From catching castoff to World Series hero to the manager behind Championship No. 27, Joe Girardi’s Yankees tenure took on multiple lives.
As a veteran voice in the locker room at the start of the ’90s dynasty, he helped mold the careers of many future MLB stars long before it was his official job title. In fact, he’s often credited with setting Jorge Posada’s transcendent career off on its axis, smoothly supervising the handoff of the most important position on the diamond to No. 20 in 1998, before moving on to Chicago at the end of the 1999 season.