WHY ROBERTSON'S AN INSPIRATION

My son is obsessed with baseball at 8 years old. He wants me to do drills with him when the game is over and I usually am forced to pitch him 50 baseballs a day on weekends just so he can “make contact” before he does his real full swing session. It’s unusual for an 8 year old. I am a baseball nut but this is ridiculous. Honestly though, I’m proud. He’s found something he’s good at and he’s doing this all on his own. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing. The last thing you want is your father or a coach screaming at you because you didn’t throw it into 2^nd base fast enough from center or you didn’t get your glove dirty enough to scoop up a grounder. What a kid needs is direction, not criticism. He's 8, not 40. We try and teach that in my house and it seems to be working.

He started playing first base and one of the coaches told me he had great instincts. “He’s good…like Teixeira good” the coach said. I smiled and said Thanks. My kids no Teixeira, but in his mind he is, and if that works for him, to get into the mindset of being instinctive and understand how the game is played, I say go for it.

(In Photo: Bryce Harper)
My son needs to have the eye black that looks like Bryce Harper and is sure to slide at least once a game, even if he doesn’t have to. We also can’t wash the uniform on a "Win" day because that would wash away the winning streak. I guess he got that from me. “We need to keep the streak alive, make sure mom doesn’t wash my uniform.” OK, that’s definitely from me, but look, baseball is a game of failure, you have to hit a little ball with a thin bat and that’s tricky if you think about it. It's why batting .300 is real good, it's why hitting .500 is amazing. You need talent, alittle luck and alittle superstition too, right?Lately, all I hear about is David Robertson, because to my son, this guy is the cat’s meow. How else do you explain his 2^nd pitching outing this past weekend, striking out 2 and getting a grounder to short for a 1,2,3 inning and a fist pump skip walking off the mound to boot. If my son needed any role model in his life, I’d say I’m OK with David Robertson. He’s a positive force on the New York Yankees and just so damn good. Plus, he's a positive person, doing things to help others for instance with High Socks for Hope, a Foundation created by he and his wife Erin to help the people in Tuscaloosa, Alabama affected by those tragic storms on April 27, 2011. It was David's hometown and now he's making a difference.

My son's about to be 9 and as I see him running out on the field with his eye black smeared all over his face and his sunflower seeds in his cheek, I wonder what the hell I created, he has a drive like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The most amazing thing is it has nothing to do with me. I just thought him the basics, I thought him that striking out alittle here and there is OK even though it stings when it happens.

I wrote WHY BASEBALL IS ALIVE AND WELL back in March. After I wrote it, Nutball Gazette sent me a comment: “Your son is Epic.” I laughed at the time, but you know what? Now that I think about it, that comment stuck with me. I feel like he is too and with David Robertson as his new inspiration, I’m OK with that…I really am.

Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

WHY BRYCE HARPER COULD BE A YANKEE

No, you didn't read that title wrong. I'm talking about Bryce Harper in pinstripes, slugging home runs in "The House That Jeter Built." Can you picture that?

Perhaps I'm going a little too far into the future, but while flipping through some baseball news, I happened to find this article from June 2009 from The Star Ledger, read it HERE. In it, Michael Fensom writes: "Harper says one of his dreams is to one day wear Yankees pinstripes."

Now, anytime I hear a young baseball phenom say the Yankees are his dream team, I immediately picture him in pinstripes. Bryce Harper grew up idolizing the Core Four, he celebrated the '96-'00 dynasty wins at a young age, and apparently nothing has changed in his life. There's little doubt in mind that it's only a matter of time before Bryce Harper joins the endless list of Yankees greats, including but obviously not limited to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Whitey Ford, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Don Mattingly, Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson, and Yogi Berra.

I've heard some people say they think he'll stick with the Nationals, but with all due respect to them, I think that's utter BS. The 1st round 1st pick usually goes to the worst team in the league. It's very rare you see a phenomenal young player get picked 1st overall then spend a 15-20 year career being the lone shining star amongst mediocrity. Let's just take a look at a few 1st overall picks and where they ended up, it's interesting:

• Alex Rodriguez- now with Yankees
• Adrian Gonzalez- now a dirty stinkin' no good Red Sock
• Josh Hamilton- now with Texas Rangers
  

These three men are recognized as some of the most dominant players in the game (as hard as it is to say about Gonzalez.) All of them are now on teams competing for World Championships. Not one of them was drafted by the team they are currently on, they were either traded, perhaps by request, or signed a massive contract with a successful team whenever they could to get away from the losing teams they started on. Obviously there are exceptions:

• Chipper Jones never left the Braves

The Braves are a club that managed to turn their fortune around by the time they had their young star in the majors. Usually players talented and driven enough to be 1st overall are so hungry for victory and glory that they'll cut their ties with the losing team as soon as possible. I don't expect Harper to be any different, and in light of the fact that playing for the Yankees is a dream of his, I think it's even more likely that he'll end up in the Bronx, not just for the big bucks, but to fulfill his dream.
(photo: Getty)
2015 is a long way away, but just take a second to picture this scenario:

• PITCHING: Andrew Brackman, Dellin Betances, and Manny Banuelos have all come into their own and form a dominant pitching staff along with Phil Hughes and the now aging but still very effective CC Sabathia.
  
• CATCHING: Jesus Montero, will still be killing it and will be entering his prime and start putting up even bigger numbers.
• JETER: Unfortunately, the last dynasty would have moved on into retirement, some of them like Jeter returning to continue his involvement with the organization, but some signings in the meantime (Hanley Ramirez anyone?) would be filling in the holes.
  
• ALEX AND TEX: They're no longer young, but still putting up big numbers.
• CANO: He's still Cano, which is to say he's really really good.
  
• OUTFIELD: Granderson, Gardner, and Swisher would still hanging around, but Swisher would be moving into his mid-30s and maybe playing some DH.
  
• THE CLOSER: Hell, maybe Rafael Soriano stuck around for a while longer and is now a dominant closer in Mo's place.

Then Bryce Harper's contract with the Nationals ends. Now 23 in the winter of 2015 and only a few years off his prime but already putting up massive numbers, Harper looks for a equally massive contract. His dream team offers him 8 years $170 million. He ecstatically inks the deal, and suddenly the young prodigy Bryce Harper dons the pinstripes and is officially a New York Yankee like he always wanted to be. He joins an already absolutely dominant team and sets them up for another dynasty like the late '90s.

Does this really sound all that far-fetched? I don't think so. Mark my words, come the 2016 season, we'll be seeing Bryce Harper not just as a phenom, but as our phenom.



--Grant Cederquist, BYB Staff Writer



Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in