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Fans have asked Yankees beat writer Bryan Hoch who the guest instructors are in spring training this year, and Hoch kindly obliged on his blog, "Bombers Beat."
Billy Connors (36)
Goose Gossage (54)
Ron Guidry (49)
Reggie Jackson (44)
Hideki Matsui (55)
Lee Mazzilli (24)
Stump Merrill (22)
Jorge Posada (20)
Willie Randolph (30)
David Wells (33)
Fairly familiar names in the bunch compared to years past. After officially retiring as a Yankee last year, Matsui joins the fold for the first time. Posada's back for his second go-around following his 2011 retirement, and everyone else has been there at one point or another for years. Knowing the instructors is pretty irrelevant, but it's nice to see those guys around camp. (Well, maybe not Stump Merrill for those who remember his forgettable tenure as manger in the pre-Showalter days.) It's a bummer that Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford aren't healthy enough for these trips anymore. Getting old sucks.
Lou Piniella and John Flaherty aren't listed even though I'm pretty sure they were last year, but chances are they're around again too since they're on the YES broadcast team. Mariano Rivera will probably be an instructor eventually, but after 24 straight years of spring training, I'm sure Mo is gladly taking the break.
