At Shortstop: Didi Gregorious

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Not sure if the family is gonna' make the trip to the cathedral of baseball, Yankee Stadium, to see the new shortstop:

Didi Gregorious.

Wow.

Yet I recall 1996 when the Yankees broke camp with a rookie shortstop, Derek Jeter.

No Team Has Ever Won A World Series With A Rookie SS, the headlined screamed.

I had mentioned that to my brother, Jeff. I also asked:

"How long before they trade for a shortstop? They gotta' replace this kid. He can't hit."

I changed my mind quickly, of course, and forever more people can't say that 'no team has ever won a World Series with a rookie shortstop'.

Because the '96 Yankees did.

And to answer my question...'How long before they trade for a shortstop?'

18 years.

But it's weird, right?

The infield is now most likely to be:

Texeiria, Refsnyder, Gregorious and Prado.

Wow.

Perhaps there were those in Yankee land who felt the same when Mantle left.

"Bobby Murcer?"

"They're gonna' try and win with someone named 'Bobby Murcer'?"

And they didn't win for a long time.

It took quite awhile before Mantle turned into Reggie.

"Your Yankees are gonna' stink," I hear every single day.

Maybe.

They asked Brian Cashman about the expectations on Gregorious. He said that he wasn't trying to find Derek Jeter's replacement because Jeter was "one in a billion."

I have a feeling that we will all pine for the days when Jeter was in charge of the middle of the infield.

"They got young and athletic," one of the reporters said.

Mom cried when Jeter took the field back in July because she knew it was the end of an era.

Wonder how she's gonna' handle Gregarious standing in his spot.

Damn.

Young and athletic.

I'm gonna' miss the old and geriatric.

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