Rose: Yanks have one Ell’ of a player
TAMPA — Picture it — twenty, fifty, a hundred years down the road in The Bronx: As the Yankees take pregame batting practice, their fans, having arrived at Steiner Sports Stadium in their flying cars, watch memorable moments from their organization’s proud past … … Derek Jeter slugging career hit 3,000 over the left field wall. … Mariano Rivera securing save number 602, passing Trevor Hoffman for the alltime lead in the category. … Jacoby Ellsbury reaching base on catcher’s interference for the 30th time, dethroning … wait for it … Pete Rose as the Catcher’s Interference King. “Ooh, good hitter. Great hitter. I met him. He was very nice to me,” the Yankees much-maligned center fielder said Tuesday, when The Post informed him that, with 26 career times reaching on catcher’s interference, he sits just three away from Rose. “I haven’t really put much thought into it, but it’s the Hit King.” “I met him,” Rose, who knew of Ellsbury’s proximity to his lesser-known record, confirmed in a telephone interview. “He’s a good guy for the top of the order.” Not anywhere as good as the Yankees were hoping to get for their $153 million commitment over seven years. Ellsbury’s .263/ .330/.374 slash line last year has him in need of a career revival at age 33. However, if reaching on catcher’s interference counted as a time getting on base, something Ellsbury believes should be the case, then his 2016 on-base percentage would have been a more palatable .342 after setting a single-season record with 12 such incidents.
The Yankees have regarded this statistical oddity with the glass-halfempty approach. In January, hitting coach Alan Cockrell told reporters: “For me, the biggest thing for Jacoby is moving his contact back out front a little bit more. I’ve never seen a guy hit the catcher’s mitt like he did [last year], and to be honest, when his contact point is three or four inches more out front from where it is right now, he can stay on balls.”
Ellsbury, however, said at George M. Steinbrenner Field he didn’t anticipate any major changes that would decrease his times reached on catcher’s interference this season; he’s slashing .235/.244/.375 for the spring. Explained the center fielder: “You just let the ball travel [and focus on] putting the ball in play. Normally when I [reach on catcher’s interference], I make contact with the ball. It’s more on the catcher trying to steal a strike or something like that.
“But, yeah, if you’re a hitter that lets the ball travel, that’s going to happen.”
“In my case, first of all, I was always as far back in the box as I could get,” Rose said. “A lot of times, aggressive catchers are reaching up. Catchers have to be aware of where guys are in the batters’ box.
“If I’m not mistaken, Ellsbury stays in the back of the box, too. If I’m a catcher and I’m playing against the Yankees I’m aware of that. I might even move right back four or five inches. The ball will get to you. It’s not the hitter’s fault or the pitcher’s fault. It’s the catcher’s fault.”
Rose, his all-time records in hits (4,256), games (3,562) and at-bats (14,053) all extremely secure, can spare this one. Yet he doesn’t take it lightly.
“What’s good for that is, I got on base 29 more times. That’s part of the over 5,900 times I got on base,” he said, correctly. “When you’re leading off for the Big Red Machine, you’ve got to get on. Who gives a [expletive] how you get on?”
“It’s all about helping the team,” Ellsbury said. “It’s not like you’re trying to do that.”
This is not even remotely how the Yankees envisioned Ellsbury making his mark in pinstripes. They’re actively working against it. Nevertheless, come on, now. You won’t cheer, your sincerity level known only to you, should Ellsbury pass Rose this season? It’d be baseball’s Theater of the Bizarre at its finest.