Hustle has been an on-going theme for me since the beginning
of the off-season. I’ve centered much of my discussion around Robinson Cano and
his lack of hustle and why the Yankees needed to go another direction. The
off-season brought a lot of new faces to the Yankees organization and most of
those players epitomize the word hustle but none more than the man whose
contract they’ve recently extended; Brett Gardner.
Gardner will never be the most talented baseball player, he
will never be the biggest baseball player and he will probably never be the
best player on his team. But you will never see anyone give more effort than
Gardner. Yankees fans have nicknamed his “GGBG” or Gritty, Gutsy Brett
Gardner for the amount of effort he displays.
Gardner will never hit 20 homeruns in a season or drive in
80 runs but the Yankees will never ask him to do that. What they need from
Gardner is exactly what he gives them: Greasy, fast speed. They need
him to steal bases, beat out infield grounders to first and track down
baseballs in the outfield. They need him to bunt for hits, move runners over
and score runs. They’re not interested in balls flying over the right field
fence.
Gardner was given a 5’10” body and 185 pounds to work with,
hardly a baseball player’s physique. The average height and weight of a MLB
player is between 6’1” and 6’2” between 205 and 210 pounds. What he wasn’t
gifted with in size though, he makes up for in speed. The guy can flat out run
fast. In 2011 he led the league in stolen bases with 49 and the year before
that he had 47. Those numbers have dipped the last couple of years which
include an injury-plagued 2012 season where he swiped only two bags and 2013 he
“only” had 24 stolen bases. While 2013 was a down year in stolen bases he led
the league in triples with 10. And that says a lot for a guy who plays his home
games in Yankee Stadium, a notoriously small ballpark.
Gardner embodies everything the Yankees used to be known
for. When they won four championships in five years between 1996 and 2000 they
were all a bunch of hard-nosed ballplayers that put it on the line on a daily
basis. It’s been a long time since the Yankees have had a team built around
guys in their prime like that. This year is a return to that for the Yanks.
They’ve added a tough-guy catcher Brian McCann, an outfielder who never takes a
play off in Jacoby Ellsbury, a young pitcher who is known to crave big-game
situations in Japanese sensation Masahiro Tanaka and now re-upping Gardner for
another four years. It shows you something when they are willing to let their
best player go in return for a group of high-character, hard-working guys.
Maybe the Yankees are saying they’re sick of the
“white-collar professional” stigma that has plagued them over the past decade
and they're realizing winning takes more than just professionalism. The Yankees are
looking for guys that will fit both mindsets. Guys who give you everything they
have while still carrying themselves “the Yankee way.” And Brett Gardner is the
guy that embodies both those beliefs.
Besides Jeter, Gardner is the only home-grown everyday
player. With Jeter’s impending retirement the Yankees are in need of a new
leader. While Gardner will probably never be captain he can certainly be that
leader. He needs to do it the same way Jeter did and it comes from one word:
hustle. He needs to lead by example and show every guy on the team there is no
reason to not give it your all.
The Yankees are only one year away from a complete changing
of the guards as the last piece of the 90’s dynasty will be gone. But the
Yankees are giving Gardner a chance to be the face of the new guard and maybe a
new dynasty.
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