‘He’s Here’: Yanks Move Top Prospect to the Front

TAMPA, Fla. — He was somewhere downtown, Anthony Volpe remembers, though not near City Hall, because he didn’t hear the speeches. Wherever he started in that giddy crowd of Yankees fans, he ended up in front.

“My sister and I, we were tiny, so we weaseled our way in,” Volpe said last week, all grown up now, in the Yankees’ clubhouse at spring training. “We were pretty much right next to the gate. It was amazing.”

Volpe was 8 on that crisp November afternoon in 2009, just another beaming face at the Yankees’ championship parade, basking in the glory of a World Series title. He could not tell exactly who was gliding by, but to him, they were all legends.

“I was so small that I could honestly hardly even see on top of the float, but it didn’t matter,” said Volpe, who grew up in Watchung, N.J., 40 miles southwest of Yankee Stadium. “What I remember about it is, no matter who was there, everyone was just going crazy. It could have been someone you never even see on TV, but they’re a part of the team and they probably got just as big a cheer.”

Volpe, 21, will be on TV a lot this season. The Yankees named him to their opening day roster

Sunday, meaning he will work on the same patch of dirt where his favorite player, Derek Jeter, once roamed.

Volpe will be the youngest member of the Yankees’ opening day lineup since Jeter, also 21, in 1996. That season ended in a championship, the first of five for Jeter. None of his successors have led the Yankees back to the World Series since 2009, and now it is Volpe’s turn to try.

“My heart was beating pretty hard,” Volpe told reporters on Sunday after Aaron Boone delivered the news in the manager’s office at Steinbrenner Field. “I don’t really have too many words right now. It just feels amazing.”

Volpe was competing with Oswald Peraza for the starting job, with the incumbent, Isiah Kiner-falefa, now in a utility role.

Volpe, who has never played in the majors, earned the spot by hitting .314 with three home runs, five steals and a 1.064 onbase plus slugging percentage through Sunday.

“As far as overall skill set, I think he’s got a chance to be a really good player, so now it’s about his maturity and how he goes about it,” said Willie Randolph, the Yankees’ former second baseman and captain. “But I’ve got to say, I’ve been pretty impressed with that. We’ve had a lot of conversations, and when we interact with each other, you can see that he’s here.”

Randolph, a special instructor at spring training, pointed to his head.

“He’s here,” Randolph repeated. “And when you get a kid that’s here, you’ve got a chance.”

Pressure is continuing to build upon colleges and universities that have partnerships with sports betting companies.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-conn., announced Monday that he sent a letter to 66 of the country’s colleges and universities with the largest athletic budgets, demanding information about their efforts to form partnerships with sports betting companies, as well as what the institutions are doing to prevent underage betting and to combat gambling addiction.

“The opportunity for lucrative deals has caused some casinos and sportsbooks to target universities, despite the very real harm gambling poses to students, many under the age to legally gamble,” Blumenthal wrote.

Blumenthal’s letter comes after a recent New York Times investigation into the increasing presence of sports betting on college campuses across the country. That investigation found that at least eight universities had teamed with online sports betting companies and that more than a dozen athletic departments and booster clubs had agreements with brick-and-mortar casinos.