Yanks for the memories, Part I – Aaron Small

Aaron Small was never a pitcher that hitters feared. For sixteen years he floundered between AAA and MLB, seemingly too good for the minors but not good enough for the show. Armed with a 90mph fastball, a solid curve and an undeniable love for baseball, in 2005 he achieved an amazing feat that helped save the Yankee season.

Primarily a reliever(he started 3 games out of 146 previous to the Yankees), Small settled into the Yankee rotaion after impressing in his first few starts and stayed there until the end of the season with an astonishing final line of: 10-0, 3.20. Nobody could have expected anywhere near that kind of production from the right handed journeyman and consequent showings have suggested there is no feasible reason to explain his effectivness. All that we know is that for 11 games in the fall of 2005, Aaron Small basked in the glory of Yankee pride and permanantly etched his name into the history books and into the minds of the Bronx faithful.

The benefit of hindsight…

Sunday’s NY Times article about ‘the best deal the Yanks never made’ has got me thinking about ‘what if’ some of the more notorious ‘what if’s’ over the years had happened…

The most obvious one that springs to mind is to think about what if we had traded Mo, which evidently came very close to fruition, before he found his niche. With that situation, it doesn’t bear to think what might have happened throughout the late 90’s without Mo. Who knows, if he had been packaged in a deal before his real talent emerged, we may be sitting here now bemoaning the 30 year drought since the last WS win! An extreme  situation, sure, but I can’t see anyone in baseball who would have done what Mo has done, for the prolonged period that he has done it for, who could have taken up his role had he never been there to fill it himself.

Similarly, from the above story, the ‘almost’ deal involving the team dangling Jorge and Mike Lowell in a bid to get Pedro from the Expos would have dramatically changed the outlook of the late 90’s had it come off. Aside from the fact that we never would have enjoyed the “who’s your daddy” calls a few years back, and regardless of how terrifyingly great we could have been in 98 with Pedro added to the rotation (if we could really have improved on the 98 season anyway!), it’s interesting to think how that one would have played out.

I’d be inclined to think that we’d not have signed Clemens had Pedro been anchoring the rotation going into the 99 season (which may well have helped us avoid all the off-field distractions going on just now…). Consequently, the great seasons he put up may never have materialised, which may well have been the difference between winning 3-in-a-row, and something else. It may also have stopped Pettitte’s involvement in the whole steroid fiasco, but, that being the case, he may have been out of the game by now whether through his elbow problems, or a desire to be closer to home that may not have been fulfilled had he not spent a few years back in Houston.

Turning to Cano…. Had he been packaged in the A-Rod deal, who knows what shape the infield may have taken going into this coming season!? And had we picked up Randy Johnson sooner than we did, maybe that horrible event that was the 2004 postseason would never have happened, and we’d still be gloating about ‘the curse’… If only… For the fact that we were spared from having to put up with Tony Womack any longer we should be thankful that this didn’t happen!

It’s also funny that you never seem to hear about the ‘almost’ deals that would have turned out to be total busts for the team. It may be a bit on the morbid side, but part of me would like to know which key players were almost packaged for what transpired to be ‘nothing’ pickups over the years.

Obviously nobody can tell what would have happened if any of these, or the countless other close calls had been put through, but still, it’s interesting to think how the path taken to where we are now may have been so significantly altered by such a relative triviality as trading away minor league talent.

Honouring Bernie

It seems from a note on the Official Yankees site that the organisation will strive to rebuild bridges with Bernie Williams following his unceremonious, and unbelievably muted departure before Spring Training last season.

Hank has said that the organisation will be looking for some way to honour the man who patrolled CF so successfully for so many years. It can’t come soon enough for my liking. Mind you, I wouldn’t mind if it was to be held up until my trip to NY in July/August…..

NEW FEATURE

We will be starting a new weekly feature under the title “Yanks for the memories” – it will look back at players who have made significant contributions to the organisation but are not as widely and openly celebrated as some of the bigger “stars” of their respective eras.