Hello everyone. Hard to believe that Opening Day is 11 days away. Let’s hope the Yankees can get there without anymore injury drama. Today, my thoughts on the ongoing shortstop and center field battles, some other news and notes, and a look back at Game 7 of the 1956 World Series when the hero of the day was Johnny Kucks, a long forgotten pitcher who had one great season, and one great postseason game.

There’s been a lot of focus - and rightly so - on the battle being waged between Oswald Peraza, Anthony Volpe and Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the starting shortstop job, but every bit as intriguing and uncertain is what’s going on in center field.

Less than two weeks before Opening Day, I don’t think the Yankees have truly come to a consensus on who will be starting in either of those vital positions.

At shortstop, I think Peraza is going to get the nod, even though he probably hasn’t been the best player so far this spring. Volpe has been every bit Peraza’s equal in the field (although Peraza has the stronger arm), and at the plate it hasn’t even been a contest. Volpe has appeared in 14 games and he’s 11-for-37 which computes to .297, his on-base percentage is .422 and he has four doubles, two homers, three RBI and four stolen bases.

Peraza, who everyone knew was a great fielder but an average hitter, is batting .214 with an on-base of .353, two doubles, a homer, one RBI and two stolen bases. What plays in Peraza’s favor is he has more experience, not only in the majors after his call-up last season, but at Triple-A where he has played 107 games and batted 460 times. Volpe just reached Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year and had 99 plate appearances.

Two other factors weigh in Peraza’s favor. He’s already on the 40-man roster and Volpe isn’t, so for Volpe to get moved up, someone else would have to be lopped off. And, as I talked about last week, there’s the whole service time manipulation issue and by sending Volpe down for the first few weeks, the Yankees gain an extra year of control before he’s eligible to reach free agency.

“I feel really good about both players,” Aaron Boone said Saturday. “That in a way makes it harder.”

As for Kiner-Falefa, the writing was on the wall when the Yankees started giving him practice time in the outfield last week which certainly raised a few eyebrows. With Harrison Bader out for the foreseeable future, the Yankees are scrambling to figure out center field and they wanted to see if IKF could be useful as an alternative.

He started Friday against the Tigers and made a couple routine plays, but also made two mental mistakes. He tried to nail a runner at the plate when he should have been throwing to third to prevent another runner from advancing. And later, he was positioned incorrectly and a ball fell in left-center between him, left fielder Aaron Hicks and Volpe at short and the batter wound up with a triple. “That was probably my ball,” IKF said, admitting that he misread the alignment card and should have been shaded toward left-center instead of where he was in right-center. “That was the one time I messed up my alignment. That can’t happen in the real game.” Uh, no, it can’t.

Even though Aaron Judge proved perfectly capable in center last year when he started 78 games there, the Yankees would rather not tax him quite as much, especially now that they’re on the hook for $360 million. The only natural center fielders they have are Hicks and Estevan Florial, but Hicks is no longer an everyday player at that position, and Florial is terrific on defense but he can’t hit a lick. If he makes the team, his role will be late-inning defensive replacement or pinch runner. Oswaldo Cabrera has also gotten a little time in center this spring.

If nothing else, IKF is a terrific athlete and with more game action and practice, he could probably handle the job if the Yankees need him. Also, as much as we rag on IKF for his inconsistency at short, he’s not a terrible hitter like, for instance, Florial and Hicks.

“I think he’d be natural out there,” Boone said. “The ability to move around, his speed and athleticism, his bat-to-ball skills.”

“I think it’s just good to add some tools,” Kiner-Falefa said of trying to learn the position. “Shortstop is obviously the second-hardest position on the field after being a catcher, so adding center field to my resume a little bit is good; just being able to play there in a pinch if something happens and the team needs me.”

➤ The three players the Yankees had playing in the World Baseball Classic did next to nothing for their respective teams.

Gleyber Torres played in three of Venezuela’s five games and went 1-for-10 with three walks and three strikeouts. Saturday night in a thrilling 9-7 loss to Team USA which eliminated previously undefeated Venezuela, Torres went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. He came up in a big spot in the ninth and flied to right.

Nicaragua went winless in four games and Jonathan Loiasiga was part of the problem. He pitched in two games and in his two innings he gave up three earned runs on three hits and a walk.

And for Team USA, Kyle Higashioka is the third-string catcher behind J.T. Realmuto and Will Smith and has made only three short appearances with no at bats. Higgy is still away from the Yankees because Team USA blew out Cuba Sunday night to advance to the championship game on Tuesday.

➤ Speaking of the WBC, I haven’t watched much, but two things came to mind when I did. The games have been great because just like it is in other sports, playing for your country means something. And, the games have been awful because the WBC is not using the new MLB timing, pickoff and shift rules and as a result it’s a stark reminder of why MLB desperately needed to institute the new rules aimed at improving pace of play.

Saturday night’s USA-Venezuela game took nearly four hours, and there have been several other games of that length because pitchers and batters are taking their sweet time, just like they have the past couple decades. It’s brutal, and we can only hope those days are done.

And one more thing: I can’t imagine being a Mets fan and watching superstar closer Edwin Diaz be lost for the season because he blew out his knee celebrating Puerto Rico’s electric victory over the Dominican Republic. Or seeing Astros star Jose Altuve suffer a fractured thumb Saturday for Venezuela when he was hit by a pitch, likely costing him the first three months of this season.

But for those bashing the WBC over this and saying that MLB players should not be participating is just silly. As we all know as Yankees fans, baseball players get hurt all the time. The Diaz injury was a crazy fluke, and Altuve could have just as easily been hit by a Double-A pitcher in a spring training game. Playing in the WBC had nothing to do with either injury.

I know it’s a concern for teams sending pitchers to the WBC because having them throw ultra-competitive innings this early isn’t great, but the teams have to also trust their pitchers to be smart enough to make sure they’re ready to go by adjusting their offseason training regiments. It’s not like these games suddenly pop up on the schedule; everyone knows when they are and pitchers should know what amount of time they need to get ready. Plus, WBC managers are given strict usage instructions by each pitcher’s team so over-use isn’t an issue.

All you have to do is watch the highlights, see the big crowds and the way they are so into it, and then listen to the players revel in the excitement they get from playing to know the tournament is very good for baseball.

➤ Not a great spring debut for Nestor Cortes on Saturday. Supposedly recovered from his hamstring issue, which cost him a chance to play for Team USA, Torres got lit up by the Blue Jays for five earned runs on three hits and three walks in 3.1 innings and 52 pitches. Vlad Guerrero and Whit Merrifield homered against him.

This was essentially Toronto’s starting lineup so that’s a pretty tough assignment for Cortes in his first appearance so I’m not going to read too much into it. But he’s scheduled to take the ball for real in the second series of the season against the defending NL champion Phillies, so he’s gonna need to get things right in a hurry.

Sunday, Gerrit Cole wasn’t too sharp, either. Against the Orioles he pitched five innings and gave up four runs on six hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. The big mistake, the one that usually does Cole in, was the gopher ball. He got tagged for a three-run shot by Anthony Bemboon who is hitting .143 this spring for Baltimore.

Josh Donaldson played Sunday, too, and he went 0-for-3. He’s now hitting .179 in 28 at bats with one homer. Here’s my wish for Opening Day: Donaldson gets launched to the sun, D.J. LeMahieu plays third, Volpe plays short, Peraza plays second, and Torres starts the year on the bench until Brian Cashman can find a trade partner. Unlikely all the way around, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

Don Larsen Had a Big Moment in 1956, But so Did Johnny Kucks

In the spring of 1961, former Yankees pitcher Johnny Kucks found himself standing on a pitchers mound in Rochester as a member of the city’s triple-A International League team, the Red Wings.

“It was quite a surprise to me,” he said.

Five years earlier Kucks had been standing on the mound at Ebbets Field watching Yogi Berra drop the final pitch Kucks threw in his brilliant performance in Game Seven of the 1956 World Series.

In what would turn out to be the last at-bat of the legendary Jackie Robinson’s career, Major League Baseball’s first Black player had swung at a fastball and missed to become Kucks’ only strikeout victim in the greatest game he had ever pitched, or would ever pitch. That is provided Berra could corral the loose ball and throw on to first baseman Moose Skowron to complete the 2-3 putout, which Berra did, securing a 9-0 blowout for the Yankees 17th World Series title and sixth in eight years.

Once Skowron squeezed the ball, he and the rest of the Yankees mobbed Kucks as a familiar silence enveloped the tiny ballpark and normalcy - meaning frustration and sadness - returned to Flatbush. For one year Brooklyn had reigned as the home of champions when it had beaten the Yankees in a thrilling seven-game battle in 1955, and now, thanks in large part to Kucks, the pride of Jersey City, New Jersey, that reign was over and the Yankees had returned to their perch back atop the throne.

To many of Kucks’ teammates, men such as Berra, Hank Bauer, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Joe Collins, Gil McDougald and Billy Martin, winning the World Series was the Yankees’ domain, but it was all new for Kucks. He had only joined the club in 1955, the year hell froze over and the loveable losers from Brooklyn didn’t have to ‘wait ‘til next year.’

This was Kucks’ first time on the winning side, and to have played such a vital role in recapturing Yankee glory by hurling a three-hit shutout in the pressure-packed winner-take-all seventh game was just about beyond belief.

“I was the most happy guy in the world,” Kucks said years later. “I was numb.”

About as numb as he felt the first day he took the mound in Rochester.

No disrespect to the fine folks of Rochester, Kucks was quick to qualify, but it was quite a comedown for a man who had pitched in four consecutive World Series between 1955 and 1958 and owned two championship rings.

Kucks had struggled for much of 1958 and wasn’t particularly effective in the two relief appearances he made in the 1958 World Series against the Braves. With an 8.64 ERA early in 1959, the Yankees decided to move on from the right-hander and they traded him to the Kansas City A’s along with Jerry Lumpe and Tom Sturdivant for Hector Lopez and Ralph Terry.

After two lackluster seasons with the awful A’s, Kucks found himself in Rochester at the start of 1961 trying to salvage his career at the age of 28.

“I knew I hadn’t been great, but I was amazed when they told me they were sending me to Rochester,” said Kucks. “I could hardly believe it when Joe Gordon (then the manager of the A’s) said, ‘I’ve got some bad news for you, we’re sending you down to triple-A.’”

Kucks had only pitched one minor league season, 1952, compiling a 19-6 record for Norfolk in the Class B Piedmont League. He spent 1953 and 1954 serving in the military, then impressed Casey Stengel at the Yankees’ 1955 instructional camp which earned him an invitation to spring training in St. Petersburg. He continued to pitch well amongst the big boys, made the team and went on to post an 8-7 record as a starter/long relief man.

In 1956 Kucks took the American League by storm with an 18-9 record and a 3.85 ERA. He formed a dynamic righty-lefty tandem with Whitey Ford and though he fell one victory shy of Ford’s team-high 19, he led the Bombers in starts (31) and shutouts (3).

In the World Series, Kucks made relief appearances in the first two games, then didn’t pitch again until Game 7 when Stengel handed him the ball and told him to go win the World Series. Problem was, he’d be facing Brooklyn’s best, 27-game winner Don Newcombe.

Ford could have pitched on three days rest, but Stengel was worried about Ford pitching at Ebbets, a place he had typically struggled. “The schedule has me this year,” Stengel said. “My left-hander always comes due at Ebbets Field.”

“I remember I sat next to (publicist) Jackie Farrell on the bus and he asked me, ‘Who’s pitching?,’” Kucks recalled. “ I really didn't know.” It wasn’t until he got to his locker when he fully appreciated the moment. “Then I fell over and they gave me smelling salts,” he joked.

Following Game 6, Newcombe got into a scuffle with a parking attendant and though he was not arrested, it was believed that he would be facing an assault suit. Perhaps distracted by that, Newcombe had nothing in Game 7. Berra hit a two-run homer in the first, another two-run homer in the third, and when Elston Howard led off the fourth with a solo homer, Dodgers manager Walter Alston yanked his star, though it was far too late.

Newcombe showered and left the ballpark immediately which infuriated the Dodgers’ brass. He stopped briefly at his home in Newark, and according to his wife, told her he wouldn’t be home that night. Contacted by the Daily News, Mrs. Newcombe said, “He was in a state of mind I’ve never seen before in our 11 years of marriage.”

Meanwhile, back at the ballpark, Kucks was mowing down the Dodgers and they never stood a chance. The only time they advanced a runner to second base was in the bottom of the first and Kucks escaped by getting Robinson to ground into a double play which he started. “Casey was so confident he had Ford and Sturdivant warming up,” Kucks quipped of his shaky start.

Everyone remembers Don Larsen’s perfect game, but Kucks’ performance - with the championship on the line - was every bit as great.

For Kucks, it was a day and a season never to be duplicated. He started only 38 games over the next two years while compiling a 16-18 record, leading to the trade.

“It was a little sad for me because you were going from a first-place club to a last-place club,” said Kucks, who once he went to the minors never made it back to the majors.

He spent all of 1961 with Rochester and went 10-14 in 33 starts with a 3.72 ERA. His contract was purchased by the Orioles following that season but less than two months later they traded him to the Cardinals. Kucks spent two years with the Cardinals’ Triple-A team in Atlanta Crackers before an arm injury forced him to retire to a life as a stockbroker and later as a salesman for an import/export company.

His career MLB record was an undistinguished 54-56, including 42-35 as a member of the Yankees, but he always had that one shining moment to hold on to - the day he capped his finest season by pitching one of the greatest clutch games in World Series history.

“It’s a nice memory, one you don't soon forget,” said Kucks, who died in 2013 at the age of 81.