Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Random Yankee thoughts: playoff edition


You would think that the Steinbrenner family and New York Yankees have more important things to worry about these days: their team's lackluster play in the baseball playoffs, perhaps? But they are acting like real bullies in preventing a 77-year-old woman from releasing letters she received as a teenager from a young George Steinbrenner.

Lonn Trost, the COO of the Yankees, cited the potential embarrassment and harm to business interests that would be caused by the release of the letters, whose content has been described in several news articles. I'm amazed by such a claim about innocent letters passed between teenagers. If anything I would think releasing the letters would make Steinbrenner look better, especially after Bill Madden's biography cast new light on his terrible treatment of players and employees. The Steinbrenner family's behavior is shameful, but not surprising because the Boss was the ultimate bully.

* Austin Kearns is not in the lineup for Game 5 of the American League Championship Series despite the devastating injury to Mark Teixeira, which brings me back to my original question: why is he on the postseason roster? After striking out against the world in September, it is clear that Joe Girardi has no confidence in him. At this point, he’s just taking up space in the dugout. If the Yankees do make the World Series, they may want to consider making a roster move.

* Melky Cabrera, a key cog in many thrilling Yankee comebacks last year, was released by the Atlanta Braves. I guess that Javier Vazquez trade didn't really work out for either team.

* Johnny Damon last week expressed an openness to returning to the Yankees despite last year's bitter divorce. With the way the offense has been struggling this postseason, the Bronx Bombers really could have used his clutch bat this October.

* Minka Kelly, best known as Derek Jeter's girlfriend, was named Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive in 2010. For a guy like Jeter who values his privacy, I'm sure he was thrilled by the attention.

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