Brendan Harris: Officially The View's favorite non-Yankee

The View hails from upstate New York, and is an unabashed Yankee fan.

We also, however, have a soft spot for local players who make it big. There aren't too many big-league players from this neck of the woods, mostly because the weather just isn't warm enough to play baseball year-round as it is in many other areas of the country and in the Dominican Republic.

For me, the local boy making good is Tampa Bay Devil Rays shortstop Brendan Harris. After bouncing around for several season, Harris has earned the everyday shortstop job in Tampa Bay and is having an outstanding season.

More importantly, though, he's from Albany, which is a 10-minute drive across the river from me.

So, The View is officially naming Harris our "Favorite non-Yankee Major League Baseball Player."

That means you'll get occasional updates on Harris, lots of probably unprofessional rooting for our (my) newly-adopted local hero, tidbits about him and his background, and more. If I'm very, very lucky and I get help from the right people, we might even finagle an interview with our hero himself. At least, we will try.

So, let's begin by getting to know the basics about Brendan.

He's 26 and has been bouncing around between the majors and minors since 2004. He's had stints with the Cubs, Expos, Nationals and Reds before winding up with the Devil Rays this season. Before this season he had never played more than 25 games in any big league season.

Harris can play second, third and short and was ticketed to be the Rays utility guy this season. He outplayed Opening Day starter Ben Zobrist, though, and has earned the first every day job of his career (hooray!).

Harris is hitting a robust .302 with 8 home runs and 41 RBI in 86 games.

"I like to think I'm just a good all-around player," Harris told MLB.com recently. "I can hit a little bit and play defense. And I can help you win a bunch of different ways."

Here's what Rays Manager Joe Maddon had to say about our hero.

"The most overwhelming good thing about him is who he is -- his makeup, his character. This guy comes out and does extra running before everybody shows. He does weight work on the road, he does a lot of stuff nobody ever sees. This is the first opportunity he's ever gotten and he's making the most of it."

We'll be watching, and rooting, for him to keep doing just that. Keep it up, Brendan. The View is behind you!

Brendan Harris Career Stats

Batting
Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2004	CHC	3	9	0	2	1	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	.222	.300	.333	.633
2004	MON	20	50	4	8	2	0	1	2	2	11	0	0	.160	.208	.260	.468
2005	WAS	4	9	1	3	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	.333	.400	.778	1.178
2006	WAS	17	32	3	8	2	0	0	2	3	3	0	0	.250	.333	.313	.646
2006	CIN	8	10	2	2	0	0	1	1	1	4	0	0	.200	.273	.500	.773
2007	TB	86	334	47	101	22	1	8	41	30	63	3	0	.302	.362	.446	.808
Career		138	444	57	124	28	1	11	50	37	82	3	0	.279	.340	.421	.761