Is it a home run, or is it not a home run, that is the question

The New York Yankees, once in first place in Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division, have floundered lately, losing 18 of 25 games since moving a season high 15 games over the .500 mark just a few weeks ago.

Everything in the Bronx is going wrong, from bad pitching to numerous injuries, including to a rookie–Dustin Fowler–in his very first game after he was called up from the minor leagues, a season-ending injury so horrific that it garnered major YouTube interest.

Chicken Little said that the sky was falling, and it is falling hard for the Yankees lately.

Take their Sunday matinee versus the Milwaukee Brewers.If any play was symptomatic of the actual malaise surrounding the Yankees now, it was the one that took place in the sixth inning of this game.

Down 5-3 in the sixth inning, the Yankees got two runners on, and their third baseman, Chase Headley, stepped to the plate.

As the at-bat went on, Headley swung and hit a high fly ball to right field. It had enough gust to land in the seats, and it appeared that the Yankees had taken the lead 6-5.

Headley dropped his bat, knew the ball at least had the distance to register as a round tripper, and he broke out of the batter’s box, kind of running like, “well, maybe a homer” was on his mind.

The umpires signaled that it was a home run, waved him around the bases, and the fans in attendance cheered, as if this hit was going to be their salvation for the day.

But as Headley moseyed to the dugout, the umpires converged on one another, and asked for a replay of the home run, to make sure it actually was one and not simply a well hit fly ball that hooked foul.

The Yankees’ TV network showed a replay of the ball going into the stands, and it appeared that the ball missed the foul pole by a matter of inches.

When the umpires broke up their huddle, they called the runners back to the bases, and Headley back to the plate.

It simply was a long foul ball.

So the score reverted back to 5-3, and Michael Kay, the Yankees’ long time TV announcer, asked out loud how many situations have occurred where a batter just missed a home run in similar fashion and then hit one that was fair.

He shouldn’t have bothered, as Headley eventually struck out, and for the Brewers, at least, it was no harm, yes foul.

And that was pretty much it for the Yankees, as they lost by the score of 5-3. To add insult to injury, they team from the Bronx went 1 for 16 in with runners from scoring position in a game that last an unsightly nearly four hours.

Yes, the foul pole in baseball is really the “fair” pole, and that ball came within inches of hitting that pole and making Headley the hero of the day.

Instead, it was no different than a ball that went foul but went half as far, and the third baseman could certainly be listed as one of the game’s goats.

And it proved once again that sports are often games of inches, and heroes and goats are thisclose to being affirmed one way or the other.

Tonight, Yankees Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez will participate in the Home Run Derby, a prelude to the annual All-Star Game, and perhaps their swats won’t be as foul as Headley’s was, both figuratively and literally.