Face of the Yankees

  

      As we all know, Derek Jeter has officially retired from the baseball. In my opinion, he should be a unanimous vote into the Hall Fame. Last night, on my way home from work, I was thinking of my favorite Yankees moments. Of course one of them included Derek Jeter(Game 4 walk off HR in 2001 World Series). As I was thinking of that moment, 2 questions came to my mind. First, who’s going to be the new face of baseball?  I figured that was the easier of the 2 questions. There’s Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, and Bryce Harper that can take over that role.  My second, and more difficult, question was who will be the face of New York Yankees?

    The Yankees are one of the most prestige teams in all of sports. If you think about it, there really isn’t a period in their rich history without a “face” of the team.  You can start with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. They passed it onto Joe DiMaggio. After DiMaggio retired in 1951, you had Mickey Mantle(even Yogi Berra) all the way through the late 60’s. Thurman Munson took over after Mantle. Even though Munson’s career was cut short, you still Reggie Jackson there until Don Mattingly was passed the torch. After Mattingly retired, we had Derek Jeter for 20 amazing seasons. Where do we go from here?

   Alex Rodriguez is coming back from a year long suspension, but is really he new face of the Yankees? Everyone knows him as the face of Biogenisis. We know it’s going to be like a circus in Spring Training. At this point in time, most Yankee fans just want to see him healthy and productive. If he’s not productive, what good is he to the team? He’s certainly does not have 61 million reasons to be the face of the team.

   The one player who would have filled “The Face Of The Yankees” perfectly is Robinson Cano.  Everyone knows that he bolted to Seattle for an extra 3 years and 65 million more dollars. Fare to say, I believe the Yankees were right not to go more on their offer than they did. Had Cano stayed in New York, he would have filled that void left by Jeter. He plays in at least 159 games a season, seems to grow through the seasons, and learned how to be a leader through Jeter. Unfortunately, he is over 3,000 miles and only found in Safeco Field.

      Don’t get me wrong, the Yankees have a nice compliment of players in Brett Gardner,  Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and David Robertson(if he re-signs), but none of them will fill that void for the long term. Gardner and Robertson can do it, but only temporarily. Someone will eventually come up through the Yankees system that will shine the way other players have in the past.

   Derek Jeter will be very hard to replace, even on the field.  His presence over the past 20 years was so strong,  people thought they can see him play forever. He is my all-time favorite player and I was really sad to see him retire. I hope that the Yankees can not only find someone to do a good job replacing him on the field, but somehow find a new “Face of the Yankees”. Not only does the team need that, but so do the fans. If we know who the new leader is, we will feel more comfortable with how things are conducted.