Young Yanks give thanks, for a Met

It was the simplest of compliments that stuck with Greg Bird.

Speaking low and gruff with his bottom lip sticking out to accentuate the impression of his former coach, Bird recalled how Pat Roessler walked up to him during a slump in Triple-A.

“We were standing around the batting cage, he said, ‘Birdy.’ I said, ‘Yeah what’s up,’” Bird said. “He said, ‘You can really hit.’

“And that was it. It was never do this or do that with your arm. That just always stuck with me.”

Roessler, nicknamed ‘Six’ because of his uniform number, is on the other side as the hitting coach of the Mets these days, but remains a popular figure in the Yankee clubhouse as an influential figure in the cultivation of the Bombers. For nearly a decade, until 2013, Roessler was the Yankees’ head of player development – overseeing the evolution of Bird, Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar, among others.

If Andujar wins Rookie of the Year to follow Judge’s accomplishment, the Yankees will become just the fifth team in American League history to win the award back-to-back (the A’s won three straight from 1986-1988). Roessler’s part in that success is not forgotten by Bird, in particular, who was called up into big league camp in 2013 on Roessler’s suggestion to Brian Cashman.

“Six was a great man,” Bird said. “Very influential. He was around a lot early on in my career. Obviously on the field but also just teaching me how to be a professional, really. How to be a Yankee really. That’s something that stood out about him. We were talking about the baseball stuff but with him it was about that – how to be a Yankee, and coming up here, just how to watch baseball, how to take it all in.

“He’s an old-school baseball guy. He always appreciated me and I always appreciated him. We just had a lot of good conversations through the years.”

Roessler became the Mets assistant hitting coach in 2015, a season highlighted by the Mets’ first World Series appearance since 2000. He grew especially close to Daniel Murphy, to the point where the second baseman allowed Roessler and his family to reside in his home in Washington D.C.

Roessler was promoted to the Mets’ head hitting coach position this season, inking a twoyear deal to replace Kevin Long. The results have been ugly as the Mets entered Monday with the worst team batting average (.229) in the majors.

But the Yankees are Roessler’s teachings.