from www.minorleaguenews.com

Imagine that you are a young baseball player with unlimited potential. You spent your high school years modeling yourself after your idol and it paid off in big ways. The major league team of your dreams drafts you and soon you are crushing the ball as shortstop/third baseman in Class A ball. Yet you look ahead, and there are more brick walls blocking the path than a state prison.

That’s the lot of many talented members of the Tampa Yankees, but never more true than for Yankee prospect infielder Bronson Sardinha.

Sardinha’s walls are Jeter and A-Rod, whose Yankee Stadium leases on shortstop and third base will likely run for the next 10 years.

The Yankees drafted Sardinha in the first round in 2001 as a shortstop with the intent of moving him to third base.

A Honolulu native, Sardinha has bounced around considerably since joining the Yankee organization. The Yankees even tried him in center field in 2003, where Bernie Williams has the New York job nailed down for another decade. They moved him back to third base this year.

Things were looking bright with a light at the end of the tunnel when the Yankees hot third base prospect, Drew Henson, left baseball to pursue a career in the NFL. Then the Yankees traded with the Texas Rangers for Alex Rodriguez during the off-season, solving their left infield situation for the next decade.

Sardinha knows that no matter how well he continues to play in the Yankee organization, there’s little chance of calling Yankee Stadium his home.

“When they signed A-Rod, I didn‚t let it get to me,” Sardinha said. “My main goal is just to make it to the big leagues. It doesn’t matter what team, but I want to be a Yankee. It’s the best organization in baseball.”

Sardinha never had his heart set on making the majors while growing up in Hawaii. His brother, Dane, is a catcher in the Cincinnati Reds organization. He also played high school ball with Justin Wayne, a former fifth-overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft by the Florida Marlins. He said that scouts started to head for the islands to check out his brother and Wayne and that is where he was first noticed.

He didn’t grow up as a Yankee fan, but considered Rodriguez his baseball hero.

“I played football and soccer when I was in high school,” Sardinha said. “I rooted for the Braves, but A-Rod was my role model.”

Since being drafted by the Yankees, Sardinha had the chance to meet and workout with Rodriguez at Yankee Stadium, one of the thrills of his life, he said.

Bronson currently is tearing up the Florida State League with a .340 batting average, but it hasn’t come easily.

After a solid first year, playing in the Gulf Coast League, Sardinha struggled during stints in Greensboro (N.C.) and Staten Island, and suffered from a lack of confidence before landing in Tampa.

“I’m glad I came to Tampa,” Sardinha said. “I needed help with my hitting, but I really needed help in getting my confidence back. Last year was the first time in my life I ever struggled with my hitting.”

Sardinha flirted with the .200 mark last season before deciding it was time to do things his way. He knew he had to get back into the right frame of mind. After last season’s disappointment, Sardinha went back to Hawaii with the idea that he was going to stop trying to listen to advice from every corner of the Yankee organization and start doing things his own way. He spent the winter with Chicago White Sox hitting instructor Mike Lau and former Baltimore Oriole Len Sakata and he said the first thing they told him was that the Yankees were trying to do too much to change his swing.

Sardinha worked on his rhythm and the results paid off as 2004 Spring Training rolled around.

“Last year was a learning experience for me, because I was trying to change myself in too many ways,” Sardinha said. “I started to work with a new hitting coach when I got to Tampa and I feel like I’m back on track. I was trying to be way too mechanical.”

The Yankees assigned hitting coach Ty Hawkins to getting Sardinha back into a comfort zone and the results have paid off.

“He told me to just relax and be myself,” Sardinha said. “When he first saw me when I got here, he told me I didn’t look like I was being myself. When he first saw me, he said I looked like a natural hitter. Last year I never felt that way.”

With his new mechanics in place, and his new attitude on board, Sardinha started pounding the ball in the spring, and his confidence came back as well. If he continues to hit, he’s likely to be promoted to Double-A Trenton (N.J.) later this summer. After that, who knows?

“I’d love to be with the Yankees, but if I make it to the big leagues I know I’ll be happy,” Sardinha said “I know you can’t have everything you want, but Yankee Stadium is just an awesome place. There’s a different feeling there than anywhere else. I feel like I belong there.”

Short of one of the walls coming tumbling down, though, Sardinha will join a long list of star talent that make great dealing cards for the big gun trades of the Yankees. The good news for him is that Tampa talent has a way of hitting the fast track in any organization that might acquire him. He might well play at Yankee Stadium. Just not in pinstripes.