The Bronx is Boiling: My Favorite Yankee?

This is a weird era of Yankees baseball. It’s not the fact that this team will be missing from October for the second time in a row. Please, I’m 40 in just a few short months, I’ve lived through that. It’s not that they spent a lot of inexcusable money on players that most fans knew would not work out in pinstripes. Again, I’ve been watching the Yankees since I was in my single digits of age. I have seen a ton of those guys. No, this is a new era of Yankees baseball, one in which I honestly can tell you that I don’t have a favorite player on the Yankees.

You take it for granted. When you root for the same guy for 20 years, when you travel to other cities so you can say I saw the Captain play here, you forget how spoiled you have been. Now, in a week, when Derek Jeter hangs up his ol’ Number 2 (Derek Jeter… number two), I have a tough decision to make. The Bronx is boiling and I need to blow some steam.

WHO, OH WHO, IS THE NEW PRIDE OF THE YANKEES

I have been a Yankees fan for over 30 years. Derek Jeter has not always been my favorite Yankee, but he has been among them since I started watching. My first favorite Yankee when I was just a tot was Willie Randolph. Was he the best Yankee on those late 70s and early 80s squads? Nah. But he had heart and went 100 percent all of the time. Then came Dave Righetti and Don Mattingly. They were my heroes. I have written enough articles on Yanks Go Yard gushing over Rags. He was one of the premiere young starting pitchers in baseball and when the Yankees needed him in the bullpen, he became the best closer in baseball, no questions asked. This guy had a no-hitter and then a few seasons later set the all-time mark for saves in a season. Rags was the man.

Then there was Donnie Baseball. Mattingly was not only the best first baseman in baseball, he lived a mile away from me. You would see him at the Blimpie getting sandwiches in the middle of town, one time he handed out Snickers bars to trick-or-treaters on Halloween, and if you were really lucky, you could catch him shooting hoops at the public courts. He always had a smile and an autograph. The man was a legend. I even coached his sons in youth baseball when they were really young. He didn’t simply live in the nice big house up on the hill, he was part of the community.

Then, after the heartbreak of the Seattle Mariners upset in 1995, and Donnie Baseball limped off into the sunset without a playoff victory in his career (despite batting .417 with a homer in his lone playoff appearance), the Core Four Era began. Andy Pettitte was my favorite, but I loved Mo, Hip Hip Jorge, and the soon-to-be Captain as well. I also was a big Bernie Williams fan. There were a boatful of Yankees to like during that era. There was no reason to pick a favorite because those Yankees represented a team. But everyone loved Jeter and Mo. They were stand up guys, who not only played the game well, they played it the right way.

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Now, on the precipice of the new era of Yankee baseball, who do we fans turn to as the face of the Yankees? Who will be my favorite player? Who’s jersey must I absolutely have? I don’t know if they have that guy yet.

Brett Gardner is clearly the tops of the list. His is an all-out, scrappy player, who gives everything he has on the field and at the plate. More importantly, he is a home grown talent, paid his dues and really earned his pinstripes (and that huge contract extension). There will be people still (inexplicably) in A-Rod’s corner. Most of the A-Fraud defenders plea that he was a victim of the game, but this is a guy I never wanted in pinstripes, especially when Yankee favorite Alfonso Soriano was the trade chip. Maybe Dellin Betances can sneak in there, but he has one year under his belt. He looked amazing this year, and if D-Rob goes and chases greener pastures, he may become the Sandman Reborn. Other than that, everyone on this current roster is a hired gun. I bet none of them even know where Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is. I can’t justifiably buy a plane ticket to some other stadium in the US to say I just went and saw Brian McCann play.

So, I really think my favorite two Yankees aren’t here yet. Luis Severino and Aaron Judge are the two most exciting prospects the Yankees have had (quite possibly) this millennium. Not only do they bring youth and enormous talent to the game, but they could lead a group with the likes of Rob Refsnyder and Ian Clarkin that become the Core Four Redux and lead us back to glory. One thing is for certain… they can’t make us much worse.

So, I need to be patient. I need to wait until my new favorite Yankees get the call, and see what number (or by the time they get called up, the Yankees may be on letters) they will have on their jersey. I didn’t think that Jeter’s end would be that big a deal, mainly because I watched the Core Four retire and understand the fact that not everyone can play forever. But now, I miss him already.