Bird Takes Flight

 

- Tracy Ringolsby

In a postseason that became a showcase for the 2011 draft, Yankees first baseman Greg Bird stepped to center stage in the midst of the Yankees knocking off the Indians in the American League Division Series.

It wasn’t a told-you-so moment. That isn’t Bird’s way.

The emotion he showed when he delivered that seventh-inning home run that provided all the offense in the Yankees’ 1-0 victory in Game 3 of the ALDS said plenty.

“He is a pretty calm guy, so to show the excitement that he showed obviously tells me it was important to him to go out there and demonstrate to people that he is healthy,” Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer said, “and he could do it on the big stage.”

Oppenheimer knows Bird. He scouted him in 2011 at Grandview High in Aurora, Colo., then drafted him in the fifth round and signed him for $1.1 million. It was a larger bonus than any other player taken in the fourth or fifth rounds that year, but it was what it took to sign Bird, who turned down a scholarship to Arkansas.