Sunday, January 31, 2016

40 facts about 40 Yankees

"Wikipedia? Never heard of it."

I haven't been inspired to write much of anything lately, which unfortunately has led to Daniel having to carry the bulk of the load around here. Trust me, I've been looking out for something to spark that desire to write, but since the Yankees have had an incredibly quiet offseason things have been tough.

However, after reading something interesting about one of the current Yankees, I decided to do some research and try to find something about each player on the Yankees' 40-man roster that you may not have known.

If you did know something here please don't yell at me and say I didn't do enough research. It was really hard to find at least something about a few players, so cut me some slack.

So here we go with 40 facts about 40 Yankees...

Johnny Barbato - attended Felix Varela High School in Miami, the same school former Glee star Blake Jenner went to.

Dellin Betances - sat with the Bleacher Creatures during David Wells' perfect game in 1998.

Vicente Campos - he is the cousin of former MLB pitcher Kelvim Escobar and Kansas City Royals' shortstop Alcides Escobar.

Luis Cessa - during an interview with David Conde of MetsMinors.net, Cessa listed Andy Pettitte as one of his favorite players growing up.

Aroldis Chapman - while many start playing organized baseball around age 7, Aroldis didn't do so until he was 15.

Nathan Eovaldi - in his MLB debut, starting for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Nathan gave up 4 hits in 5 innings... two to opposing starter Joe Saunders.

Nick Goody - while pitching at Louisiana State University, Nick took the closer's role from current teammate Nick Rumbelow.

Jacob Lindgren - while attending Mississippi State University Jacob was part of the rap group "Bench Mobb", where he went by the name "Big Chunk".

Andrew Miller - attended Buchholz High School in Gainesville, FL, which was also attended by former NBA player Vernon Maxwell, as well as former NFL players Ivy Joe Hunter, Lamar Thomas, Billy Latsko, and Doug Johnson.

Bryan Mitchell - during the 2009 MLB Amateur draft many teams passed on drafting Mitchell due to him having committed to The University of North Carolina. However, Bryan was drafted by the Yankees and decided not to enroll in UNC after all.

Ivan Nova - The Boston Red Sox tried to sign Ivan , however in an interview with ESPN The Magazine, Nova was quoted as saying "I really didn't want to sign with Boston. My father and I were both Yankee fans."

Tyler Olson - if the Yankees groundskeepers ever need help, then they can look to Tyler. While at Gonzaga, Olson spent a summer working alongside the baseball team's groundskeeper.

James Pazos - while it's only been 5 innings, Pazos has yet to give up an extra-base hit.

Brandon Pinder - in Pinder's 1st appearance in MLB he got out of the inning thanks to a rare bunt pop-up, where Alejandro De Aza was doubled off 3rd after hitting a triple in the at bat before.

Michael Pineda - while he likes to conduct interviews in English, he sometimes has to get help from Dellin Betances.

Nick Rumbelow - while some aspiring professional athletes would concentrate one that one sport during high school, Nick was an outside linebacker/punter in football and point guard in basketball.

CC Sabathia - actually signed a letter of intent to play football at the University of Hawaii, but decided to go pro in baseball instead.

Luis Severino - grew up a Yankees fan, and particularly Robinson Cano.

Chasen Shreve - was a teammate of Bryce Harper in college, and maybe will be a teammate of his again in a couple years?

Masahiro Tanaka - I've mentioned in the past that 'Hiro is a huge fan of Momoiro Clover Z, a female musical group from Japan, and their songs are played while he warms up. But Tanaka also uses a 5-colored glove for practicing, and wears a glove with a clover leaf during games... both of which pay homage to the same music group.

Kirby Yates - although drafted by the Red Sox in 2005, Kirby decided to attend college at Yavapai College instead. Good call, Kirby!

Brian McCann - Donny Osmond, a favorite of both Brian and his wife Ashley, performed at their wedding.

Austin Romine - his father, Kevin, spent seven years with the Boston Red Sox. Thankfully Austin didn't take after his dad.

Gary Sanchez - he follows Manny Ramirez on Twitter. Hopefully it's his way of learning what not to do.

Greg Bird - Greg was set to play ball for the University of Arkansas but decided to join the Yankees instead. Good call, Greg! You don't want to be in the SEC.

Starlin Castro - As a Cub Starlin hit a home run in his first MLB at-bat. The Yankees have had three guys do that... John Miller in 1966, Marcus Thames in 2002, and Andy Phillips in 2004.

Didi Gregorius - His father, Johannes, pitched for the Amsterdam Pirates. His mother, Sherista, played softball for the Dutch national team. His older brother, Johannes Jr., played in Honkbal Hoofdklasse of the Italian Baseball League, as well as for the national team of Curacao. And his grandfather, Antonio, is known as one of the greatest pitchers in the history of Curacoa. So you can say Didi was destined to do something good in the sport.

Chase Headley - While Chase was a good baseball player in college, including having broke Todd Helton's record of walks in a single season for the University of Tennessee with 62, he was also an Academic All-American with a 3.62 GPA.

Rob Refsnyder - Rob was not raised to be soft, as it wasn't until he was 17 that he beat his father in pick-up basketball. I like that.

Mark Teixeira - Mark is not only a big Broadway fan, but he also appeared on stage in a production of Rock of Ages as "Mark the bartender".

Dustin Ackley - a friend of mine has a son that was born months premature, and I know how strong my friend was going through that. So knowing that Dustin has a son that was born six months premature leads me to believe that he too is a good a strong man.

Lane Adams - when he graduated high school Lane was the fifth highest scoring basketball player in Oklahoma high school basketball history, and was committed to play for Missouri State University before he was drafted by the Royals.

Carlos Beltran - while sliding into second base for his 300th steal, joining the 300–300 club on June 15, 2012, a cross necklace popped out of his jersey, and after the game, he told a reporter that "all the glory" was God's.

Jacoby Ellsbury - Ellsbury released a zinfandel wine called ZinfandEllsbury through Charity Wines, with 100% of his proceeds donated among three charities: The Navajo Relief Fund, Project Bread: The Walk for Hunger, and Ellsbury Read Project.

Ben Gamel - graduated from Bishop Kenny High School, the same school attended by Darren O'Day and Jonathan Papelbon.

Brett Gardner - while you may have heard this one before, I love it... Brett had initially tried to walk onto the baseball team at the College of Charleston. Although he didn't hear anything about making the team afterwards, Brett showed up to practice anyway. The coach asked why he was there, and Brett told him that he knew he was capable of playing at the Division 1 level. The coach allowed him to stay as long as he didn't screw up, and Gardner ended up a third-team All-American and a second-time All-Southern Conference player.

Slade Heathcott - Slade's overcome a lot in his life. When he was younger he was arrested for DUI, and was kicked off the high school baseball team for academic reasons. And is said to have pointed a 12-gauge shotgun at his father during an argument. Thankfully, with the help of Sam Marsonek, a former MLB pitcher, Slade turned his life around.

Aaron Hicks - Aaron actually wore #32 in Minnesota to honor Dave Winfield.

Mason Williams - Williams' father, Derwin Williams, played in the National Football League for the New England Patriots. His grandfather's brother, Walt Williams, played Major League Baseball from 1964 through 1975 as an outfielder with the Houston Colt .45s, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees.

Alex Rodriguez - we all know how gifted a baseball player Alex was when he was younger, but did you know that he was very close to becoming the next Bo Jackson/Deion Sanders? Before joining the Seattle Mariners, Alex was set to play both baseball and football at the University of Miami?


Although I'd love to see Brian Cashman pull a rabbit out of a hat and make a big splash with a trade that would net the Yankees a good/young starter, part of me hopes nothing happens otherwise I might have to re-do this article.

I tell you what, should it happen I'll include a bit of information about whoever joins the team... but not all 40 of them again.

Deal?

By the way, if you have something about a player, then put it in the comments. Even if the person isn't currently on the team, or heck... never was, tell us about it. I think stuff like this is really interesting.

1 comment:

  1. Good going Bryan, a must know for some fans to think about. Not all baseball players were nice little stars on their teams. Some did things that they wish they hadn't but, belive it or not that is life in the real world...right?
    I liked that you had a few things I had not read about, in fact many things.
    Thank you, it sorta brings them down to our level a bit...more human, as it were.

    ReplyDelete

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