Steve Serby tosses around some Q&A with new Yankees reliever Zach Britton.

Q: If you could pick the brain of any pitcher in MLB history.

A: I was able to pick Mariano’s (Rivera’s) a couple of years ago, when I won the Reliever of the Year award, and he was at that World Series game, which was awesome with a guy that relied predominantly on one pitch, too. To sit there with him and Trevor Hoffman for a few innings, pick those guys’ brains, that was awesome.

Q: What did you learn?

A: It was something that maybe I kinda thought, but it was just that you can never lose confidence in what you do well, regardless of if it works or it doesn’t work that day. Especially as a reliever, you blow a save and the next day you come back out there, you gotta be confident that you can get it done, especially with one pitch. You’re not tricking anybody. Everybody knows what you’re doing. And if you execute, you’re gonna be successful. And I remember Mo was telling me — and I think about it after I had bad outings sometimes — was that, “What are you gonna do, change who you are?” No, you’re gonna continue to do what you do. And you just gotta believe in yourself every time you go out there. You can never waver. And Hoffman, changeup, same type of thing. And he was like, “You guys actually kinda threw hard. I was throwing a changeup up there, you know?”

Q: One hitter in MLB history you would love to have tested your skills against.

A: A guy like Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle. I’m coming at you with my sinker (smile), so just to see where I would match up against those guys would have been awesome.

Q: Your mound mentality?

A: Just attack. You’re on the defensive, technically, but as a pitcher, you’re the aggressor. I’ve always thought that I need to be aggressive with my stuff and keep the hitters on edge.

Q: Is it different as a closer?

A: That’s a good question. This is my first taste of doing like kind of a setup role, so I’m still getting adjusted to it. I’m trying to make sure it doesn’t change. It’s the same thing. It’s about getting three outs at the end of the day, right? I’m embracing it. I’m not mad I’m not closing games. I want to win a World Series, and I think this is a team that can do it. I think it’s more preparation. It’s knowing that I might throw the seventh or eighth so that I’m mentally prepared going in there rather than it being the ninth inning. It’s gonna be an adjustment, but I don’t think I’m gonna have any issue with it going forward.

Q: What was that like when you went on that 43-game scoreless streak and 60-game save streak?

A: A lot of people have asked me about that. You know what was funny? There were days where I’d warm up and be like, “Today’s the day that I give up a run” or something, just didn’t feel good. I think the one thing I remember most is there were a lot of times where mentally I was just able to push myself through some outings where physically I didn’t feel great. You were just so focused on making each pitch. People always say it’s one pitch at a time, and it was really weird to be like kinda floating, and actually, my only focus was only on one pitch. And if I executed, I knew I was gonna get the guy out. There was never a doubt. So it was an awesome mindset, one that you want to get back to. My mind didn’t let me even get into that negative place. It was crazy.

Q: Did you ever try a sports psychologist?

A: The Orioles have one on staff, and he was asking me, he was like, “Where are you right now? What is your thought process?” We always preach one pitch at a time as a pitcher, and I literally was in that place all year, where I never got ahead of myself, and if I threw a bad one, I didn’t care. And he wanted to know, and I said, “Literally when I get on the mound, I know that the hitter was like irrelevant. It was like he wasn’t there.” And it was, “I’m gonna throw to this target, and if I don’t do it, I’m gonna get the ball, and I’m gonna do it again. And if I don’t do it, I’ll go ahead and do it the next time.”

Q: Is that your mindset now?

A: Yeah. Obviously coming off the Achilles injury, still working my way back into like myself, but I’m getting pretty close. (Pitching coach) Larry Rothschild has definitely helped me in the few days I’ve been here and seen some things. That’s the goal is to get to that mental mindset.

Q: Buck Showalter didn’t use you in the 2016 wild-card loss to the Blue Jays.

A: I was ready to go. I thought maybe I’d face (Edwin) Encarnacion, and it just didn’t happen. I kinda respected the fact that he’s the manager, and that’s his call to make or not make.

Q: What drives you?

A: That’s a tough question. You talk about family and my children, things like that, but I think ever since I was little, there’s always like the hunger to be the best at what I did. Struggled as a starter, went to the bullpen, I really found something I really enjoyed doing was closing games, being a reliever in general.

Q: Your first All-Star Game.

A: Walking in the clubhouse, seeing all the names on the lockers and going, “Wow!” Like, “I’m in this company.” While I was there, I was like, “I want to do it again. Because I want to prove that it wasn’t a fluke.”

Q: The first time you saw Yankee Stadium.

A: When I pitched here (in) 2011. That was the first time I got to watch Rivera come in from the bullpen. You see it on TV, and you get to see the song and him come out, the whole production.

Q: Yankees fans.

A: The one thing I always respected about fans here is they would give it to me warming up. They’d rag me pretty good warming up. But I remember going through that save streak. I was warming up for the (47the game), and as I get up, I can see the Yankee fans coming down (smile), and I’m like, “Oh, gosh, here it goes.” They looked at me, and they go, “You know what, Britt? I hope you get it.” Like, “It’s been fun watching you this year. I hope you get it.” And I was like: “WHAT?” And I got it, and I heard a little bit of like clapping — they were booing, too — but I always respected that.

Q: Giancarlo Stanton?

A: I remember facing him in the minors. Just like the biggest guy I’d ever seen. I think he flew out against me one time, and it’s like the highest fly ball I’ve ever seen in my life. Those are fun guys to face, though. Baseball’s a game for all different sizes. You could have a Jose Altuve, and you can have an Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Q: Sadie Stephens?

A: I grew up with her in California. She and her baby were killed by a drunk driver. It was the first time I had somebody I was really close to that was killed. And (that) really impacted me that like, “Oh, my gosh, it doesn’t just happen to other people. It happens to me.” Really good friends with her family, had a shirt made from Under Armour, and I still wear it underneath my jersey ever since she was killed. So luckily the Yankees like to wear the black undershirt. It’s always a constant reminder that I’m really fortunate, and no matter how bad my day might be, there’s a lot of things that are worse. Spending some time with a young fan, like going to sign an autograph rather than blowing ’em off, it can really impact somebody’s day for the best. And so it’s a constant reminder every time I look in my locker and see her name, miss her and wonder what she would think now. I talk to her dad all the time. She’s a reminder for me that I have it pretty good and to be very, very thankful.

Q: How did you know her?

A: We grew up together, we went to church together in California. She has two older brothers that we used to play with all the time. I had two older brothers as well, so she was kinda like the sister we didn’t have.

Q: Her name is in your locker?

A: I have a mural. She used to show horses, so there’s a horse with a lady standing next to a horse with her name and the day she was born and the day that she died. Under Armour made it for me.

Q: You suffered fractures of your skull and clavicle and a separated shoulder in 2003. How scary was that?

A: I think it was more scary for my parents than me ’cause I was blacked out most of the time.

Q: There was bleeding in the brain?

A: Dove for a ball. Where our field was, my freshman year of high school, it was in a park, light standards were right next to the field, so big concrete base, dove into it, tried to catch a ball. I was out for pretty much all my freshman year.

Q: Did you think your career was over?

A: The doctor kinda came in, said I had some bleeding in the brain, and that there was pressure in there and they might have to go in there and open up the skull or relieve pressure. That’s when I knew something was serious, and I got lucky and they just monitored me through the night, and that next morning, everything had subsided. I was very lucky.

Q: Your ruptured Achilles?

A: That happened in December. All the thoughts go to my head, “Am I even gonna play this year?” The surgeon I had said, “Hey, I’m really good at what I do. I’m gonna get you back.” He got me back before six months, which is just unreal. The fact that I’m pitching with the New York Yankees eight months away from surgery just blows his mind.

Q: Best baseball moment.

A: I would think closing out the ALDS in Detroit after I think I allowed, like, back-to-back doubles on 0-2 pitches, and it was a one-run game … getting a strikeout, getting a double-play ball, after Buck Showalter came to the mound and he said, “Hey, you’re gonna throw a good sinker, and we’re gonna get a double play. We’re gonna win this thing.” And it happened. Like that. That was a pretty cool moment for me, especially first year as a closer, on that stage, and doing that … that was pretty special.

Q: Worst baseball moment.

A: I made a start here at Fenway where I didn’t get out of the first inning, back-to-back starts. There’s nothing worse than having to sit on those starts for four days as a starter.

Q: What was Clayton Kershaw like as a teammate with the Dallas D’backs when you were a junior in high school?

A: I was kind of the new guy — not from Dallas — he was the first guy to welcome me on the team, always really nice. I would like to say that we were probably like the worst two pitchers on that team (smile).

Q: You were at your grandfather’s funeral in Illinois on 9/11.

A: Getting ready for my grandfather’s funeral and my cousin ran into the room and started, “Something happened to the World Trade Center.” And we turned on the TV in time to watch the second tower fall. I don’t think I understood the magnitude of a terrorist attack. Like, what is that? You’re very innocent. I remember I was driving home to California from Illinois ’cause we couldn’t get a flight out, and then just kind of wrapping my head around it on the drive home with my dad. My dad kinda explained it to me like, “There’s people around the world that want to hurt you.” I’d be like, “What do you mean? Why would they want to hurt me? I didn’t do anything to ’em,” right? I had the opportunity to come here when I played in Staten Island in rookie ball, our short season, and you go to the site. It’s just kinda crazy being there and seeing the magnitude of it all.

Q: You visited the Pentagon.

A: That was awesome. You had to leave your cell phones, no photos whatsoever. You get to meet a lot of high-up people that make some important decisions. Got to see the memorial, where the plane went into the Pentagon. That was a tough place to be. They had a chapel there designated for friends of the victims, and the chapel was full. They have a book there of everyone that’s visited and wrote letters to the victims’ families and things, and we wrote in there. It was really gut-wrenching to be in there and look up at the sky where the plane came over and made impact with the Pentagon.

Q: Your son Zander is 3.

A: We have a daughter, Zilah, that’s 1, and a baby girl on the way.

Q: Describe Zander’s personality.

A: He’s all boy, running around. He loves baseball. Manny Machado is his favorite player, so I had to break the news to him the Orioles traded him (to the Dodgers). But he loves it here with the team so far. He’s really enjoyed New York. He loves to have fun. It’s a good reminder sometimes when you watch your kids play. At that age, it’s just all about having fun and no worries whatsoever.

Q: Has fatherhood changed you in any way?

A: Absolutely. My first really good year in the big leagues (was) 2014 … when my wife was pregnant with him. And it was kinda like, “Hey, I got somebody else to play for.” Not that my wife and my family weren’t good enough, but there was something else, you know? It kinda drove you a little bit. I think that’s the biggest change, knowing that you have somebody that’s looking up to you, to behave the right way and be a good example for them.

Q: Boyhood idol?

A: Tom Glavine was my favorite pitcher growing up.

Q: Athletes in other sports you admire.

A: Kevan Miller plays for the Bruins. I think knowing him and knowing the things that he went to to get to that point, you admire that.

Q: Is it true that the best coach you ever played for and best shortstop you played with until Machado changed positions were Jon and Troy Yudin?

A: (Laugh) Where did you get that one?

Q: I went to high school with Jon.

A: No way!

Q: Jon coached you?

A: He did. He coached me from like Pony baseball on, a good five, six years, even longer. I’ve been friends with them ever since. He used to teach us how to get hit with the baseball — you probably can’t do this nowadays. We’d go to a park, and he’d put a tennis machine out with tennis balls, and we had to learn how to turn our backs and get hit by pitches. (Laugh) That was his thing! But he was awesome. He taught me a lot. He was always, “Play the game the right way.” To this day, we keep in touch, especially with the Yankees.

Q: And Troy Yudin?

A: I played peewee football with him, baseball with him. Me and my wife are really good friends with Troy. Keep in touch all the time.

Q: What was it like meeting Dick Vitale?

A: He’s awesome. At Sarasota, we used to see him all the time at this restaurant called The Broken Egg. It’s a breakfast place. So he’d come over and always want to talk baseball. Jeremy Guthrie was with the Orioles when I first came up. He was trying to get us to give his grandkids lessons in the parking lot of The Broken Egg.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Churchill, Eisenhower, General Patton.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: Sandlot.

Q: Favorite actor?

A: Eric Bana.

Q: Favorite actress?

A: Jessica Chastain.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: Spanish food.

Q: What’s it like being a New York Yankee?

A: It’s pretty cool. A little overwhelming at first. Just to think about the history of the franchise, you know? Not that the Orioles don’t have a good one, but you can’t top the Yankees history, and the fact that I’m able to put on the jersey with no name. You play for the name on the front. It’s never more apparent than when you get here. They always say, “Earn those pinstripes,” so that’s the goal.