Postulate: Brett Gardner is the least liked long-time Yankee in team history. Not that he is disliked — but Yankee fans seem to have a universal “meh” attitude towards him.
The Brett Gardner equation:
- Still Gold Glove-level defense as backup centerfielder or left fielder; Hicks could get injured for example
- High OBP even if he bats .225 again like last yr (his OBP was .354!)
- LEFTY bat w some power. Yanks NEED lefties
- Clubhouse leadership
Gardner reminds me of other long-time, secondary-star Yanks like Hank Bauer, ‘Old Reliable’ Tommy Henrich, or ‘Mr Consistency’ Roy White. Gardner will be 37 next year, the age at which NY traded Bauer (to KC for Roger Maris) & Lindell’s final yr (made All Star team). White retired at 36 yrs old.
Compare Gardner’s long Yankee career to these other long-time Yankee secondary stars — he is comparable:
Brett Gardner: baseball-reference.com/players/g/gard
Roy White: baseball-reference.com/players/w/whit
Tommy Henrich: baseball-reference.com/players/h/henr
Hank Bauer: baseball-reference.com/players/b/baue
No, he is not really comparable with any of those you mentioned except the basics he wore a yankee uniform for a length of time and played the outfield.
Roy White was a switch hitter who lead the Yankees in batting average ,home runs,runs scored and RBI’s on more than one occasion each.
In fact during the dog years of the Yankees 65-73 he not infrequently batted 3 cleanup and fifth finishing his career with the 78-81, dominant Yankee teams (yes I know he was playing in Japan for part of it) but it’s one of my favorite yankee mini runs 3 consecutive pennants 2 rings then they lose an MVP catcher who’s the captain do a sudden mid season death and they come back to win the next two division titles and get one more trip to the series but I digress
He gets to bat first or second his more natural spot and leads the league in runs scored one year he also held the major league record for a while for sacrifice flies in a season which always lead to something that Gardener along with most of the rest of the current seem to be allergic to- runs scored no I do not like seeing Gardner in the lineup never have for more than once a week
By the way tommy was call “0ld Reliable “ because he frequently came thru in the clutch something Gardner ……
Also Tommy had run of years finishing in the top ten in multiple major offensive categories. Gardner ?
In my house Gardner’s nickname is half man and that’s because even in his most productive years after the first half it was all over.
He was able to return