New York Yankees: 5 times Brett Gardner showed us Heart and Hustle
New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner earned the Heart and Hustle award.
New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner is the elder statesman among the clubhouse but rarely gets the spotlight his teammates do.
Gardner snagged the Heart and Hustle Award, hardware given to the player who demonstrates a passion for the game of baseball and best embody the values, spirit, and tradition of the game. The Heart and Hustle Award is also the only award in Major League Baseball that is voted on by former players.
Coincidentally, teammate and third-baseman Todd Frazier won the award last year when he was with the White Sox.
A third-round pick by New York in 2005, has played more games than all of the position players drafted from the span of 1993-2008 as reported by the Post’s Joel Sherman.
No matter how much longer he continues to plow ahead for the Yanks, Gardner says he’ll continue to play the only way he knows how.
“I’m going to continue to work hard and play hard and play the game as long as I’m able to, whether it’s one more year, two more years or four or five more years, I’ve been blessed with being in New York the last 10 years. I think everybody who knows me knows I will keep working hard to get the most out of it that I can.”
Gardner is among the top-40 categories for the Yankees in steals, walks, runs, triples, Wins-Above-Replacement, plate appearances, and games played. All the while being rumored to be traded year after year.
A quick Google search is all you need to find a resume worthy of better treatment. So, uh, let me do that for you.
Gardner robs Smoak with leaping catch at the wall to seal Yanks’ 7-6 victory
On Sept. 6, 2016, Gardner robbed Justin Smoak of a walk-off in the ninth inning with the bases loaded to hold a one-run lead.
“I knew it was going to be close to the wall. Thank goodness it wasn’t much higher. I’m not too tall and I wasn’t going to be able to jump a whole lot higher.”
Yankee fans are sure glad it wasn’t because a back-and-forth game that ended in the Yankee’s favor seemingly had playoff implications and, sure enough, New York wound up in a wild-card game with a group of youngsters who had turned the season around.
Sound familiar?
This year the Yankees overachieved (many around MLB pegged next year to be the year for the Baby Bombers to compete for a World Series title) and Brett was at the epicenter.
He’ll be valuable next year as well if only to be that calming familiarity in a year the Yanks make a move at manager, dumping Joe Girardi who had been in the position since 2008.
However, he’s never experienced something like this before either.
“I’ve never played for any manager other than Joe Girardi. I’m going to miss him. I’ve had a lot of good times with him and we won a World Series together in 2009. I haven’t talked with any teammates about it yet. I don’t really know what direction they’re headed with it, but I just trust that [GM Brian] Cashman obviously is going to take his time, and you trust the process that they’re going to make the right move. No matter who they go with, I feel good about our team that we have going into next year. I’m excited about our team.”
Anyway, let’s move on.
Gardner hits walk-off dinger, Judge breaks tooth in celebration
Gardy put an Andrew Kittredge slider in the Yankee Stadium right-field seats in the 11th inning of an extra-inning game against the Rays back in July. During the celebration, superstar slugger Aaron Judge cracked his tooth.
Gardner’s take?
“He’s too big to get hurt by something like that. I think he’ll be alright.”
A lot of comments have been made since the New York Yankees made a move to get younger that, along with the move to youth, the former identity of a buttoned-up and businesslike demeanor has been traded for a youthful, loose and fun team.
Despite his age (34), Gardner has transformed with his team.
Take, for instance, when Gardner attempted to prank Aroldis Chapman after the Sonny Gray trade.
Chapman has had the No. 54 jersey his whole career. So, too, has Gray.
So, when the Yankees traded for Gray, Gardner approached Chapman to give him the (false) news he would have to give up his beloved number.
Chapman was ready, however, and reverse-pranked Gardner by throwing chairs and having a breakdown before turning to Gardner and saying, “Gotcha.”
Arguably, the heart of Gardner, however comedic, has been an important part of the Yankees push back to the World Series.
However, he can still break out his old-man’s fist-shake.
During the so-called Players’ Weekend, Gardner refused to put a nickname on the back of his jersey.
“I tried to go no name at all and keep it original. But they made me put something. I figured I never had my name on the back of my jersey before, so instead of putting a freakin’ nickname, I put my name on there. [Having no name] apparently is not allowed.”
Never change, Brett.
Brett Gardner helped the New York Yankees leapfrog the defending World Series champs back on May 5 with a home run
Down 2-0 to the Cubs in the ninth inning, the New York Yankees seemed doomed to fall to the Chicago Cubs as Joe Maddon trotted in former closer Hector Rondon — Chicago was resting a lot of tired arms — to shut the door. Gardner had better ideas and swatted a three-run homer.
Maddon, and probably the rest of baseball, was still waiting for youth to catch up to the Yanks and point-and-laugh as the historic franchise writhe in agony in baseball’s basement for a while.
That didn’t exactly happen, obviously, as the team ripped off 91 wins (most since 2012), finished second in the AL East and created, even more, hype for the aforementioned 2018 season.
Maddon defended his use of his pick of relievers in the game but clearly wasn’t pleased with the choice of pitch Rendon gave Brett the Jet:
“That’s probably the only pitch that Gardner could have hit out and we gave it to him. That happens.”
Or as New York Yankees radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling puts it: That’s baseball, Susan.
The Cubs were obviously the best early measuring stick of the Bombers and the team passed, going on to sweep Chicago 3-0 in the series as part of a six-game winning streak, tied for the second longest streak of the season.
Brett Gardner scored the final run at Old Yankee Stadium
Gardner was a pinch-runner in the final game at Old Yankee Stadium (Sept. 21, 2008) and Robinson Cano drove him in with a sac fly during the bottom of the seventh to give New York their winning score, 7-3.
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Anyway, because of course they did, the New York Yankees ushered in the new stadium with a World Series win of which Gardner was also a part.
He had 10 at-bats in that series, his sophomore year in the big leagues, but didn’t get a hit and scored just a single run in his only trip to the World Series.
It’s safe to say he’ll have eyes on doing much better the next time he’s on the biggest stage.
Pesky Brett works 12-pitch at-bat in ALDS Game 5 victory
With the Yanks clinging to a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth during New York’s American League Divisional Series face-off with the Indians this year, Gardy had a 12-pitch at-bat before slapping a two-run single to pad the lead.
The AB needed two screenshots to tweet:
That epic Brett Gardner AB requires two screencaps on the @MLB AtBat app. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/zThhDKU3yX
— Adrian Garro (@adriangarro) October 12, 2017
If you’re a fan of batters working the count and wearing out a pitcher, the nearly 11-minute video below is for you.
Gardner hit .286 against the Tribe in the ALDS to help the Yanks upset Cleveland in five games, coming back from being down 2-0.
Throughout the regular season, Gardner hit .264 with 21 big blasts and knocked in 63 runs in 2017 and is under contract with the New York Yankees through 2018.
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For all the new-age statistic geeks out there, his Wins-Above-Replacement was 4.9 this past season, his second most in his career (it was 7.4 in 2010). That’s good for 36th among all players.
However, Brett, Heart and Hustle Award and all, will probably once again be floating amidst trade rumors this winter and next season.
He’s on the books for $11 million next year and the Yankees continue to have interest in getting younger. And snagging Shohei Ohtani, the two-way player from Japan who plays outfield and pitcher.
Next: The Mount Rushmore of the New York Yankees
With all the youth coming up from the farm system and Brian Cashman’s desire to keep shredding old contracts (Jacoby Ellsbury riding the bench and owed four more years of over $21 million anyone?) will keep him on the rumor mill sites.
Congrats on the hardware?