Sometimes, a team just can’t fill a position for more than a few years. For the White Sox and Mets, that position famously was third base. The former team had little of lasting value at the hot corner between Willie Kamm and Robin Ventura, a span of decades. The Mets couldn’t keep a player on third from 1962 until Howard Johnson emerged as a regular in 1987, although Wayne Garrett was a better hitter than he was given credit for being at the time. For the Yankees, that position is left field. Regardless of the ultimate allocation of playing time for the position in 2010, with Johnny Damon moving on, the team will be continuing a tradition that has lasted over 30 years. Now, this isn’t an excuse for violin-playing, because unlike the White Sox and Mets -- who had to live with replacement-level players at third base for years at a time -- the Yankees have generally had very productive left fielders. They just haven’t kept them around for very long.

If you look at the list of Yankees all-time leaders by games played at each position, left field has the third-lowest total not counting designated hitter:

1B: Lou Gehrig, 2137
2B: Willie Randolph, 1688
3B: Graig Nettles, 1509
SS: Derek Jeter, 2123
C: Bill Dickey, 1708
LF: Roy White, 1521
CF: Bernie Williams, 1856
RF: Hank Bauer, 1194

The left and right field totals are affected by Babe Ruth’s reluctance to play the sun field. Although we commonly think of the Babe as a right fielder, in most years he split time between left and right depending on game conditions. Thus, he played the third-most games in right in team history and the second-most in left without being the majority starter there more than a couple of years in a row.

The last Yankees left fielder to put in more than three straight seasons while playing the majority of games in left field was White. He started every year from 1968 through 1973, spent about a third of 1974 at designated hitter and then returned to the outfield and held left for another three seasons. There was also a lot of turnover in the years before White, with Gene Woodling being the previous long-term holder of the position from 1949 to 1954, albeit in a platoon role.

That’s pretty much it. Because Babe Ruth was a left-right fielder, Bob Meusel was a left-right fielder. George Selkirk and Charlie Keller put in years in the other corner. Casey Stengel used a mélange of players after Woodling was traded to the Orioles. Rickey Henderson spent two years there, two years in center field. Dave Winfield spent a few years in left before taking his place in right. The Joe Torre Yankees had a new left fielder every year until Hideki Matsui came along, and his injuries stopped him at three consecutive seasons. Damon moved to left belatedly. Now Brett Gardner/Randy Winn/et al will turn over the position once again.

There is no good or bad here unless you’re looking for historical symmetries, like greatest outfields. The Yankees had one of the best outfields in history, if not the greatest, when Charlie Keller was the left fielder, Joe DiMaggio the center fielder and Tommy Henrich the right fielder, but because of injuries, World War II and some personnel decisions the Yankees made, that outfield lasted all of two minutes. Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield were two thirds of a great outfield, but they never had that third part (although 1988, with Claudell Washington starting in center, was pretty good; unfortunately, Washington’s platoon partners, Gary Ward, Jay Buhner and Roberto Kelly, did nothing). Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill were two thirds of a great outfield, and sometimes the left fielders played well -- if Tim Raines had been able to stay healthy and be more of a regular, we wouldn’t be having this conversation -- but for the most part, the Yankees slummed it, burning off Chuck Knoblauch’s contract or surrendering to Chad Curtis.

As for third base, Alex Rodriguez trails Nettles by 641 games, or about four seasons of playing every day. It will probably take until A-Rod is about 38 for him to claim the top spot, but he’ll probably get there before the Yankees move him off of third for the remaining 75 years of his contract. Then, following this season’s Randy Winn precedent, they will sign Geoff Blum, 41, to take over at the hot corner.

I kid, and perhaps unfairly. Winn doesn’t fit the Yankees’ platoon needs, but should be a solid fourth outfielder, assuming he doesn’t play too much and his numbers against southpaws rebound (and they should). Regardless of how he does, we’ll see if the 2010 outfield mix yields up a starter or 2011 will see yet another new left fielder’s career inaugurated in the Bronx.