David Robertson did what he knew, taking the D train from midtown Manhattan to 161st Street in The Bronx. After exiting the station, routine kicked in as he absorbed the surroundings of a walk he had made thousands of times before entering Yankee Stadium.
“I came through the normal gate, and then I walked past the home clubhouse and a girl was opening the door to let me in, and I said, ‘No, no, no, I don’t play here anymore,’ ” the White Sox closer said with a smile. “I didn’t know how to come in on [the visitors’ side]. … So, I took the long walk down.”
After spending the first seven seasons of his career with the Yankees, Robertson returned to New York Thursday for the first time since signing a four-year, $46 million contract with the White Sox last offseason, an agreement which came after the Yankees opted against offering the reliever a multi-year deal.
Robertson still has not made his first appearance against the Yankees, leaving the 30-year-old eager and anxious at the potential opportunity.
“Yankee Stadium was my home for a long time,” Robertson said before the Yankees’ 3-2 win. “It’s going to be different stepping on the field, going out there and being against the guys on the other side. It’s definitely strange. It’s weird seeing everybody that you knew for so long, the handful of guys that I grew up there playing with. Seeing them there on the opposite side is just the strangest part.”
Robertson, who had earned 31 saves this season entering Thursday after accumulating 39 saves as Mariano Rivera’s successor last year, said the adjustment to a new team and a new city has been everything he could have hoped and he harbors no animosity towards the Yankees for making no genuine effort to retain him.
And as strange as it may be for him to be staring at pinstripes and to be pitching in the bottom of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium, Robertson has no problem playing a potential spoiler role to the Yankees’ postseason plans.
“In between the lines, I’ve got a job,” said Robertson, who has kept in touch with a few former teammates, like Brett Gardner. “We can be friends as much as we want later, but on the field, I’ve got to get them out and do my job. I’m not here to lose games. I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do and get guys out. That’s the way it’s gonna be.”
Less than a month ago, the possibility existed Robertson might return to The Bronx, after the Yankees put a waiver claim in for their former closer before the White Sox pulled him back. Robertson made a few calls to find out what was happening, but knew a deal was unlikely, leaving this series as his only visit back to the stadium.
With nearly a full season since his last day with the Yankees, the closer only appreciates more being able to spend so many years with some of the greatest players of the era.
“It was great having [Rivera] teaching me things and being with so many legends of the game, like Derek [Jeter] and Andy [Pettitte] and Jorge [Posada], a lot of guys who really knew how to play this game the right way,” Robertson said. “It was great to be under their wing and see how they handled their business every day.”
