Yankees: Sadly, we won’t miss Brett Gardner until he gone

The Yankees longest-tenured position player has not had a hall of fame career, or anything even close to it. But over the years, he’s proven to be a mark of consistency and a sparkplug for a team that sorely needs one. Sadly, though, we won’t miss him until he’s gone.

Nothing about the Yankees left-fielder spells stardom in Pinstripes. And there will come a time when on Old Timer’s Day, Yankees fans will rise to their feet welcoming Brett Gardner back to Yankee Stadium.

The cheers will equal, or maybe even supersede the cheers reserved for role players of the past who rarely made the back pages and were never featured during the “Roll Call” at all Yankees home games.

He’ll be lumped in there with players like Graig Nettles, Charlie Hayes, Tino Martinez, Willie Randolph, and so many others who played an integral role in the team’s success, while not capturing the headlines reserved for Derek Jeter, Aaron Judge, and Reggie Jackson.

And when you pull up the Brett Gardner page on Baseball Reference, the only time you’ll see “bold black” indicating League Leader was in 2011 when he led the American League in stolen bases with 49.

It’s way more than numbers, though.

What you won’t see in any of those stats, though, is a hard-nosed player from yesteryear, and an overachiever who took his 5’11” 195 lb. frame that took on all comers in a league where he should have been outmatched.

Brett Gardner is of the Don Mattingly variety of ballplayers at this level who take what God has given them, and they multiply it twofold out of sheer will and hard work.

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They are not your Bryce Harper or Mike Trout, for example, who more than anything have to learn how to harness their talent to stay on the field, able to play every day.

Granted, the comparison of Gardner to Mattingly ends when you turn to the stats and see “Donnie Baseball” with borderline Hall of Fame numbers. But they are made from the same mold when it comes to showing up at the ballpark ready to go all out to help the Yankees win.

And the odds are against Gardner continuing on the tear he’s been on lately. His seven home runs and seventeen RBI have all come in the last few weeks that followed a less than spectacular start to this season.

More likely, he’ll level off and by October 1 will show numbers that reflect a batting average of .264 and an on-base percentage of .347. He won’t equal his average of 33 stolen bases over his ten-year career, but coupled with Jacoby Ellsbury he will add an element to the Yankees offense that has been missing for some time now.

Bottom line, you get something extra when you see Brett Gardner step into the batter’s box. He doesn’t look like much, but if you make a mistake on him, you are guaranteed to pay for it. Plus, he’s a replica of the “energizer bunny” in all aspects of his play on the field.

Yankees Brett Gardner Night – not likely, but so what?

The Yankees, fittingly, will never have a Brett Gardner Night. He’s not that caliber of a player. But what he is is someone who is good at a lot of things, though not necessarily great at any of them. He’s a role player, and without him, the Yankees would be a different team.

Gardner’s value is present on the 2017 version of the New York Yankees, just as it has been, even if it’s gone largely unnoticed in year’s past.

And all the talk of trading him, before and even now, is just that – talk. Gardner’s trade value is as high as its ever been, but don’t expect to see the Yankees attempt to “unload” him for the sake of a few bucks next year.

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He’s a New York Yankee who, when all is said and done will be one of the few who can say he played eleven seasons in the Bronx. And that, in and of itself will warrant the cheers when he is introduced during the Old Timer’s ceremony at Yankees Stadium.