Season, if Not a Yankee Tenure, Ends With September BOSTON - When he got the call to the pennant race on Tuesday, Brendan Ryan was studying a lineup. Not the batting order of the Houston Astros, the team his Seattle Mariners would be facing that night at Safeco Field. His fantasy football team. "We play two teams a week, and I went 0-2 the first week," Ryan said. I was kind of bummed by that because we had a good week, too. Just bad luck. Ryan's luck turned when Manager Eric Wedge called him to his office to tell him he had been traded to the Yankees for a player to be named. It was past Sept. 1, meaning Ryan would be ineligible for the postseason. But how often is a player hitting .192 for an also-ran asked to handle shortstop for the Yankees in the heat of September? Just like that, fantasy became reality. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would play shortstop for one day in the big leagues for the New York Yankees," Ryan said. That's as good as it gets. It's pretty unbelievable. I don't want to say I could die today - we've still got time to go - but it's something I'll never forget. The September-only acquisition is unusual, because players lose much of their value by being ineligible for the playoffs. Only those in the organization on Aug. 31 can take part. The Yankees have done it before - Dave Kingman in 1977 and Rick Honeycutt in 1995, for example - but Ryan had no reason to expect it. As a free agent-to-be on a non-contender, Ryan had taken notice of teams that might need a shortstop, like Detroit, which lost Jhonny Peralta to a suspension but traded for Jose Iglesias instead. He also knew that Derek Jeter was struggling with injuries for the Yankees. "Let me be very clear: you never root for anyone to get hurt or anything like that," Ryan said. That's unacceptable. But just for your own sake, you're seeing what could go on or what could happen. You think maybe, but once September rolls around, you're like, "Oh well, let's just try to finish as strong as we can and see what happens in the off-season." " Ryan played shortstop and hit eighth against the Boston Red Sox on Friday, going 2 for 4 with a homer in the Yankees" 8-4 loss. It was Ryan's third start in a row since the Yankees shut down Jeter for the season because of lingering soreness in his left ankle. Jeter has vowed to return next season as a shortstop, but if the Yankees like what they see from Ryan, they could always try to sign him back. Doing so would give them, at the minimum, an exceptional defender on the days Jeter rests or plays designated hitter. "He's the best I've seen on that field," said Yankees reliever Shawn Kelley, who played with Ryan in Seattle. Honestly, I haven't seen or played against or with anybody better. "I was telling everybody when we got him, you'll see balls that, normally your whole career, you just assume are hits, and it's like: "Oh wait, he got to it. Oh wait, he threw it. Oh wait, he got the guy out! Think about him doing that for six months, and the runs he saves over a season. If something gets by him, you know: "O.K., they earned that hit. If he couldn't make the play, that's my fault." " The Yankees scouted Ryan in 2003, when he played at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho. He worked out for them in Tampa, Fla., but was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh round. There he came under the tutelage of George Kissell, a revered Cardinals coach for decades who died in 2008. Over thousands of grounders, Ryan said, Kissell taught him that the way he had learned to field was all wrong. Coaches had taught Ryan to imagine his glove and hand working as chopsticks, or like the teeth of an alligator. The problem with that, Kissell said, was that the fielder's forearms and wrists stiffened up. "Let's get the hands side by side and get soft," Ryan said, repeating Kissell's advice. That was the first thing of a million things. I just wanted to be a sponge as much as I could, take it all in. They really teach infield over there. Ryan spent four seasons in St. Louis, hitting .259, but in almost three years with the Mariners, his average sank to .215 - exactly the career mark of Mario Mendoza, a former Seattle shortstop celebrated for his meager hitting. Last season was the extreme example of the best and worst of Ryan's skills. His defensive Wins Above Replacement, by Baseball-Reference.com's measurement, ranked first in the American League, at 3.6. But his .194 average ranked last among all major leaguers with at least 450 plate appearances. With the Yankees, Ryan has studied video from his Cardinals years with the hitting coach Kevin Long. Ryan said he spent much more practice time hitting than fielding, where he relies on instincts and usually guesses right. If the Yankees reach the playoffs, their best option at shortstop will be Eduardo Nunez, a decent hitter but an adventurous fielder. Ryan will try to help lead them there, with soft hands and whatever he can do at the plate. Then his season would be over. "Coming from being a whole lot of games out to being right in it, I really don't care," Ryan said. It's just awesome to be here.