Tag: Jay Bell

The Odds of Winning

(This story originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

Man I loved writing this one.

I had never met or spoken to Jay Bell before we had dinner together in Scottsdale after he managed the Scorpions in an Arizona Fall League game, but I knew he had a reputation for being a great guy. That was an understatement. We sat for hours, Jay a photographer and me, as he told us all his best stories of a life in baseball. It was transfixing, and I did the best I could at using the best ones in the feature.

I was interesting in writing about Bell once the Yankees named him the Tampa manager before the previous season. Bell, famously, scored the winning run against the Yankees in the 2001 World Series, a moment low down the list of franchise highlights. Obviously, people trade sides in baseball all the time, and it’s not like Bell is Curt Schilling after the 2004 ALCS or anything, but still, it was a fun quirk, and I thought it would make a good story. Then Bell proceeded to win Manager of the Year with Tampa, and he managed the Yankees’ prospects in the AFL (as well as those of a few other teams, including the Reds, who sent along Bell’s son, Brantley, which was a fun touch).

There was one particularly funny part of the dinner, though. Just a few days earlier, the Yankees had parted ways with manager Joe Girardi, and Bell’s name was among those listed as being on the list of candidates. We’d scheduled our dinner before that news broke, though, and part of me wondered if Bell would cancel on me due to any potential awkwardness.

Quite the opposite. In fact, I’m nearly positive he thought that I was sent by Brian Cashman as some kind of envoy, charged with reporting back all my observations. So many questions I asked, Bell answered with some variation of, “This is Cash’s team, and he does such a great job, and I just do whatever they tell me to do.” Deep down, I’m sure he didn’t really think that it was a job interview under the guise of a magazine feature, but I do wonder if he was being extra cautious just in case. Anyhow, my photographer and I shared a few laughs after the fact.

Seriously, though, Jay couldn’t have been nicer or more interesting. I love the stories I got to share here, and I hope you’ll read them and get as much joy as I did.

https://www.mlb.com/news/jay-bell-uses-experience-guides-young-players/c-271786062

 

Back to the Future

(This story originally appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

In the five months since I wrote this story, a few of the players have already been traded, so it was a bit funny to go back and read it last night. But I had a ton of fun reporting from the Arizona Fall League for the second straight year, and seeing some of the awesome prospects that are thriving in the Yankees’ system.

This year was a lot different from my 2016 visit, of course. In the course of that one year, the Yankees had gone from a team looking toward the future, to one very keenly aware of its arrival. Prospects are incredibly fun when you’re rebuilding, even if it’s a hyper-speed reload such as the one Brian Cashman put together during the 2016 season. But when I headed to Arizona this time, it was just a week after the Yankees’ season had ended in Game 7 of the ALCS. Times had changed, quickly.

Justus Sheffield (Photo Credit: New York Yankees)

And still, it was impossible not to be excited by some of the guys wearing the interlocking NY under the desert sun. Albert Abreu dazzled on the mound. Estevan Florial … the guy is special, and his talent screams out at you. Justus Sheffield sure seems like he’s going to be a star, and he took on something of an alpha-dog role mound the young future Yankees.

I did my best to highlight each guy out there, trying to show fans reading what they could look forward to in the months and years to follow. There was less immediacy than the year before, although Billy McKinney, one of the players out there this past year, would actually end up reaching the majors with the Yankees in the season’s first week, before a near-immediate injury cut down his time with the team. (He would then be traded at the deadline for J.A. Happ. Here’s hoping that he has a heck of a time in Toronto.

Their Estrada (Photo Credit: New York Yankees)

This is a light piece, a roundup, but I really loved checking in with these kids, and I’ll certainly be tracking their progress for years to come.

Hope you’ll read and enjoy.

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/yankees-prospect-base-stays-steady-in-2018/c-267272684?tid=163658034