theathleticuk
Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of the game.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.
The New York Yankees alumni club keeps growing in Cooperstown, N.Y.
With Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones heading into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, that makes 11 ex-Yankees in the last 10 inductions.
Advertisement The list includes folks who stayed a while, like Derek Jeter, Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera and CC Sabathia, and others who passed through, like Beltran, Jones, Jim Kaat, Tim Raines, Ivan Rodriguez, Lee Smith and Ichiro Suzuki.
You know, The Onion predicted all this.
Twenty-three years ago, the satirical news outlet captured the mood of the baseball winters in that era.
Under the headline Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant By Signing Every Player In Baseball was a doctored photo with Mike Piazza, Randy Johnson, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez in Yankee pinstripes.
The Yankees, the story explained, had signed 928 players and pushed their payroll to $5.6 billion.
Wed like to welcome the entire roster of Major League Baseball into the Yankees family, George Steinbrenner was quoted as saying and sometimes, it really did seem true.
Johnson and Alex Rodriguez eventually played for the Yankees, as so many superstars do after making their names elsewhere.
Just explore the rolls of Cooperstown.
You could nearly build two full rosters of former Yankees players in the plaque gallery 51 in all, plus Bob Lemon and Joe Torre, who managed the Yankees but did not play for them.
The New York Yankees are one of those teams that has such an icon logo, icon team; everybody knows about the Yankees, said Jones, who wrapped his major-league career in the Bronx as a part-time outfielder in 2011 and 2012.
Its just a great honor to get a chance to be part of that team.
The Giants actually have more Hall of Famers who played for the team than the Yankees do 62, including Beltran and another 2026 inductee, Jeff Kent.
But the Giants have a longer history, and with Buster Posey still on deck, their pace has slowed: Beltran and Kent are the first Giants to make it since Johnson in 2015.
Advertisement The Yankees collection includes an old Paul Waner whose only hit was the 3,152nd and last of his career and a young Dazzy Vance, who lost all three of his starts.
Theres also Smith (three saves in 1993), a future manager who hit .225 (Bobby Cox) and a future executive who hit .182 (Branch Rickey).
Beltran logged 16 major-league seasons before joining the Yankees in 2014.
He had one bad year, one good year and a final All-Star campaign in 2016, when the Yankees traded him to the Texas Rangers.
But Beltran who called himself a big Bernie Williams fan had tried to join the Yankees in his prime as a free agent in 2005.
We explored the Yankees, Beltran said.
But at that time, the Yankees were in a situation where they didnt have the money to pay me the years that I was asking.
They wanted to give me a short-term deal with the opportunity to re-negotiate, and when you become a free agent, youre looking to try to get the best deal out of that.
And then the Mets came with a seven-year deal (for $119 million) and that was so hard for me to say no to the Mets, because I felt that the organization was trying to build a good team, and with the younger players that they had, I thought we were going to have very good chances (for) playoff baseball year in, year out.
The Mets made it only once with Beltran, and while hes comfortably in their fold now and could be their manager soon his first post-retirement job came with the Yankees as an advisor to general manager Brian Cashman.
I still have an incredible relationship with everybody in the organization, Beltran said.
Kent, a California native who lives in Austin, Texas, played for six teams but never the Yankees.
He finished his 1992 rookie season with the Mets after an August trade from the Toronto Blue Jays for David Cone and stayed until July 1996.
The notion of playing for Mets neighbors held some appeal, but only in concept.
Advertisement Half of me did, but the other half didnt want to be in the middle of that jungle, because I got to the Mets right away, Kent said.
The Mets were the whipping boys of New York, at least when I was there, and the Yankees were the top dog, they were the best.
Kent said he was grateful to have played in New York, but the setting wasnt for him.
His son Kaeden, however, was the Yankees third-round pick last summer out of Texas A&M.
A 22-year-old second baseman and shortstop, Kaeden Kent (now out with a finger injury) is hitting .302/.359/.433 this season for High-A Hudson Valley.
Ive tried to give my boy some advice, Kent said.
I say, Look, I think one of the reasons why they like you is because they believe that you can handle this because of the experiences that Ive had, that I have given to you, and that youve had too, because you played at a big college.
And I think part of what the Yankees do as well, and at least what my observation is, is theyre trying to get kids that can mentally survive in that town.
And I think Kaeden can do that.
Jones walk to remember With 10 Gold Gloves and 434 home runs, Andruw Jones had one of the most dynamic skill sets in baseball history.
But for the top moment of his career, all he had to do was take four pitches and trot 90 feet.
Asked last week for his No.
1 career highlight, Jones cited his pennant-winning walk against the Mets Kenny Rogers in Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS.
Its the only time in postseason history that a walk has ended a game, let alone a series.
In 99, when I took that walk to take the team into the World Series, against the Mets, that was a very (intense) series against them, Jones said.
I think they took all our juice away, so when we went to play the New York Yankees in 99, we got swept by them.
Nothing against the Yankees, they had a great team, but we felt like we played our World Series against the Mets that year.
The Braves nearly swept the Mets, winning the first three games.
Then things got weird: a one-run Mets win followed by 26 chaotic innings in the next two games first at Shea Stadium, then at Turner Field that took more than 10 hours total.
Advertisement We dont know what would have happened because it didnt happen, Jones said.
But if they had won that Game 6, they would have won three games in a row and they wouldve been feeling so good about themselves going to Game 7, it could have been over for us.
It could have been an earlier Subway Series before the Subway Series (in 2000).
We had to take care of it and win that Game 6, but it was tough.
We were going back and forth.
We were drained, to be honest with you.
The Braves hit just .200 against the Yankees in the 1999 World Series and would not win another pennant for 22 years.
But Jones helped them take six more NL East titles in the 2000s, extending the franchises streak to a record 14 consecutive division crowns.
Five questions with..
Joe Buck, the 2026 Ford C.
Frick Award winner, on the most memorable games of his career Joe Buck was 18 years old in 1987 when he went to Cooperstown to see his father, Jack, receive the Ford C.
Frick Award for broadcasting excellence.
He returned 24 years later when his partner Tim McCarver won it.
This weekend, its his turn.
Buck, 57, called 23 World Series as the lead play-by-play man for Fox Sports from 1996 to 2021, before moving to ESPN.
He and Jack Buck, who died in 2002, are the first father-son duo to be honored in the broadcasters exhibit at the Hall.
It didnt take Joe Buck long to come up with his five most memorable nights in the booth, beginning with the time he channeled his father.
When David Freese ended Game 6 of the 2011 World Series with a homer, Joe echoed Jacks famous call of Kirby Pucketts Game 6 walk-off blast in 1991: We will see you tomorrow night! 2011 World Series, Game 6, Cardinals over Rangers: Best single game Ive ever seen.
Did the call back to my dads call almost 20 years to the day prior.
A St.
Louis kid (Freese) hitting a two-out, two-strike triple to tie it in the ninth and the game-winning home run in the 11th, facing elimination.
Its the greatest single game by a player Ive witnessed firsthand in a World Series.
I went down to (manager Tony La Russas) office afterward and I was like, Oh my god, that was unbelievable! And he said, It only means something if we win tomorrow.
I was like, Tony, can you enjoy anything? But hes probably not wrong: if they dont win Game 7, then Game 6 is not as memorable and special.
But they did, so it is.
View this post on Instagram 1996 World Series, Game 6, Yankees over Braves: I was new to that network game of ratings and volume, and (the importance of) getting to Game 6 and 7.
So after Game 2, I just remember walking into the compound proud of what we did, and every executive was like, Oh, were dead, the Braves are gonna sweep.
And then we know how it turned out.
So it was just that stadium.
Its in the Bronx, and as a kid who grew up in St.
Louis and always felt like a small-town guy, (it was special) to be where the lights are the brightest in The House That Ruth Built.
Everybody always asks me, Whats your favorite stadium where you ever did a game? And thats the answer, just because of the history, the way the booth would bounce, the way the beers would fly out of the upper deck.
It just felt more intense.
And I had just grown up wanting to be my dad.
I had never grown up thinking that someday I was going to yell into a microphone that the Yankees were champions of baseball.
I hadnt practiced the line, I hadnt thought about it.
It just came out, and I was proud of that, that I put the proper words to the moment when Charlie Hayes made the catch on that foul ball.
1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park: We knew that Ted Williams was going to come out.
But then when he kind of triumphantly or defiantly, however you want to put it, took his hat off and saluted the fans hed always kind of been the cantankerous, reluctant hero it was powerful.
We had just come back from commercial and I was letting it play out, and when he did that and the crowd reacted, I immediately was choked up.
Mike (Weisman, the producer) is saying in my ear, Were back, like, Were back from commercial, say something.
And I couldnt.
I couldnt talk.
I was crying.
I couldnt squeeze anything out, and Im so glad I didnt.
We were supposed to take a commercial break and I think Weisman sensed something big was coming and hes yelling back into the back of the truck, Do I have to take the break? Do I have to take the commercial? And eventually Weisman just said, You know, were staying here.
So we captured all that live.
And the funny thing is, Im sure he got in trouble for that, because those are expensive ads, right before first pitch.
But he had the guts to do it and it would not have had the same impact had we rolled that on replay back after a commercial.
We might have never gotten to it.
So it was a genius move by him.
2004 World Series, Game 4, Red Sox over Cardinals: That was the best version of the La Russa Cardinal teams.
That team was stacked.
Their pitching was a little injured and a little backward, but the lineup was fantastic and it didnt matter.
You could put the 27 Yankees in front of that Boston team and they would have had no chance coming off that ALCS.
That team was not going to be denied.
And Im on TV making every Red Sox fan throw up talking about Bill Buckner and the curse, because youve got to hit all the notes; you cant assume everybody knows everything, so you have to go back over it and put a stamp on the end of an 86-year-old drought.
So the significance of that moment had its own pressure involved and it was a decent, average call of an incredible moment.
2016 World Series, Game 7, Cubs over Indians: To be sitting in Wrigley Field in a World Series for the first time since 1945, and to be on a microphone in Cleveland saying the Cubs have won the World Series for the first time since before World War I, its pretty powerful.
So you have the lovable losers, the wait til next year, all that stuff was balled up and thrown away, and it was an incredible game and a great series.
They blew a lead, Joe Maddon did everything he told us he wouldnt do before the game, I think out of sheer panic.
But they got to the finish line, and it was pretty crazy to be in Cleveland to have the Cubs win and have that kind of a crowd reaction, because there were so many Cub fans there.
And Clevelands got its own drought going, but to have that many Cub fans there, I didnt feel the need to overtalk because of the crowd combined with the players celebrating in the middle of the infield.
It was powerful, and nothing that I wanted to trample over.
Off the Grid Carlos Beltran, every category Carlos Beltran fit into every box in last Saturdays Grid.
He had 40+ WAR (70, actually), 17 seasons with 10 homers, eight with 100 runs, seven with 100 RBIs, four with 30 steals and two Silver Slugger Awards.
He also won three Gold Glove awards, but that wasnt a category.
Advertisement For Beltran, a native of Puerto Rico, his array of skills extended to proficiency in Spanish and English.
Yet he knew that many players master only one language, and urged MLB and the union to fund a program ensuring that every team has a Spanish-speaking translator available for pre- and postgame interviews.
It went into effect in 2016, and its been a game changer.
Before, players and reporters had to scramble to find a bilingual coach or teammate to translate.
It was awkward for everyone, and Beltrans program corrected a stubborn imbalance.
For the players, when you see guys coming from Japan, other Asian guys, they have the guy next to him and try to help him, former catcher Yadier Molina, who is also from Puerto Rico, said at the World Baseball Classic.
Then when you watch the Latino, we didnt have the opportunity to have someone to help you with the language.
And then I remember that he was one of the first guys to push that for us, to have someone to speak for us.
So he did a great thing.
Im glad they did it.
Now you have a Latino translator.
They can speak freely, and thats a good thing.
Working with reporters, Beltran explained, was only part of his rationale.
More important was helping communication within the team.
Beltran, who spoke very limited English when he reached the majors in 1998, said the notion crystallized during a Yankees spring training meeting late in his career.
He noticed that three Japanese teammates had translators and paid close attention during the talk.
But most Spanish-speaking players seemed lost.
Baseball always has a lot of Latino players and the majority dont speak English, so I felt very bad that day, Beltran said.
The message that you get from ownership, from the manager, is so important to kind of set the tone for the season.
And realizing that most of those guys in the back, they had no clue what was happening.
Advertisement So it just came to my mind to approach the players association and Major League Baseball and I say to them, Man, you know what? I feel in my heart that we could do so much better for the Latino players to give them a legitimate chance to understand and be part of what these important meetings look like.
Classic clip Jeff Kent on Season 25 of Survivor, 2012 Theres nothing new about Hall of Famers appearing on game shows.
Cy Young, at age 88, guested on Ive Got A Secret in 1955.
Don Sutton was a panelist on Match Game in the late 1970s.
After their World Series clash in 1980, Mike Schmidt and some Philadelphia Phillies teammates faced a few Kansas City Royals on Family Feud.
But unless theres some primitive version we dont know about starring, say, Chick Hafey Jeff Kent is the first Hall of Famer to have been a contestant on Survivor.
Kent ventured onto the island in season 25, set in the Philippines, and actually stuck around for a while.
On a Zoom call with reporters last week, he spoke animatedly about his experiences when I asked why he wanted to be on the show.
I think the media has probably even written some quirky comments about Jeffs just on his own island somewhere, Kent said, laughing.
If you take that further, I guess literally you could say that I dont mind just being by myself and trying to figure out how to survive.
I guess its an internal nature that I had through sports, through life, of the fight, the grind of being able to survive and still be good at what you do which, for the island itself, was beating everybody in challenges and then out-lying each other so you can not get voted off so you could win a million bucks.
The prize was not the point for Kent, who earned more than $86 million in salary in his 17-year career.
Hed long been a fan of the show, and when he heard that producers wanted to cast an athlete, he sent in a video application.
Kent was 44 years old at the time, still fit.
The physical part was easy, he said, but the problem was concocting a different reality in order to keep playing.
Advertisement For Kent who once famously claimed hed broken his wrist while washing his truck, when in fact hed been on a motorcycle said being cannily dishonest helped him last until day 22, when he was voted off with 17 days to go.
He finished 10th out of 18 contestants.
Let me tell you: there is nothing fake about that show, Kent said.
They dont have Snickers in the corner, youre not cheating, there are no toilets, no toilet paper.
I mean, youre pooping in the water or pooping into woods and wiping your ass with leaves or not wiping your ass.
Everything about it was kind of gross when youre laying next to somebody who stinks from getting wet all day long.
It was the social game that was a struggle for me; everything else was pretty easy.
But I really, really, loved that show, and to go back to your question of why, I just wanted to know if I could survive on an island and suffer physically, but when I got there, I didnt know how much of a social challenge it was.
Because youre lying all day long.
I lied to people and told them I was 10 years younger than I was.
I told them I only had two kids and not four.
I told him I was a motorcycle salesman at a motorcycle dealership that my dad owned.
Trying to keep track of all these lies was mind-blowing, but it allowed me to survive for half the show.