Yankees Magazine: Meant to Be
It’s hardly a surprise that the vast majority of players populating MLB rosters grew up obsessed with the sport. The problem, for some, arises when the whims of the game’s business side sees them shipped off to that team they grew up hating. Imagine explaining to the elementary school–aged baseball fan fixated on the Cubs that he might someday end up playing for the White Sox or, even worse, the Cardinals.
On the flip-side, imagine the joy -- one that is surprisingly commonplace among current Yankees players and prospects -- of finding yourself playing for the team that dominated your earliest baseball fantasies.
“The day I was born, from my uncle, his first present to me was a Yankee hat,” Anthony Volpe, a Manhattan native, told a local television station after becoming the Yankees’ first-round draft pick in 2019. “It was a dream come true. Since the day I was born, it seems like I’ve always been a Yankee fan. My parents were die-hard Yankee fans and, just growing up, that’s always been my dream -- to play in Yankee Stadium one day. To have this opportunity during the draft, I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Now playing at Double-A Somerset, Volpe is an example of what it’s like to be raised in the legacy of baseball’s most storied franchise, to embrace the fandom, and to end up wearing the pinstripes -- even if it’s still only at the Minor League level.
Sometimes the destiny plays out thanks to free agency or via the international signing period, sometimes through the precarities of the MLB Draft. Sometimes, though, it’s intertwined. Gerrit Cole, who famously attended the 2001 World Series with a memorable sign declaring his eternal devotion to the Yankees, was also in the Bronx on July 9, 2011, when Derek Jeter homered against the Tampa Bay Rays for his 3,000th hit.
Why was the California resident in New York on that summer day? He was in town for the MLB Draft, during which he was selected No. 1 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Three years earlier, his name had been called by the Yankees, but Cole opted to attend college and play baseball at UCLA. Destiny had to wait, but eventually, both sides got what they wanted.
Cole is far from alone among Yankees fans–turned Yankees. Against that backdrop, we spoke with a few members of the 2022 team about their recollections of growing up as fans of the 27-time world champions whose clubhouse they now call home.
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COME FROM AWAY
Most kids born in the New York area are going to gravitate toward the Yankees (or maybe the team across town), but you don’t become the most popular baseball franchise in the world without attracting support from all corners.
ISIAH KINER-FALEFA: Hawaii might seem like the farthest spot from Yankee Stadium, but you know how the internet is (laughs). So, yeah, I was a Yankees fan. But I didn’t exactly divulge that information coming up (after being drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2013). Not because I was ashamed or embarrassed or anything, but you know how a clubhouse can be. But the Yankees mean a lot to me. I’m proud to be here.
MICHAEL KING: I was born in Rochester, New York, but mostly grew up in Rhode Island because of my dad. You know what area that is. … I was a big Patriots fan, loved Tom Brady, and kind of rooted for the Bruins and the Celtics. But for baseball, it was always the Yankees.
JOSE TREVINO: I was supposed to go to a Yankees game when I played in the Cape Cod League but just never got the chance to do it. I wish I had. But knowing so much about the Yankees, that’s how much power they have, even for a kid growing up in Texas.
CLAY HOLMES: I just remember even growing up in small-town Alabama, the Yankees were the team I rooted for just because of the championships and the values and the things the team stood for.
FAMILY TIES
Like so much in life, baseball is passed down through generations, no different from other innate traits such as hair color. At least, it usually is. King’s father -- a Boston fan -- wasn’t able to make it to Game 5 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, so Michael went to the game with his mother and saw the Yankees win. When the future stud pitcher fell in love with the team from New York and came home with an interlocking “NY” on his hat, it was a tough pill to swallow.
KING: I think everybody knows the story by now. My dad was not happy when I came home with that cap.
GERRIT COLE: It was my father, Mark. And the funny thing is, it didn’t matter where it was. He was from Michigan, but he was a Yankees fan. He moved to New York, and he stayed a Yankees fan. Our family moved to California, where I was born, and he was a Yankees fan. And so I became a Yankees fan. By that time, it was much easier to see every team in the league, no matter where you were.
ANTHONY RIZZO: Even though I grew up in Florida, we spent every summer in New Jersey because that’s where my parents and family were from. So, we caught a lot of Yankees games. My parents being from Jersey, they were always Yankees and Giants fans. And of course, when I was younger, they were always winning.
JOEY GALLO: My parents are from New York; most of my family is. I grew up in Las Vegas, but being a Yankees fan was something that was definitely handed down, probably since I was born. Even my mom was a Yankees fan. It was just normal for us.
THAT’S MY GUY!
Big leaguers -- they’re just like us! Long before they were mashing homers or strutting off the mound following clutch strikeouts, the guys we all watch today used to love imitating their own Yankees heroes. And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a bunch of Yankees fans who came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s might still get emotional thinking of a certain beloved captain.
KING: It’s hard to pinpoint one favorite player. I mean, I was a pitcher, but certainly Derek Jeter was a favorite. Probably the favorite for most Yankees fans.
In a bit of irony, it was because of Jeter that King ended up with his childhood team. In one of Jeter’s first moves after taking an ownership stake in the Miami Marlins and serving as the club’s chief executive officer, he sent King -- then a Class-A Minor Leaguer who had been drafted by the Marlins out of Boston College -- to the Yankees in exchange for fellow Minor Leaguers Garrett Cooper and Caleb Smith.
KINER-FALEFA: Jeter was my favorite. I tried to pattern myself after him, and not just as a player. It was also the way he held himself. But I’m a baseball fan first and foremost, so I appreciate the entire history of the franchise.
COLE: Jeter, naturally. In so many ways, he was the face of the franchise. I was a big Andy Pettitte fan, too. Meeting him and having him involved when the Yankees were courting me was a big thrill.
TREVINO: So many! I remember the Aaron Boone home run in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. My sisters, my dad, my mom -- we were all watching. It was late. It was a school night. I think my family was watching upstairs, and I was downstairs. There was a delay between the upstairs TV and the downstairs TV, and my dad just started yelling.
And of course, there were all the Derek Jeter moments. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when he got his last hit at Yankee Stadium. I was in Surprise, Arizona, in the instructional league. Room 214 at the Holiday Inn Express. I was on my bed, and I was screaming. Derek, for sure, was one of my favorites. And I like the way Jorge Posada went about his business. And Mariano Rivera. Definitely those three guys.
GALLO: When I was a kid, it was definitely Derek Jeter. I think that’s the answer most kids would give (laughs). I was still pretty young, but the Yankees were dominating back then. There were a lot of bandwagon fans, especially being from Las Vegas, but my family was from New York. We were all true, die-hard Yankees fans.
RIZZO: For the most part, I just liked baseball. I was just a big baseball fan. So, I liked watching everybody. But, obviously, there was Jeter. I liked watching Rubén Sierra hit home runs -- he had a great left-handed swing for Yankee Stadium. And I was there when David Cone pitched his perfect game in 1999. It was great to be in New Jersey every summer and to see all those games during a great time in team history.
WELCOME TO NEW YORK
The baseball life cycle means that any dugout is filled with players whose circumstances are all different. Some ended up in town via the draft, others signed as teenagers from a foreign country, others had to pack up and cross the country in a surprising trade. And finally, there are those free agents who earned the right to choose their destination.
However they arrived, players who now call the Yankees clubhouse home know that it is a special place, particularly for those whose devotion to the club started long before their first game in pinstripes.
GALLO: I won’t say it’s one of those “full circle” things, but it’s almost like that. Being in Las Vegas, I only got to see them play one time. We came to a game in the last year of the old Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees won.
Gallo did have one connection to the Yankees in Las Vegas. His father, Tony, a former Minor Leaguer in the Montreal Expos organization, worked as a pitching instructor at batting facilities owned by former Yankees slugger Jason Giambi.
GALLO: Giambi got us the tickets in ’08, so that was nice, and then we had a chance to go up to Cooperstown (to the Hall of Fame) and obviously saw some great memories of some great Yankees. It’s kind of hard not to appreciate baseball without appreciating the Yankees.
TREVINO: Go win. That was my immediate thought. Go win a World Series. I understand what I was brought here to do.
RON MARINACCIO: I grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, which isn’t that far from Yankee Stadium, I can tell you that. I feel lucky that we grew up not even a couple of hours away. When the Yankees took me in the 2017 Draft, it was truly a dream come true.
RIZZO: You can’t ask for anything better. To go from one storied franchise to another? It’s never easy to be traded, but to play in Chicago for the Cubs and then come to a team like the Yankees? And then to be able to re-sign here? It means everything. My wife and I love the City, we always loved coming to New York, and now we get a chance to spend more time here.
HOLMES: (as told to the _New York Post_)
I remember the first time I put on pinstripes. It feels different. It’s definitely an opportunity that nobody, especially in this game, takes for granted. I just remember the lights being a little brighter. Just thinking about the people that have taken the mound, it was just a really cool experience, and something I’ll always remember and never take for granted no matter how many times I get to do it.
KINER-FALEFA: It’s a dream come true.
KING: A dream come true.
COLE: You hate to use that phrase that it was “meant to be.” I think a lot was made of that because of the sign. There’s a lot that happened in between that and me ending up here almost 20 years later. They drafted me, but I decided on UCLA, then I got picked No. 1 overall by the Pirates, then I was traded to Houston. So, a lot took place for me to say it was “meant to be.” But it kind of was, I guess (laughs). No matter what, it’s a dream come true, man. A dream come true.
These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.