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Matt Holliday: ‘It’s exciting’ to be a Yankee

Matt Holliday has had the Yankees on his radar for quite some time.

After hitting free agency following the 2009 season, Holliday admitted that the Bronx was a possible destination for him then. “They were definitely on the short list of teams I was interested in,” he told Ken Davidoff of the NY Post in a recent interview.

However, after coming off a championship and looking at longterm commitments to high priced players like CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, the Yankees weren’t in a position to open up the checkbook again. Holliday wound up re-signing with the St. Louis Cardinals for seven years and $120 million and went on to win a World Series in 2011.

Now, with the Yankees fully committed to a youth movement, the team needs some veteran leadership and a designated hitter. Much like Carlos Beltran, who had aspirations of becoming a Yankee earlier in his career but ended up in the Bronx towards the end, donning the pinstripes is the culmination of a longstanding professional vision for Holliday.

“I don’t know if it’s still the case if you polled most of the players in MLB, but at one point, every guy in the league would say, ‘Yeah, it would be a great to be a Yankee,’ ” Holliday said. “And I think to some degree, it still is.

“But yeah, for me to get a chance to be a part of the New York Yankees organization is something that was always appealing to me. My grandpa was a huge Yankees fan. He was in Pennsylvania. He’d be in the kitchen with his ear next to the radio listening to the Yankees game. It was probably on TV at that point, but he still loved his way of listening and being a fan. It’s exciting.”

Although Holliday now makes his home in Jupiter, Fla., he still has strong ties to his hometown of Stillwater, Okla. His brother, Josh, is currently the head baseball coach at Oklahoma State, where his father Tom once held the same position. The Yankee-roots to the Sooner-State are not lost on Holliday, who knows about the likes of Oklahoma natives Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer and Allie Reynolds, whose name is on the Cowboys home baseball stadium.

All of those factors make playing for the Yankees special for Holliday, who has carved out a nice career for himself. “Especially getting a chance to play for the Cardinals and now the Yankees. The two most historic, winning franchises,” he said.

Holliday is expected to appear mostly at DH, although he could grab a glove and give Joe Girardi some innings in the outfield. While he hasn’t heard from the manager on what his role will entail, Holliday told Davidoff that he’ll be ready for anything.

“I feel like that I’ve been taking ground balls and fly balls. I’ll be ready to do whatever they ask me to do. That’s always been my philosophy: I’ll be prepared to do whatever the team asks me to do, and have trained for whatever role they ask me to do.”

The now 37-year-old told Davidoff that he feels better physically than he did five years ago. He’s working out about five-to-six times per week in order to get ready for the long season.

The Yankees hope the power of the pinstripes and the workouts equal success for their new slugger.