The Captain
I fully intended to sit here and write about my love for Derek Jeter and how he plays the game right. How the great Yankee homegrown lineage goes all the way back to Gehrig in the 20's. How he is the great bearer of the Yankee torch. His 11 seasons as the Yankees shortstop have been filled with great success. They have won 11 consecutive division titles and 4 World Series. It's no secret that this team started winning when he started playing for them. Like all the other homegrown Yankees he plays the game right. All of this made me think about this past weekends Yankees old-timers game.
I was going to miss the game as I was taking Scrappy to the library and then to the park to kick the soccer ball around. So I decided to DVR the old-timers portion of the game. I woke up early on Sunday and saw it. Old-timers day at the stadium is great. They truly are the only team that could trot out veterans from every era that the fans know and love (maybe the hated RedSox could do it as well, but who would care). As the players were trotted out it was great to see them get their ovations. Then they came to my favorite Yankee of all time Don Mattingly. As they announced his name the crowd errupted. They gave him a true 2 minute standing ovation and then went into a raucous "Donnie Baseball" chant. It truly did make me nostalgic.
I remember the summer of 1987 when Mattingly had his streak of 8 games in a row with a homer. Although the Mets (I hate them) were the defending champs the baseball world has always revolved around the New York Yankees. Mattingly was in the midst of 6 seasons where he was arguably the best hitter (as well as the best defensive first baseman... sorry Keith) in baseball. A mere two years later he would suffer a back injury that would rob him of his power and derail what was easily a Hall of Fame career. In fact I think he still deserves to be in the Hall. If you look at his stats they are eerily similar to that of the late Kriby Puckett who was a first ballot Hall of Famer. In my eyes he'll always be a Hall of Famer.
As much as I love Captain Derek and his great Hall of Fame career (if he retired today he'd be first ballot), Donnie Baseball (the last Yankee to officially be named Captain) will always be my favorite Yankee.
I was going to miss the game as I was taking Scrappy to the library and then to the park to kick the soccer ball around. So I decided to DVR the old-timers portion of the game. I woke up early on Sunday and saw it. Old-timers day at the stadium is great. They truly are the only team that could trot out veterans from every era that the fans know and love (maybe the hated RedSox could do it as well, but who would care). As the players were trotted out it was great to see them get their ovations. Then they came to my favorite Yankee of all time Don Mattingly. As they announced his name the crowd errupted. They gave him a true 2 minute standing ovation and then went into a raucous "Donnie Baseball" chant. It truly did make me nostalgic.
I remember the summer of 1987 when Mattingly had his streak of 8 games in a row with a homer. Although the Mets (I hate them) were the defending champs the baseball world has always revolved around the New York Yankees. Mattingly was in the midst of 6 seasons where he was arguably the best hitter (as well as the best defensive first baseman... sorry Keith) in baseball. A mere two years later he would suffer a back injury that would rob him of his power and derail what was easily a Hall of Fame career. In fact I think he still deserves to be in the Hall. If you look at his stats they are eerily similar to that of the late Kriby Puckett who was a first ballot Hall of Famer. In my eyes he'll always be a Hall of Famer.
As much as I love Captain Derek and his great Hall of Fame career (if he retired today he'd be first ballot), Donnie Baseball (the last Yankee to officially be named Captain) will always be my favorite Yankee.
Labels: Sports
posted by LEV at
9:49 AM
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