by BretMan » June 19th, 2008, 3:48 pm
Even though I'm not particularly a Yankees fan, one nice thing about having their AAA-affiliate here in town was that you got to see a lot of future Major League players coming up through the ranks. Pretty much any player that was "home grown" and came through the farm system, I had a chance to see them play.
Righetti, Mattingly, Williams, Posoda, Cano, all passed through, to name but a few. We also had the chance to see a lot of guys like Strawberry and Clemens come through town on various rehab assignments.
But one sticks out. Back in the mid-90's a promising young shortstop came to town. For one brief summer, Derek Jeter thrilled the Columbus crowd with his electric play.
It was about that time that my own daughter was first getting into fastpitch softball and the Columbus Clippers (so named because of the famous Yankee clipper sailing ships and Mr. Steinbrenner's association with the ship building industry) had an after-game instructional clinic open to all the kids at the game.
So there I am, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the future Yankee great as he gave my kid personal tips on fielding and throwing! And, not being much of an autograph guy- and Jeter not being much more than a "prospect" at the time- I didn't have him sign a ball, a glove, a program, my arm or anything!
Of course, a few years later I kind of regretted that...