TAMPA — Scott Brosius knows what Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay, Brennan Boesch and Ben Francisco are experiencing.
Yesterday, as those four attempted to speed up their familiarity of being Yankees, Mariano Rivera recalled not much was known about Brosius in the spring of 1998.
“We had Scott Brosius and no one had a clue about him,’’ Rivera said of the third baseman, who batted .203 for the 1997 Athletics and was acquired for Kenny Rogers.
If any of the four new players perform as well as Brosius, the Yankees will do cartwheels across Jerome Avenue.
“I was thinking about 1,000 different scenarios,’’ Brosius told The Post from the office at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., where he is the baseball coach. “Am I not going to make the team? Am I going to be the utility player? The starting third baseman? You never know how it’s going to play out. … Vernon and Overbay have been successful at the big league level. It’s not like they are taking a Double-A player and crossing their fingers.’’
Brosius batted .300 with 19 homers and 98 RBIs in his first Yankees season and delivered four solid seasons with the Yankees in which they won World Series in 1998 (he was the MVP), 1999 and 2000.
— George A. King III