Aye, Captain! Do The Yankees Really Need A Future Captain?

Mood Music - Battle In The Mutara Nebula by James Horner

Now, obviously James Tiberius Kirk is the greatest captain ever, but sadly he did not play baseball for the Yankees. If he did, the Dynasty would never have stopped. However, the Yankees currently have a captain. I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but he's the current Yankees shortstop. Derek Jeter, anyone? Now he has been the Yankees captain since June 3rd, 2003 when the late Mr. George Steinbrenner officially named him the next Yankees captain. The previous Yankees captain before him was the first Yankee I was proud to call my favorite player, Don Mattingly. Being the Yankees captain, at this point, is much more of an honorary title than anything else. The reason I bring this up is because soon, Derek Jeter will eventually retire. It might take two years, it might take four years, it will hopefully take two years, but eventually Jeter will retire. Mind you, being a fan of Jeter's, I will be saddened by this. Not to mention the fact that it's going to make me feel old since I can vividly remember when he first came up. Once he does retire though, should the Yankees captain be retired along with him?

With Jason Varitek retiring, currently only two teams still actually have a captain. Obviously one is Derek Jeter and the other is Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox. Otherwise no other team has a team captain and it's really not hard to imagine why. As I mentioned before, it's more of an honorary title and a symbol of leadership than anything else. I don't actually think that's necessarily a bad thing however I really don't think it's anything that is really needed. Would it have made a difference if Jeter was the Yankees captain or not? Was this perhaps a business decision by the Yankees in trying to build Jeter up to be this "larger than life" player? In fact, with the contract negotiations that got out of hand, could the move to make Jeter the new Yankees captain have actually hurt them? Needless to say, what's done is done. Like I said, Jeter will soon be retiring and the Yankees will be captain-less.

OR WILL THEY?

Could a new Yankees captain be on the horizon? If so, who do you think it will be?

Or do you think they should retire it all together?

DISCUSS!