THE look is pure pinstripes. As Mark Teixeira stood on the field of the new Yankee Stadium with the glistening façade in the background, a smile flashed across his face. He seemed like a player from another era, a throwback.
Quite simply, Teixeira was born to be a Yankee.
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“He’s got that All-American look,” Brian Cashman said at yesterday’s press conference, introducing Teixeira to New York. “He’s Paul Bunyan, he’s well educated, he’s the All-American high performer and he’s not a loud personality. He’s very disciplined, structured, a hard worker that’s got exceptional ability. It kind of fits our clubhouse.”
When suggested Teixeira carries himself a lot like Derek Jeter, in that Captain kind of way, Cashman agreed, adding, “He kind of has those qualities.”
Teixeira doesn’t talk about winning just one world championship, he talks about being a “multiple” world champion.
He is a kid who grew up wearing a Yankees cap to Camden Yards and showing up at Yankee Stadium for the first time with his dad when he was “8 or 9.” His favorite player was Don Mattingly. To this day there is a Mattingly poster in the bedroom of his childhood home.
“The coolest part is I’m going to get the chance to be the first first baseman the Yankees have in the new stadium, and the Bleacher Bums in right are going to do the roll call, that’s going to be pretty sweet,” the switch-hitter said of what that Yankee Stadium opener will be like. “Hopefully we’re about four games up in the division, already rolling and the fans will be pumped.”
He’s a family man with strong, faith-based parents and a beautiful wife named Leigh. When it came time to make the most important decision of his career, Leigh pointed him in the right direction, saying “I want you to be a Yankee.”
She told him her thoughts at their regular “date-night” Friday night dinner at their Dallas country club on Dec. 12. Eleven days later when Cashman came up with the eight-year, $180 million offer, Teixeira said signing with the Bronx Bombers was a “no-brainer.”
“When you think of a baseball team, they’re the team,” Leigh said. “I knew Mark would love the new stadium, and he knew the Yankees as an organization would do what it takes to win. In the back of his mind he always knew the Yankees would be a great place for him.”
His father John was high school teammates with Bucky Dent and went on to fly P-3s for the Navy.
“Mark’s grown up respecting the game,” the elder Teixeira said. “When he had the chance to sit back and think about playing first base for the Yankees, and being in the same position as Don Mattingly, it’s an opportunity he did not want to pass up.
“I can hardly wait to take my grandson to Yankee Stadium. That’s my big thing, Jack’s coming to Yankee Stadium with granddad.”
Jack Teixeira will turn 3 in February. John’s wife Margy, who was standing next to him, smiled and said of her son’s talents, “He knows he has a gift from God.”
Leigh and Mark have a 1-year-old daughter, Addison. Family is huge for Teixeira, whose roots are Portuguese.
“My dad’s dad grew up in British Guiana and came over to the United States as a young man and moved to Miami,” he said.
Teixeira’s sister Elizabeth lives in Hoboken with her husband Nick Durastanti and their young daughter.
“Now the cousins can grow up together,” she said.
Teixeira comes across as a regular person, who happens to be a superstar. As he hustled from one interview to the next, he passed me and said with a first-to-third smile, “I’m so happy, I can’t believe it. This is such a great day.”
A great day for the Yankees, too.