This is one of those “what might have been” stories that fill baseball lore. What might have been if this team had made that trade or that team had made this trade? Some stories were never remotely close to happening; some were pure fiction, the creation of someone’s overactive imagination. Others had basis in fact.
My favorite is probably the story that the Yankees and the Red Sox discussed a trade of Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams. The thinking was that DiMaggio was a right-handed hitter who could use Fenway Park’s Green Monster of a left field wall as his personal batting target, and Williams was a left-handed hitter who could rain rockets into the neighborly right field stands at Yankee Stadium.
That trade was never made, and neither was the one between the Yankees and the Seattle Mariners that could have taken Mariano Rivera from the Yankees and kept, or at least, delayed Derek Jeter from becoming the Yankees’ shortstop and the storied franchise’s first player to get 3,000 hits.
The Rivera-Jeter story is the one I have today courtesy of Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager.
“We almost traded Rivera for Felix Fermin,” said Cashman, who was the Yankees’ assistant general manager in 1996. “We had a three-hour pow-wow to convince George not to trade Rivera.”
Tony Fernandez, the Yankees’ shortstop in 1995, broke his elbow diving for a ball in spring training in 1996. Jeter was on hand to replace him, but in his first crack at major league pitching the year before he had hit .250 in 15 games, and owner George Steinbrenner didn’t think the Yankees could win with Jeter at short.
“Clyde King told George he didn’t think Jeter was ready,” Cashman said, referring to the Yankees’ former manager and general manager who was then an adviser to the owner. “The Mariners had offered Fermin for Bob Wickman or Rivera because Clyde said Jeter wasn’t going to be good enough.”
Without the Fernandez injury, Jeter might have returned to the Yankees’ Class AAA minor league team at Columbus. “We would have had to replace Jeter,” Cashman said, “and that’s where Fermin came in.”
Cashman recalled that Gene Michael, then a senior adviser to Steinbrenner after having been the team’s general manager, had cautioned the owner and everyone else about prematurely judging Jeter.
“Do me a favor,” Cashman quoted Michael as saying. “Don’t watch games until after the All-Star game.”
Steinbrenner, however, wasn’t prepared to give Jeter that much time and wanted to pursue Fermin, a 32-year-old veteran of eight seasons, whom Seattle had made available.
“They wanted either Rivera or Wickman,” Cashman said. “We didn’t know which one we would have traded.” Wickman had pitched three seasons plus part of a fourth for the Yankees; Rivera had pitched part of the 1995 season for them.
“We had a spring training meeting, and George wanted us to make the trade for either one,” Cashman said. “But that’s why your baseball people are there. We had a good position and we defended it strongly.”
Woody Woodward, who was the Seattle general manager at the time, recalled having interest in Rivera, but the trade wasn’t made. The Yankees held onto Rivera, put Jeter at short and 15 years later, the two players have been the most integral parts of a lot of history.
Jeter has far exceeded the initial expectations Steinbrenner had for him. Although he has slowed offensively last season (.270) and the first month of this season (.250), he entered the second month only 51 hits from achieving 3,000 career hits, a level of success unattained by any of the Yankees’ legends.
Just as Babe Ruth’s 659 home runs and Lou Gehrig’s 1,996 runs batted in separate them from other Yankees’ greats, Jeter’s 3,000 plus hits will do the same for him.
Rivera will have his own numerical monument. With 568 career saves for the Yankees and no signs of letting up at the age of 41, Rivera seems certain to supplant Trevor Hoffman (601) as the all-time saves leader.
Interesting development for a guy who began his baseball life as a starter, first in the minors and then in his first season in the majors.
Yes, in 1996, Rivera started 10 games, emerging with a 3-3 record and a 5.94 earned run average. In one of those starts, though, against the White Sox, Rivera allowed no runs and two hits and struck out 11 in 8 innings.
“I remember the White Sox saying what’s with this guy,” Cashman said. “Their scouting reports were different from what they saw.”
The White Sox shortstop and No. 9 hitter in the Chicago lineup in that game was Ozzie Guillen, who is now the team’s manager.
Rivera joined the starting rotation in May of that season as a replacement for the injured Jimmy Key.
“I don’t think anybody thought he’d be a starter in the majors,” Cashman said. “He started out of necessity. He didn’t have an assortment of pitches to be a starter.”
Rivera made his last start in 1995 on Sept. 5 against Seattle. He relieved in six games the rest of the season for a total of nine relief appearances and has relieved in 982 games since.
In 1996 he became the setup man for closer John Wetteland, then became the closer in 1997 after the Yankees let Wetteland leave as a free agent.
Rivera’s ninth relief outing in May will be the 1,000th of his career.
OZZIE AND ONEY: TWEET, TWEET
Like son like father,
Following in his son’s footsteps, Ozzie Guillen, colorful and controversial manager of the Chicago White Sox, got himself in trouble last week with his tweets.
Casey Stengel and John McGraw never had a problem with tweets because Twitter didn’t exist. But Guillen’s colleagues in today’s managerial ranks don’t get themselves in trouble either. I don’t know if any of them have Twitter accounts, and I don’t really care.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me either personally or through this Web site that I am not a Twitter enthusiast. I fail to understand why anyone is arrogant or egotistical or exhibitionist enough to want people to know where they are and what they think at all times. Among many other things, the Internet has made privacy a thing of the past.
Guillen committed two baseball crimes to earn him a two-game suspension and a reported $50,000 fine subsequently reduced to $20,000.
He tweeted during a game, which is a no-no, and in his tweet he criticized the umpire who ejected him from the game.
“Today a tough guy show up at yankee stadium,” Guillen tweeted, presumably referring to the plate umpire, Todd Tichenor. He also tweeted, “This one going to cost me a lot money this one is patetic (sic)”
The baseball rule regarding social media communication is that it isn’t permitted from 30 minutes before the first pitch until the end of the game.
In spring training last year Guillen’s son, Oney, resigned from his job in the White Sox scouting department after he tweeted criticisms of the team’s front office. Oney’s comments created friction between his father and general manager Ken Williams, but Williams has probably overlooked worse situations with Guillen, who regularly seems to stir controversy.
SURPRISE (INDIANS), SURPRISE (RED SOX)
The first month of the season is over, and that should be enough time to determine who’s for real and who isn’t. Or is it?
Are the Cleveland Indians really as good as they have played? Are the Boston Red Sox as bad as they have played?
Can the Colorado Rockies ride their strong start through the next five months? Can the Florida Marlins play well enough for long enough to keep the Philadelphia Phillies honest?
Will the season end before Frank McCourt’s ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers?
The Indians and the Red Sox have provided the biggest first-month surprises, for opposite reasons, of course. Neither team is where it’s ’supposed to be – the Indians in first place, the Red Sox in last. Perhaps by the end of the second month they will have straightened themselves out.
The Red Sox, who spent lots of money and bolstered themselves with Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, lost their first six games but seemed to correct their errant course with a five-game winning streak and eight victories in nine games later in the month.
But they dug their hole all over again by losing four of their last five games of the month. Is this any way to make the playoffs? Of course not. If they can’t find consistency – a winning consistency – they will face a long season.
The season can’t end soon enough for the Indians, who have the league’s best record. How much longer can they keep winning? Probably not much longer so the sooner it ends the better for them.
The division, the American League Central, ended the first month upside down. Cleveland and Kansas City are at the top and should be at the bottom while Chicago and Minnesota are at the bottom and should be at the top. The Twins have suffered from excessive injuries, the White Sox from exceedingly poor play.
Texas and Anaheim are right where they should be – in a two-team race in the A.L. West
The Rockies have grabbed early control of the National League West but will have to hold on for their lives if Ubaldo Jimenez doesn’t start winning games.
It’s not likely that their 1993 expansion cousins, the Marlins, will be able to keep up with the high-flying Phillies, who have been so good that they finished the first month with the same record as the Indians.