Mushnick: YES Network avoids addressing team’s pinstriped loafers

Nothing from Paul O’Neill though, for he was too busy asking…“Who is that group that wears all the helmets…Deaf Punk?”

Also, Tuesday on YES, we learned something new about Robinson Cano.

In the top of the first, after Cano ran harder to first against the Yankees than he ever did as a Yankee — “He smelled a hit” on a chopper between the mound and first, Flaherty explained — Michael Kay said of Cano, “He got so much abuse for not running to first when he was here.”

Really? I can’t recall that. The harshest criticism was the infrequent and very mild noting that Cano might’ve run a tad harder on that there play. Cano’s standard stylish minimalism mostly was ignored — or rationalized and excused.

But baseball fans saw it — couldn’t miss it — all season and every season, and recognized YES’ announcers engaged in a feckless, foolish cover-up. Or is it that YES’ experts genuinely felt that reaching first before the ball does is unimportant, and turning doubles into singles, and triples into doubles is nit-picking.

Cano “got so much abuse”? From whom? He earned plenty, received none.

Thursday, after Cano hustled to first to beat a double play and earn an RBI, Flaherty said Cano “was criticized a lot in his Yankee days for not hustling down the line.”

No he wasn’t. That’s revisionist nonsense. In fact, given scores of opportunities to do so, Flaherty rarely mentioned it.

Only after last season and only after Cano had scorned the Yankees was the secret declassified.