PORT CHARLOTTE – Until yesterday, the competition among Yankee left fielders was a billboard smothered in vanilla.
Shane Spencer had fought his way off the back field to make a bid to be the full-time starter. Chad Curtis was enjoying a solid, if not spectacular,spring. Ricky Ledee looked lost at the plate and Darryl Strawberry hadn’t been officially entered in the sweepstakes.
That all changed when Ledee, who started in right and moved to center, and Strawberry made some earsplitting noise with their bats in an 8-6 win over the Rangers at Charlotte County Stadium.
Now, with a dozen days until the opener April 5 in Oakland, there is a reason to focus on left field because the left-handed hitters have finally checked in.
Ledee, who was batting .065 (2-for-13), turned heads with a 2-for-4, two-RBI day that included a home run and triple. Strawberry, who DH’d and will make his first appearance in left field tonight, went 2-for-4 with three RBIs to raise his average to .345 (8-for-23). He homered and drove in the game-winning run with a single in the ninth off lefty Eric Gunderson. For the record, Spencer went 1-for-4 with an RBI while Curtis didn’t play.
Today, George Steinbrenner will gather his Inner Circle and discuss how the 25-man roster will shake out. Interim manager Don Zimmer and the other coaches won’t be there. They will take part when a bigger meeting is held, possibly before the weekend is spent.
The Boss will hear from GM Brian Cashman, superscout Gene Michael, VP of player development and scouting Mark Newman and special adviser Dick Williams. Everybody but Newman was on hand yesterday so the reports should be glowing. In the end, the final decision will be made by The Boss, who will base his call on information fed to him.
Yesterday, Ledee and Strawberry entered very strong data even if neither appears too concerned about what the other one is doing.
“I don’t worry about it, I play the game the way the game is supposed to be played and play hard,” said Strawberry, who crushed a 2-0 fastball from Mike Morgan over the right-center field fence. He also drove in a run with a short fly ball to center. “When that time comes for evaluation, then I will deal with it. There is nothing negative in this situation for me. Everything is positive and I will make the best of it.”
As for Ledee, he said he has enough to do taking care of himself to be concerned with what others are doing. Yet, he did admit that yesterday was huge on several fronts.
“I don’t pay attention to what they are doing, we are all battling for left field,” said Ledee, who was set back when he missed three days in order to attend his grandfather’s funeral in Puerto Rico. “It’s a nice competition and then Straw got involved. You have to take care of yourself. You can’t worry about anything but yourself. I was putting pressure on myself, I knew I had to do something.”
Because the possibility of carrying 10 pitchers exists as does taking only five infielders, there is a way that Spencer, Curtis, Strawberry and Ledee all make it. Of course, Spencer and Ledee have options and Strawberry still has seven chemotherapy sessions left. Curtis, who is hitting .349 (15-for-43) with two homers and eight RBIs, not only plays left but is an insurance policy in center should Bernie Williams go down. Considering Williams has been on the DL in each of the past three seasons, getting rid of Curtis and asking Ledee to play center for a stretch is very risky.
“It was nice to see him pop the homer,” Cashman said of Strawberry’s second dinger of the spring. “He looked good on the homer and struggled [running to first] on the ground ball to second base. I thought the leg was bothering him a little bit. But his bat has the lightning in it.”
Tonight, under the Single-A lights of Marchant Stadium, Strawberry will attempt to take the next step toward completing a stirring comeback from colon cancer when he plays left field against the Tigers.
“I am kind of excited about it. I am not going to go out there and try to overdo it and impress at this point. I haven’t been out there in a while,” said Strawberry, who last patrolled the outfield on Sept. 9 of last year against the Indians at Yankee Stadium.
