There's a new face on the New York pro baseball scene. His name is Francisco. Sorry Mets fans, I'm not talking about K-Rod, who granted has been perfect this year in saves opportunities except for that 1 save opportunity that slipped away when a route pop fly by second baseman Luis Castillo was dropped. A.J. Burnett might as well have snuck behind him during his interview on SNY and stuffed a whipped cream pie in his face.
Anyway, I'm talking about Yankees rookie catcher Francisco Cervelli. In Wednesday night's victory against the Atlanta Braves, his home run brought revival to the Yankees offense. Check out the drama here: Joe Girardi gets kicked out of the game for arguing that call on a play at first base. (Replays show that Brett Gardner was safe) Next up is Frankie Cervelli.
Let's set the stage here. The Braves are up 1-0. The Yankees up to this point had been shutout for 14 CONSECUTIVE INNINGS. Frankie steps up to the plate and BANG! He hits his first career home run. What a clutch hit! Some might say that it was Girardi's tossing that sparked up the offense. Some might say it was Brian Cashman's surprise appearance. I believe it was Cervelli's homer. Ever since Cervelli got called up to be the everyday catcher during Jorge Posada's and Jose Molina's stints on the DL, he's been serving up key hit after key hit whether playing every day or coming off the bench. During that stint, Kevin Cash was his backup catcher. That's right! The same Kevin Cash who got called up by the Red Sox when Doug Mirabelli, Jason Varitek's backup catcher when they won the World Series in 2007, went on the DL. Cash may not have played much that year, but he still has a World Series ring. Girardi took a risk on a player with no AAA ball experience over a backup catcher with a World Series ring and it paid off! What's Frankie's style? What's he like?
He mentioned in an interview with Kimberly Jones that he loves to spend time meeting with the pitcher he's catching before a game. He hangs out with him and keeps him loose. The veterans love him for that. It's probably a break from ego clashes with Jorge Posada. In fact, he was the one who caught Joba today. Compare this outing with his previous outing when Jorge caught him against the Mets. He was much smoother in Wednesday's game as opposed continually shaking off Posada in his previous outing.
Cervelli is a Venezuelan of Italian descent. His countrymen consider him a turncoat for protesting against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and his dictatorshiplike principles. Because of this, he favored his Italian descent and played for Italy in the World Baseball Classic instead of his native Venezuela. This is a big statement for a rookie who's shaping up to be Jorge Posada's successor upon his retirement.
