It takes a Yankee fan of a different generation to remember the name Hensley Meulens, or his nickname “Bam-Bam.”
He came from a time when the Yankees were in a real rebuilding mode, when a return to glory was nowhere in sight. He played in parts of five seasons with the Yanks from 1989 to 1993, the lowest of lows during the drought between the “Bronx Zoo” Yankees of the 1970s and the dynasty of the late 1990s. In 159 games spread over those five years, Meulens batted .221 with 12 home runs.
So it might sound strange to think that a guy who hasn’t put on a Yankee uniform going on 25 years now — and never played a playoff game, let alone won a World Series ring in pinstripes — thinks he was made for this job and this opportunity to be the manager that could lead the Yankees into their next era of greatness.