Francisco Cervelli: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

When I first came to Pinstripe Alley I learned one immediate lesson. Francisco Cervelli is awesome. He is the almighty savior of the Yankees and is the past, present, and future of baseball all wrapped into one Italian/Venezuelan man. What I hadn't realized yet was realisitically, Francisco Cervelli is the exact kind of player that makes baseball the great sport that it is.

Back in 2008 Cervelli got his first taste of the big leagues, being the AA catcher that he was, he was still on the 40 man roster for September call-ups. In 2009, however, Cervelli was hitting horribly in AA Trenton, looking like he has no shot at a big league roster any time soon.

Then luck came around and both Jorge Posada and Jose Molina landed on the DL. Cervelli was called up and made a start for the Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. This is when the legend was started. Cervelli caught CC Sabathia's stellar start and added a run scored of his own. The one time struggling AA catcher is now an MLB catcher that just caught a $161 million dollar ace.

Then came Atlanta. Cervelli hit his first career home run off of Kris Medlen and helped the Yankees to a much needed win for their morale.

Now, Cervelli is a backup catcher for the Yankees and a mainstay in the Bronx. The once laughable thought of Cervelli being a starting catcher in the MLB is now a possible reality. Ed showed you the stats in a recent post. A 3.18 ERA doesn't lie. Pitchers love throwing to him and he loves catching pitchers.

The point of this post? Maybe I just felt like showing some personal love for Cervelli. Maybe this can be used as a Cervellography. The point is most likely though that Francisco Cervelli is the exact kind of player that I wish all baseball players would be like. Loves the game, gives a full effort, shows passion, and is very good at the game too.