MLB

No flip-flopping for Yankees’ Granderson

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Curtis Granderson will never have anything in common with Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle — except the position he plays wearing pinstripes.

Heck, Granderson isn’t likely to approach Bernie Williams’ status while patrolling the most consecrated plot of grass in The Bronx.

And while the Yankees aren’t looking for Granderson to be Joe D, The Mick or Bernie, he has to be more than Omar Moreno, Ruppert Jones, Jerry Kenney and Bubba Crosby.

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“It’s been a learning experience to understand the history behind the position because I didn’t follow the Yankees growing up,” said Granderson, who yesterday was officially named the Opening Day center fielder for the World Series champions on Sunday night in Fenway Park, confirming the Post’s report of March 24. “To hear about it and learn about it, you know right away there are big shoes to fill. I just have to do my job and make the routine plays.”

When camp opened, Joe Girardi vowed to look at Granderson and Brett Gardner in center and left. Gardner, who will get a chance to be the everyday left fielder, might be the better defender in center. But if Gardner was the center fielder and didn’t start against all lefties — which is likely — Girardi would have had to shuttle Granderson back and forth from left to center. It was something the manager decided to avoid.

“We tried not to move him around; put him at one spot,” Girardi said of the 29-year-old Granderson, who scouts say lost confidence in center field late last season while playing for the Tigers, and who former Detroit first-base coach and big league center fielder Andy Van Slyke said wasn’t a finished product playing in the middle of the outfield.

For Gardner, it’s the second straight spring the 26-year-old speedster won a starting job in the outfield. Last year, he beat out Melky Cabrera to start in center and then relinquished the job three weeks into the season due to dead wood.

“I am looking at Gardy as an everyday player,” said Girardi, who wouldn’t commit to calling Gardner exactly that because he has right-handed hitting Marcus Thames to use against lefties. Thames is a career .256 (159-for-620) hitter with 40 homers and 105 RBIs against lefties.

After watching Johnny Damon’s range decrease due to age and leg woes and Cabrera play center with average speed, the Yankees are looking forward to seeing four legs cover the biggest left-center field meadow in baseball.

“There is a difference, these guys go get balls,” Girardi said. “We have more speed and we are more athletic out there.”

Gardner, who started 15 games in left field in 2008, doesn’t believe having two center fielders will cause the communication problems that often surface when two players experienced in calling for fly balls are in the same outfield.

“He has been great, he talks and I talk,” Gardner said.

Gardner never admitted it, but he knew early Granderson was going to play center.

“When I came to camp, I figured he was going to be the center fielder,” Gardner said when asked if he was disappointed about shifting to left.

Gardner, who rebounded to hit .270 after losing his starting gig in late April thanks to a .220 average, admitted he hasn’t hit the way he would like in the exhibition season.

“I am hard on myself and I haven’t had a good swing at the plate,” said Gardner, who is batting .212 (10-for-52) after going 1-for-2 in yesterday’s 5-2 win over the Blue Jays at Dunedin Stadium. “I have to try and figure it out.”

george.king@nypost.com