example; I missed that ball in the lights and the next thing you know, I’m the reason that (Derek) Jeter got hurt. It’s kind of frustrating. They were saying it was my fault.”
Swisher normally does an emphatic military salute to the Bleacher Creatures during their customary first-inning roll call, but he admittedly took warm-up throws closer to the infield and noticeably toned down his interaction with those fans during Sunday’s defeat.
“That’s the last thing that I ever thought would be in this ballpark, that people would get on you that bad,” said Swisher, who is an unfathomable 1-for-34 with runners in scoring position in his postseason career. “Especially your home, where your heart is, where you’ve been battling and grinding all year long. It’s just frustrating, man. You never want to be in that spot. It’s not like you’re trying to go out there and do bad on purpose. It’s just tough, man.
“It hurts. Sometimes I’m a sensitive guy and some of the things people say, they get under your skin a little bit. I’ve been lucky to be here for the past four years, bro. We’re not going to go out like this. We’re going to go to Detroit and give everything we’ve got.”