The Bronx Children’s Museum alongside The Players Alliance are putting up these murals to inspire people, The murals are meant to ‘fuel dreams and change lives.’ The artist of the murals André Trenier did an amazing job capturing the Yankee Legends.

The mission of the Players Alliance is to “address baseball’s systemic barriers to equity & inclusion by creating pathways to opportunities on and off the field for an undeniable pipeline of black talent.”

I’ve discussed two payers from the Yankees in a previous article Reggie Jackson and Willie Randolph who were inspirational during the 70s into 80s. Moving on a little further into the future, lets take a look at two more superstars that were influential during their time in NY and baseball as a whole.

Dave Winfield excelled at 4 sports ever since he was 8 years old. Winfield was 16 in high school and stood 6’6” and weighed 230 pounds. Winfield was asked to play for the Minnesota Vikings to play Tight End, they knew his size and speed he would have been a great TE, Winfield was also drafted by the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. Dave had his heart set on baseball. Winfield said this about choosing baseball over football, basketball and even hockey.

“It was nice to have options,” Winfield says. “It came down to what I wanted to do for a living. And in my mind, since I was 12 years old, I’d wanted to be a pro baseball player.” – Dave Winfield

Dave Winfield was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 1973. Winfield played 8 years in San Diego before signing the richest contract at that time, $23M for ten years with the New York Yankees. Winfield was a 5 tool player who had four seasons of 20 or more stolen bases. He was a 12 time All-Star, 7 time Gold Glove winner and won 6 Silver Slugger Awards.

Winfield spent 9 of his 22 year career with the Yankees, he did not win a World Series as a member of The Bombers, but a lot of his greatness was with them, 8 out of the 9 years in NY he was an All-Star, the Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers, lets face it all his damage was done as a Yankee. Even though Winfield had most of his individual success with the Yankees when he was elected to The Hall of Fame in 2001, Winfield went in as a Padre, the team who drafted him.

Dave Winfield has a charity, as a lot of baseball players do after the retire. The David M. Winfield Foundation. Winfield started his before retiring, he provides services to all the cities he was a part of during his playing days, in San Diego, he would buy tickets to Padres games for families who could not afford to attend games. When Dave got to Toronto where he did win his lone World Series in 1992, he found out that teammate David Wells was one of the “Winfield Kids” in San Diego.

On the mural with Dave Winfield is Yankees legend and former Captain Derek Jeter. We all know of his excellence and all his accomplishments from the beginning of his career to very end. Jeter was born in New Jersey but moved to Kalamazoo Michigan, Jeter was a star on the baseball field early on. Derek Jeter got a full scholarship to the University of Michigan.

Derek Jeter’s dreams of playing for his favorite team as a kid; the NY Yankees came true in 1992, the Yankees drafted Jeter with the 6th overall pick. Jeter’s life, career and the team’s lives changed forever in 1995, when Jeter debuted playing in 51 games.

Jeter’s official season was 1996 and in that year he went on to win Rookie of the Year hitting .314 with 78 RBI and 10 HR and played in almost every game that year 157 games to be exact. Jeter was at the plate a total of 654 times recording 582 official at bats drawing 49 walks.

Derek Jeter was the epitome of good health throughout his career with the exception of 2013 his second to last year where he only played in 17 games. Jeter had 6 seasons of 200+ hits, and over his 20 year career Derek had 9 season of over 700 plate appearances.

Derek Jeter has the most hits as a Yankee with 3465. For a comparison, neither Babe Ruth nor Lou Gehrig never topped the 3000 mark in their careers. Jeter’s career stat line is .310/.377/.440 with 260 HR. Along with the Rookie of the Year award Jeter was an All-star 14 times, won 5 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Slugger Award, as we know a 5x World Series winner and a World Series MVP once. Jeter also won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2009 the year of the Yankees last championship.

Speaking of the World Series; Derek Jeter was named another captain, he was “Captain Clutch” Jeter has a .321 post season AVG. He holds MLB postseason records in games played 158, plate appearances 734, at bats 650, hits 200, runs scored 111, and total bases with 302. He is also 4th in home runs with 20 and runs batted in with 61, 5th in walks 66 and 6th in stolen bases with 18.

Derek Jeter’s well know charity the Turn 2 Foundation was created in 1996 by Jeter and his father Charles. Jeter wanted to motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and “Turn 2” healthy lifestyles.

To think Derek Jeter was almost a Houston Astro is a scary thought. Hal Newhouser who worked as a scout for the Astros scouted Jeter and was extremely impressed, however the Astros went on to select Phil Nevin in the draft. Hal Newhouser felt so strongly about Jeter’s potential that he quit his job with the Astros for ignoring his drafting advice. I personally thank you Houston for ignoring Newhouser 😉.

Stay tuned for Part 3, If you like this article feel free to leave a comment below follow me on ‘X’ @HENDO19750 or message me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HENDO.1975

Photo Credit; 6sqft, Sports Illustrated, Houston Chronicle

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