Yankees legend Ron Guidry keeps his promise to George Steinbrenner in role as spring instructor

TAMPA, Fla. — This is a story about learning from those who came before you. About giving back to the organization you love. About different generations finding common ground.

And frog legs.

This is a story about former Yankees great Ron Guidry, who is a Steinbrenner Field fixture during spring training.

The Yankees had several former players and manager Joe Torre pop by as special guest instructors during spring training. The tour of duty was mostly about being seen and shaking hands. Not a whole lot of instructing going on.

Guidry’s stay at Yankees camp was different. The 75-year-old was here for nearly the entire time, and “Louisiana Lightning” was happy to lend his expertise to anyone who wanted to listen.

“Look, I’m here,” Guidry told Newsday this past week. “If you want to talk to me, come talk to me. If I see something, I’ll go say, ‘Maybe I see something’ to these pitchers, the young guys and stuff, because they know who you are.

“I mean, we do the same job as pitchers. We’ve got the same job, so they know the success I’ve had here. So if they have questions, all they’ve got to do is come over. That’s why I’m here.

“I had promised the old man [George Steinbrenner] when I retired that I’d come. He asked me to come, to be here for the organization and the kids. So that’s why I’m here. He said, ‘As long as you enjoy coming, come,’ and I still enjoy it. Until I don’t, I’ll keep coming.”

And about the frog legs . . .

Guidry has been bringing the tasty (?) Cajun-fried delicacy to spring training for decades.

“That’s mandatory,” he said.

Guidry loves to tell the story of how Yogi Berra, after initially being repulsed by the idea of eating frog legs, couldn’t get enough of them.

“Tastes like chicken,” said one Yankees official.

Max Fried, the current Yankees lefthanded ace, said he didn’t get to try the former Yankees lefthanded ace’s frog legs.

“But I had his gumbo,” Fried told Newsday, “and it was delicious. It was absolutely delicious.”

The Yankees have three pitching coaches — Matt Blake and two assistants. So it’s not as if they need Guidry here. They just want him here.

“He’s a gem,” Fried said. “I mean, you’re talking about a Yankee legend, a baseball legend. For the career that he’s had and what he’s been able to accomplish, for him to be willing to come back and give his knowledge and his opinions and to be around this group of players, that’s just invaluable.”

Fried likes to tease Guidry about not knowing too much about Guidry’s 1978 American League Cy Young Award season, the details of which have been on a TV screen in view of Fried’s locker throughout spring training. The Yankees rotate the career bios of their special guest instructors on a screen inside the clubhouse so the current players can bone up on the visitors’ resumes.

In 1978, Guidry went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA. In 35 starts, he had 16 complete games and nine shutouts. He threw 273 2⁄3 innings and another 17 in the postseason (going 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA) as the Yankees won the World Series.

“What was that ERA?” Fried asked Guidry the other day.

“I don’t know,” Guidry deadpanned. “It was low.”

Guidry was the Yankees’ pitching coach under Torre in 2006 and 2007, Torre’s final two seasons as Yankees manager.

“It’s something I had a great opportunity to do for Joe Torre while he was here,” Guidry said. “I did it. It was fun. I didn’t know if I’d like to do that for years and years and years, because I’m a home guy. I like being home in Louisiana. I like huntin’. I like fishin’. I like my grandchildren. I like being home with my wife. You can’t get the country out of the country boy.”

Guidry missed Sunday’s final day of Tampa spring training because he decided to start the drive home on Saturday. As he said his goodbyes in the clubhouse, he said he’d see Fried when the Yankees visit Houston next month.

Guidry said he wouldn’t make the trip if the Yankees were scheduled to visit the Astros in September.

“That’s huntin’ season,” he said.

Notes & quotes: Aaron Boone named Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers as the starters for the second, third and fourth games of the season after Fried pitches the season opener on Wednesday in San Francisco. The Yankees will go with four starters to open the season because of off days. Boone said the team still is deciding whether to use Luis Gil in the bullpen or send him to the minors to start and bring him back when a fifth starter is needed . . . The Yankees traded infielder Jorbit Vivas to Washington for minor-league pitcher Sean Paul Linan.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.