TAMPA – If you Google the phrases “Rey Sanchez” and “haircut,” you’ll get about 500 responses. Not a ton, certainly, but enough to link Sanchez with a pair of clippers for immortality.
This spring, the veteran infielder is beginning his second stint with the Yankees. The Bombers were confident enough in his abilities and pleased enough with his first go-round in 1997 to sign him to a one-year, $600,000 contract.
A career-defining moment took place since, when Sanchez played for the Mets. On April 30, 2003, in St. Louis, sources said he received a trim while his teammates were playing the Cardinals.
Sanchez denied it at the time and again yesterday, but the incident became a national punchline. The Post ran back-to-back back pages with “Hair Club for Mets” and “The Barber of Sheaville” on them, and Sanchez’s former teammate, Armando Benitez, was fingered as a co-conspirator in the taboo clubhouse cut.
Yesterday, Sanchez was politely defiant about the Busch Stadium Buzz. He told the Post reporter who initially wrote the story, “You burned some of my bridges,” and, “You don’t know half the story.”
Yet Sanchez declined to put forth his side of the story and said he’s put the incident past him, later claiming it hasn’t hurt him in baseball circles.
“I got caught in the middle of it, and I’m just glad I’m strong enough to deal with it and let it go and be myself,” he said.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman defended the decision to sign Sanchez, who toiled in Tampa last year. The Yanks needed a utility infielder because Miguel Cairo and Enrique Wilson left the team.
“[Sanchez] didn’t leave us with a bad rep,” Cashman said. “[In ’97], he was just terrific.
“Things happen in other clubhouses that wouldn’t happen here.”
Sanchez, 37, said he is excited to be back with the Bombers, who acquired him in August 1997 from the Cubs. By the end of that year, he was the everyday second baseman.
“He did a great job when he was with us,” Derek Jeter said. “Rey works extremely hard. That’s the reason why he’s been successful, and that’s the reason he’s been good for so long.”
Within three months of the Busch Stadium Buzz, the Mets traded Sanchez to Seattle. Jose Reyes’ emergence forced the deal more than the incident, and former Mets GM Steve Phillips remembered Sanchez as “a nice guy.”
“We didn’t see the best of him,” Phillips said yesterday.
Of playing in Queens, Sanchez said, “It’s a different side of town, you know that. The respect that the media and the players have for each other is a little different here than it is over there.”
