Maybe it's me. Maybe it's my inner curmudgeon. I should be enjoying this. Kid comes up from the minors and starts raining home runs, dropping them like hailstones on the heathens.

Instead, Gary Sanchez's noteworthy start for the Yankees provides another illustration on how the 24/7 news cycle, proliferation of social media and the misguided idea that we care what everyone else thinks has staged a coup d'état on otherwise rational thought.

True sporting greatness — any greatness, really — is measured by one thing: the test of time. It's why the Beatles are icons and the Bay City Rollers are not. And yet because of the need to fill news holes and mug for social media, the test of time now doesn't last any longer than lunch.

In the past week, I have heard otherwise reputable chroniclers of baseball liken Sanchez and his roughly 80 at bats to Babe Ruth, Johnny Bench and Pudge Rodriguez, among others. Utterly absurd, of course, despite the kid's production that the Yankees have needed more than a lung.

First, we should note that it is not Sanchez making the declarations. Yet when he does slump — and he will — he'll be mocked because some other dullards compared him to three Hall of Famers before his 100th at bat.

I suppose it comes with the meal. And it's sports, the toy department, not the war on terror.

But when do you suppose the blatherers and bloviators will stop talking out of their tailpipes and understand that, as Tennessee Williams once wrote, time is the longest distance between two places? Want to marvel about Gary Sanchez? Focus on how his hot streak has kept the season breathing for the Yankees, who were thought to have mailed in the last few months after trading half their team.

But do we have to call him Johnny Bench?

Because how do we know that Gary Sanchez isn't the next Yasiel Puig or Kevin Maas?

I mention this because it was about this time a few years ago the same blatherers had Puig (now relegated to Triple-A) as the next Roberto Clemente after 127 at bats. Turns out he's closer to Maas, the erstwhile Yankee phenom who eventually flamed out in the early 1990s after 150 memorable at bats. (Otherwise known as a hot month and a half).

Shall we examine?

Puig 's first 127 at bats: .407 average, eight homers, 19 RBI, .437 on-base percentage, .677 slugging.

Through the same period in 1990, Maas: .269 with 15 homers, 27 RBI, a .380 on-base percentage and .634 slugging.

Maas' ability to hit homers en masse drew some historical comparisons in 1990. Until Maas hit his 13th homer in his 110th at-bat, the player quickest to 13 homers in his first season: Sam Horn. Until Maas hit his 15th homer in his 133rd at-bat, the player quickest to 15 homers in his first season: Wally Berger.

Send up smoke signals when Horn, Maas or Berger inspires comparisons to Willie, Mickey and the Duke.

Through 80 at bats, Sanchez: .400, 11 homers 21 RBI, .467 on base percentage and a strong, accurate throwing arm.

Still, based on 80 at bats, I have no idea if this kid becomes a star. And neither does anybody else. He's a catcher who could succumb to fatigue. Or the fishbowl of New York City. Or the league finds his warts and exposes them. Or he could be great. But who knows?

Maybe I need a therapist. This shouldn't bother me. But it does. It just can't be a hot streak anymore without somebody who should know better hyperventilating. I'm not talking about the fans. I'm talking about people who are supposed to be the liaisons between the fans and the organization. And it sure feels the media has more dim bulbs per capita than most other vocations.

I feel bad for Sanchez, in spite of how he needs nobody's sympathy. He's given the Yankees a season and the fans a reason to watch. That's enough for me. He doesn't have to be Johnny Bench. In 80 at bats.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.