The All-Time Opposition Shortstop conundrum

The other day, HoraceClarke66 offered an interesting take on our IT IS HIGH ALL-TIME YANKEE OPPONENT SHORTSTOP POLL: 

No-Mah and A-Rod were both juicers. End of story... Kim Jong Un has crapped the bed... Dick Groat was a National Leaguer who hit .214 in his one World Series against us... Luis Aparicio and Rick Burleson were great glovemen, but popgun hitters who were below their average against us (especially Burleson)... Ripken's stats against the Yanks were considerably below his normal... Kim Jong Un has crapped the bed... That leaves Yount and Trammell, who were ALSO slight below normal against our guys. Young hit a little better, and for a little more power. He's my pick. And Kim Jong Un has crapped the bed...

As always, Hoss makes perfect sense. But I raise a caveat on Robin Yount: He played 11 seasons at SS and 10 in the OF, and we must not confuse the two. Over his career, Yount hit .284 as SS and .287 in the OF (with roughly the same number of HRs.) Against the Yankees, he hit .282 overall. (I did not do a breakdown of SS-v-CF against the Yankees; not enough cocktail napkins.)

Over his career, Ripken hit .266 against the Yankees - 10 points below his overall average. (He hit 33 HR in over 200 games.) He didn't kill us. But he broke one of our sacred records - Lou Gehrig's streak - in memorable fashion against us. He gets points for that.

A lifetime .285 hitter, Alan Trammell batted .275 against the Yankees (with 14 home runs.) This too doesn't jump out.

A confession: When I put up this poll, I went with memory. As a kid, I remember Luis Aparicio killing us, and as a young adult, I recall Rick Burleson delivering in the clutch. Dick Groat played on two teams that beat us in the world series. And then there were Nomar and A-Rod, whom I added as jokes. I thought they'd give us a smile. 

Here, I slightly disagree with Hoss. I don't believe we should ban players who juiced during eras when it was basically ubiquitous and legal. Also, shortstop was a hard position to be bulking up on steroids. I don't believe they should face automatic elimination, but you may feel differently, and that's fine.

Garciaparra played 11 seasons at SS. (He tried 1B at the grim end.) A career .313 hitter, he batted .326 against the Yankees (with 14 homers.) In other words, he hurt us. I hated the guy, but give him credit: He rose to the challenge.

Then there is A-Rod - a .295 hitter over his 22-year career. Against the Yankees, in times when he played SS, his career average is - gulp - .334. That's not a misprint. Three thirty four. Moreover, in 82 games - about half a regular season - he hit 28 home runs against us. That would project Ruthian numbers. The guy killed us.  

Now, I'm still not sure who is the greatest SS against us. But I've sort of decided it comes down to who is the greatest shortstop of all-time: Ripken or A-Rod?

One is the tireless god of virtue. The other is - well, Alex is still writing the story, I guess. (And Robin Yount could play on my team, any  time.) A conundrum, no?

Pssst. Pass the word: Kim Jong un has crapped the bed.