Yankees News: Who Do New York Yankees Fans Choose As Mr. Yankee?

New York Yankees fans join all baseball fans in mourning the passing of Ernie Banks. Banks was an inspirational icon for the Cubs organization and all of baseball, and will be missed tremendously.
But after reading the many accounts that celebrate the life of Mr. Cub, Yankees fans are left to wonder, ¨Just who is Mr. Yankee?¨

In his 1995 book The Last American Knight, Joseph Durso fueled the debate as to whether the title should go to Joe DiMaggio. It was certainly a popular choice. After all, Derek Jeter was just getting started.

But is the Yankee Clipper necessarily Mr. Yankee? “Heroes are people who are all good with no bad in them. That’s the way I always saw Joe DiMaggio,¨ Mickey Mantle said according to Baseball Almanac. He was beyond question one of the greatest players of the century.” [related category]

So it sounds the The Mick would give Joe D his vote. Certainly, when DiMaggio retired, Yankees fans debated whether there would ever again be anyone like him. But then Mickey won their hearts for two decades and beyond.

"“No man in the history of baseball had as much power as Mickey Mantle. No man, Billy Martin said, also according to Baseball Almanac.¨ You’re not talking about ordinary power. Dave Kingman has power. Willie Mays had power. Then when you’re talking about Mickey Mantle – it’s an altogether different level. Separates the men from the boys.”"

But anyone who was lucky enough to be in attendance for Derek Jeter´s final game at Yankee Stadium can tell you about the chills they experienced when he sliced that game-winning hit. Wherever you were, at the Stadium, in front of a television, beside a radio, it is something that, as a Yankee fan, you will never forget. It is a moment all baseball fans will remember.

And how about The Iron Horse, The Babe and even Yogi? Does the title of Mr. Yankee even have to go to the greatest player in Yankee history? Can it not be for the one who has been most beloved? Surely, the Cubs have had other great players besides Banks.

So let´s say Mr. Yankee is for the one who has been most beloved. Then who would you say it should be?

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