Granderson trying to find his spot as a Yankees centerfielder

BOSTON - Curtis Granderson was just being honest.

The aura of "centerfielder for the Yankees'' wasn't something he was familiar with when he was acquired in December from the Tigers.

"It's been a learning experience coming over this spring to understand the history behind that position,'' Granderson said.

Granderson, who started his first regular-season game as a Yankee last night at Fenway Park and homered off Josh Beckett in the second inning, now knows more about Earle Combs, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and, more recently, Bernie Williams as enduring names who have patrolled that ground for the Yankees.

"I didn't follow the Yankees much growing up, and to hear about it and learn about it and continue to understand what goes into it, I definitely knew right away there's some big shoes to fill out there,'' Granderson said. "But I'm not trying to be compared with them.''

Granderson's approach is a minimalist one.

"Those guys did a great job establishing their careers, prolonging their careers, making centerfield in Yankee Stadium known as what it is,'' he said. "I'm just trying to go ahead and continue to keep it going that way and just do my job. Not do too much.''

He recalled the advice he received early in his career from Tigers infield coordinator Rafael Landestoy.

"Make the routine play,'' Granderson said. "One of the things Rafael told me, take care of your house. Ball comes to you, you have to catch it.''

That became a big topic of discussion last year in Detroit, particularly toward the end of the season when Granderson misplayed a pair of balls. But he disputed scouts who said he regressed significantly on defense.

"It's weird, trying to understand what exactly was different,'' he said. "I know I had a couple of misjudged balls at the end of the season last year which got a lot of press just because of the importance of the game. In both cases, we ended up winning both those games.''

There are many who think Granderson, an All-Star in 2009, will benefit by not having to play the majority of his games in the expansive outfield of Comerica Park.

"The Comerica ballpark is a very difficult ballpark to play,'' Granderson said without using it as an excuse.

Shortly after trading for Granderson, Joe Girardi called the centerfielder and discussed the possibility of his moving to leftfield, with Brett Gardner playing center. Granderson said that would have been fine with him. Fairly early on, though, the Yankees decided he would stay in center and Gardner would shift to left. They made that announcement last week.

The Yankees consider themselves to have two centerfielders. That's great in that both are fast and can go get the ball, but it also has the potential to cause early problems. None showed up in spring training, though.

"I have not seen any communication issues,'' Girardi said toward the end of camp. "A lot of times when you see two centerfielders in one outfield, the one that's playing left is used to taking charge and he's going to call balls, but I haven't seen any issues."

Granderson said: "You always hear about the issues that two centerfielders have out there. Fortunately for us, we haven't had anything like that, but sure enough, there's going to be a couple balls where we just get to it at the same time, and which one of us is going to call it? But neither one of us is selfish to the point where we're going to fight over who's taking priority out there. The end result, again, is trying to get the job done, catch it, get to the next guy and be done with our job.''