The Meaning Behind New York Yankees Captains Camp

Over the past few years, the Yankees organization has put a major emphasis on the overall development of prospects. With that came the implementation of the Captains Camp.

In 2014, the Yankees decided to unveil their weeklong initiative of pairing their brightest young prospects with former players turned instructors, who act as a sort of mentor down at the team’s Spring Training facility in Tampa, Florida.

Recently, Yankees vice president of player development, Gary Denbo spoke to NJ Advanced Media about what the organization’s youngsters can expect from Jan. 18 through Feb. 24.

Alongside a select few current Yankees players, former greats Andy Pettitte, Tino Martinez, Alfonso Soriano, and special instructor Alex Rodriguez will act as role models to not only assist Minor League ball players in becoming better athletes on the field, but more importantly better men in the community, towards their families, and of course, to themselves.

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Whether that instruction is on how someone can become a better teammate by learning the meaning of accountability, or how to go about gaining the respect of others by embracing the fact that athletes are indeed role models, Denbo says that the Yankees set the standard on how to prepare as a professional.

"“We are privileged to have a group of former great players that volunteer to share what they have learned in their careers with our young players. … Our players know that once you are a Yankee you are always a Yankee and that you are always welocme here. … Captains Camp is about devloping good men that will become the leaders of our future championship teams.”"

Speaking of captains, one would think that ‘The Captain’ would make an appearance — especially since he only lives a few miles away from George M. Steinbrenner Field. Denbo says:

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"“Derek is always generous with his time when it comes to sharing what he has learned with our young players as he was when he was a player. He has met with our Captains Camp the last two years and we hope that he can join us again this year. He is one of the most respected players to ever play the game of baseball and he represents everything good that we are trying to teach our New York Yankee players.”"