5 BOROUGH SPORTS

NEW YORK (AP)—Andruw Jones agreed Thursday to a $2 million, one-year contract with the New York Yankees, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the deal for the former star outfielder is subject to physical. Jones can earn an additional $1.2 million in performance bonuses as part of the agreement. The 33-year-old Jones, brought in as a right-handed-hitting backup to Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher, made an impact against New York in his rookie season, homering twice for Atlanta at Yankee Stadium in the 1996 World Series opener. After hitting a career-best 51 homers for the Braves in 2005 and 41 the following year, his career nosedived. His home runs dropped to 26 during his final season with Atlanta and he hit three in 2007, his one injury-decimated season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jones rebounded to hit 17 homers for the Chicago White Sox in 2009 and had 19 last season for the White Sox to go along with a .230 average and 48 RBIs.

In the '96 World Series, Jones hit .400 with 2 HR and 6 RBI

If it was 2003, the Yankees would be the greatest team of all-time. ARod, Teixeira, Jeter, Posada, Rivera, and ANDRUW JONES. Too bad it’s eight years later and everyone is old. The Yanks are turning more and more into the 2011 Boston Celtics (imagine that team on NBA Live 2001? Allen, Pierce, Garnett, Shaq? Would be unstoppable).

Anyway, for a one year, $2 million contract, this isn’t too bad of a move. Obviously Jones isn’t going to start Opening Day but if the Yanks get any power out of his bat, this will be a good investment.

And what about 1996? This is the man who broke Mickey Mantle’s record as the youngest player to hit a home run in a World Series. I can still hear it now, “A two-run homer, a three-run homer…and all of a sudden it’s 8-0 Atlanta here in the third.” Good thing we won that series or I wouldn’t be mentioning that awful game.  Jones has had a dynamite career for the Braves, Dodgers, Rangers and White Sox. He has a career 406 home runs with over 1,200 RBI. I feel it’s very appropriate for Andruw Jones to possibly end his career in pinstripes.

This entry was posted on January 20, 2011 at 6:34 pm and is filed under Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.