WHY ANDY STANKIEWICZ MADE ME BELIEVE

Not too many remember Andy Stankiewicz but growing up when he manned the shortstop position (and sometimes second base) for the New York Yankees, I remember little Phil Rizzuto once complimenting little Andy Stankiewicz in his former position and I remember many Yankee fans saying he reminded us of Phil too, read HERE. That in turn had me thinking about little me. No one expected Phil Rizzuto to be a successful shortstop for the New York Yankees because he was small, but he became that and did it better than many of the greats. Many saw that in Stankiewicz, the little train that could.

Rizzuto was 5”6”, Andy Stankiewicz was 5'9" (although I think it was more like 5'7".) I too was 5’7”. Watching and hearing about the little guy making a difference in the field, especially for a little guy like me gave me confidence… you start to realize that big things happen to little guys who don’t give up. It’s a life thing and guys like Rizzuto and Stankiewicz played by those rules and succeeded.

Sure, Andy Stankiewicz was never close to becoming a Hall of Famer, but he was a New York Yankee and while he was merely “filler” before guys like Tony Fernandez and Derek Jeter showed up, he filled his roll wonderfully and the players loved him as well as the fans.

During Stankiewicz’s short Yankee career, he had these numbers:

2 years, 107-409, 22 2B, 25 RBIs, .262 AVG

There is no doubt that the numbers don’t tell the full story for me. It was his ability that really blew me away. He went up to the plate like was 6 feet tall and for a short while, I remember the fans really enjoyed watching the guy work… he never gave up, he wanted to win all the time. In some regards he reminded me of guys like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada. That home grown talent mentality that we just fall in love with as Yankee fans.

I don’t know why I started writing about Stanky, but I just got sentimental I guess. I was on Ebay searching around for Yankees memorabilia and I stumbled across Stanky's Rookie card. Sometimes I think about these guys and I have fond memories. Andy Stankiewicz is one of those guys that as a little guy myself, I enjoyed rooting for him.

Glasses up ladies and gentlemen… a toast to the little guy with a big heart… Andy Stankiewicz.

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