What’ll it be, Yankees fans?
Big opportunity Tuesday night for those of you who come to Yankee Stadium, as Robinson Cano will make his Bronx debut in a Seattle Mariners uniform.
Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Nine seasons in a Yankees uniform, seven of them elite. A World Series ring in 2009. Remarkable durability. Leadership to his young Latino teammates, in particular.
So why does it feel like he’s going to get filleted like virtually no other returning greats?
Because elite seasons can be harder to recognize from a guy who never hit more than 33 home runs. Because Cano’s brutal 2012 postseason, his last one in a Yankees uniform, seems to have negated his many good prior Octobers.
Because he left the storied Yankees for a team that never even has qualified for the World Series, choosing a guarantee of $240 million over 10 years — a package worth $65 million more than the Yankees’ final offer.
And because, cry The Post a river, he routinely didn’t run hard out of the batter’s box.
On Sunday at the Stadium, I discussed Cano’s work ethic with CC Sabathia, and I mentioned Cano’s habit of not busting it on the bases.
“That’s why [he didn’t run hard],” Sabathia said. “Because he played 160 games every year. Every inning of every game.”
The tradeoff: Cano wouldn’t blow out a hamstring to get two or three extra bases per year, and in return, he contributed — and participated — at an elite level. His “hustle” came in the form of showing up four or five hours before first pitch before night games and never requesting a day off.
“He had a lot of talent, but Robbie worked at it, too,” Derek Jeter said. “He’d be here early. He got his work in. It’s not just like he’s going out there and just playing on ability. He’s got a lot of ability, but he works extremely hard at it. He kept improving a lot throughout the years.”
“He was always here hitting early. You always saw him taking ground balls,” Sabathia echoed. “Somebody like that, when the game comes easy to him, it’s good to see that he still does work as hard as he does and takes it seriously.”
From 2006 (Cano’s first full season in the big leagues) through 2013, Cano ranked fifth overall in games played with 1,242, behind only Prince Fielder (1,283), Adrian Gonzalez (1,274), current Yankee Ichiro Suzuki (1,265) and Miguel Cabrera (1,255). If you throw out 2006, the last season Cano went on the disabled list, and span from ’07 to ’13, then Cano jumps to second place with 1,120, just six behind Fielder. (Thanks, Baseball-Reference.com.)
“Robbie played every day,” Jeter said. “He’s one of those guys, it was very, very rare not to see him in the lineup. He wanted to play every day. That’s the only way you can do that. You’ve got to be healthy, but you also have to want to do it.”
The Yankees’ captain will not hand out platitudes just to placate a reporter. If you’ve won his approval, as Cano clearly did, then you probably have done OK for yourself.
Cano appears to have some mixed feelings about his new life. In an interview with The Post’s Kevin Kernan in Seattle last week, he expressed regrets that the Yankees didn’t work harder to retain him.
“They never tried to work it out,” Cano said.
The Mariners’ underwhelming 10-14 record surely hasn’t helped his adjustment, and he hasn’t helped as much as he would like. He sports an uncharacteristically low .292/.347/.371 slash line.
All good material for the Yankees fan who takes the team’s side in this dispute. The fist-shaking, perspective-deprived fan can rail against Cano for not accepting the Yankees’ seven-year, $175 million offer, which was fair but hardly screamed, “Please come back, Robbie!” All the more so when the Yankees valuated Jacoby Ellsbury, who is more similar to Brett Gardner than to Cano, at an in-the-neighborhood $153 million over seven years.
Time (nearly five months now) hasn’t made us any wiser on what precipitated this divorce, as it was obvious then: Cano wanted a historic commitment, and the Yankees didn’t want to give it to him. End of story. Start of new relationship Tuesday.
Based on my email, Twitter and in-person exchanges with fans, as well as a sense of what’s out there in general, I think Cano will get booed healthily.
“I don’t know,” Jeter responded, when I told him my belief. “Yankees fans appreciate their history, and Robbie was a big part of the success here. I think you’ll be surprised.”
The verdict will arrive at roughly 7:10 Tuesday evening. What’ll it be?
Catching up on some recent Pop Quiz questions:
1. From Steve Griffin of Boston: This former Yankees pitcher had a nephew who was a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. Name him.
2. From Kevin DiStasio of Chattanooga, Tenn.: The song “Award Tour” by A Tribe Called Quest features a line, “Coming with more hits than…” two MLB teams. Identify the two teams.
3. From Victor Rosati Jr. of Staten Island: Name the Hall of Famer who appears as himself in the 2002 film “Analyze That.”
Your answers:
1. Virgil Trucks
2. The Braves and Yankees
3. Joe Torre
If you have a tidbit that correlates baseball with popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.