Girardi very lucky the old Boss is long gone

Joe Girardi is very lucky George Steinbrenner is not around anymore or he might be checking the managerial want ads.

In truth, had the old Boss been in charge of the New York Yankees for the last few years, neither Girardi nor Brian Cashman would have survived missing out on the 2008 playoffs, the first time the Yankees were completely out of the postseason since Steinbrenner wisely hired Joe Torre to manage his team. And even with his team winning championship after championship, Steinbrenner constantly felt the need to show Torre who was the Boss.

The old Steinbrenner would have really blown a gasket about the way Girardi mismanaged his team during the 2010 postseason. The old Steinbrenner was never shy about second guessing his managers and he would have had a field day with Girardi's extremely questionable decision making.

Steinbrenner always took things too far, but the one good thing about him is that players and managers knew they had to answer for their mistakes. There doesn't seem to be the same level of accountability with Cashman, Hal Steinbrenner and Hank Steinbrenner running the team.

The Boss would have sent his manager and team a stern message about their poor postseason. But Cashman was quick to assure the baseball world that Girardi would return as manager of the Yankees. My question is why? I don't think Girardi deserves to be fired, but couldn't Cashman have made him sweat a little bit or at least ponder whether his mistakes would cost him his job? If there is no accountability for Girardi's poor choices this postseason, what's to stop him from doing things the same way next year?

Steinbrenner died only a few months ago, but the old Boss has really been gone for a long time. Girardi should be incredibly grateful for that.

Steinbrenner family celebrates Boss legacy

Hank Steinbrenner shows his dad's confidence

Hank Steinbrenner seems to be more like his dad George Steinbrenner in assuring fans of the New York Yankees that the team will be playing meaningful baseball in October.

Hal Steinbrenner runs the team on a daily basis with a calm, quiet precision and is rarely seen, let alone heard. So it was up to his brother Hank to take on his father's mantle in making dramatic public pronouncements, memorably calling Red Sox Nation BS, criticizing baseball's revenue-sharing system or defending his father's honor against the Joe Torre backlash. Although Hank has quieted down a lot since those initial statements, he still shows his dad's confidence in proclaiming that the Yankees will make the playoffs.

Hank did not go as far as his father probably would have because he did not assure fans that the Yankees would win the American League East. With the race between the Yanks and Tampa Bay Rays still too close to call, it was probably a wise decision.

But George Steinbrenner wasn't always the wisest person and it would have been a classic George move to tell any reporter who would listen that his team would walk away with the division title, putting extra pressure on his players to back up his proclamation. It's obvious that Hal and Hank understand the peril of ratcheting up expectations and have chosen a different path. It’s a smart move on their part, expressing confidence in their team without overburdening them with the weight of their dad’s expectations.

Happy 80th Birthday, Boss!

George M. Steinbrenner turns 80 today, something that would be unimaginable if not for his obvious ill health.

I have vivid memories of the 1990s Steinbrenner, both good (crying when Bud Selig presented him with one of the four World Series trophies his teams would win that decade) and bad (lashing out at Derek Jeter for partying too much). To me, Steinbrenner was always characterized by his unflinching belief that failure is not an option and his willingness to do whatever it took to ensure his team would win.

But in reading Bill Madden's book Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, I'm learning a lot more about Steinbrenner than I ever knew (I promise to write a post as soon as I finish the book). It turns out the memories that I have don't even compare to the Steinbrenner of the 1970s and 1980s, who by all accounts was both a vicious, manipulator and a strong leader through times of crisis, most notably the death of New York Yankees Captain Thurman Munson.
Although Steinbrenner has long ceded control of the team to his sons Hal and Hank and mostly faded from view, he is still the omnipresent figure in the lives of all Yankee fans. Along with all the bad, Steinbrenner brought a lot of good to the city of New York and for that we should all be grateful.

Happy Birthday, Boss!

Injured ARod angers the Yankees again

Alex Rodriguez just keeps pissing off his bosses.

Instead of telling Joe Girardi that his groin injury was acting up again before Thursday’s game, he tried to take the field, but had to come out after one inning, leaving Ramiro Pena to bat in the coveted cleanup spot ahead of Robinson Cano. It was unwise for ARod to not immediately inform his manager of the stiffness he felt, but it's understandable that a professional athlete would try to ignore the injury or play through it.

But this is not the first time that ARod's decisions about his injuries angered the New York Yankees hierarchy. They were already annoyed about finding out that ARod decided to get treatment for his hip problem from controversial Canadian doctor Tony Galea, apparently without the team's permission, dragging them back into the steroids controversy.

But I don't feel sorry for the Yankees on this one. It was the Steinbrenners' decision to re-sign him to a 10-year megadeal for much more than they had to pay him. Granted, they didn't know about ARod's steroids use (or perhaps they had suspicions, but no proof). But there were plenty of warning signs that re-signing ARod could be problematic.

They knew about his reputation for not being a clutch player, particularly in the playoffs. They knew about his contentious relationship with the New York fans and Derek Jeter (which according to Joe Torre's book, the Yankee Years, they blamed the captain for more than ARod). They knew about his diva attitude, shown to the baseball world when he opted out of his contract in the middle of the World Series. ARod gave them an out when he did that, but instead of moving on, they bent over backwards to give him a contract with all sorts of incentives that no other Yankee has ever had.

This latest incident is the type of drama they are fated to live with as ARod plays out the rest of his days in a Yankee uniform. The Yankees can be as furious as they want, but they have no one to blame but themselves.

Hal Steinbrenner the real Yankees boss

Maybe I should stop calling him Jr. Boss. It's now abundantly clear that Hal Steinbrenner is fully in control of the New York Yankees, stepping out of the large shadow of his dad George Steinbrenner to take the reins of the team.

Although he shares responsibility with his brother Hank, Hal is in charge of the day-to-day running of baseball's most formidable team and is the public face of the franchise. While Hank has more of his father's tendency to bluster, Hal seems to be the quiet, contemplative type. Long gone are the days when someone named Steinbrenner was grabbing the back pages of the New York tabloids. For the Yankees organization, it's probably a welcome change of pace.

While Hal says he still runs things past his old man, he is the one who actually makes the decisions. That was clear during the offseason when he gave general manager Brian Cashman a budget and stuck to it despite tremendous pressure to repeat as World Series champs and doubts about whether the Yankees could truly become more budget conscious. When it came to his Yankees, George never made a dollar he wasn't willing to spend. Not Hal. He wouldn’t be bullied by the media or fans into parting with one more dollar than he wanted, even for fan favorite Johnny Damon.

Hal is proving he is his own man when it comes to running his team. He definitely needs a new nickname. Any suggestions?

Teams must spend Yankee dollars on payroll

The New York Yankees are sick and tired of all the digs about their payroll made by owners and executives of other baseball teams and so am I.

The latest came from Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, lamenting the fact that the Yankees infield of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano will make more than his 25-man team. In response, Randy Levine essentially told him to stop whining and start spending the millions of dollars he and other owners receive from the Yankees via revenue sharing. Levine gave voice to a common complaint among Yankee officials: that some of these teams pocket that money instead of spending it on players.

Unlike a lot of other baseball teams, the Yankees reinvest the millions they make from their new stadium and large metropolitan fan base in their team. I'd like to see Major League Baseball try to put an end to this by requiring teams to spend a high amount or percentage of the revenue sharing dollars on payroll rather than other expenses or worse, just keeping the profits.

It's a shame that baseball would have to go this route, but some owners just don't do right by their fans and invest these dollars in their teams. Luckily, Yankee fans don't have that problem because we know the Steinbrenners, despite all the budget talk, will always spend the money they make on their team. We pay dearly for the privilege of rooting for a team whose owners have that type of mentality, with skyrocketing costs at the brand-new stadium for seats, parking, food, beer, etc. But we don't mind it that much because we know our owners are going to spend the money on the best players (as they did with Tex last year, who I love watching play first base). Too bad other owners can’t be trusted to do the same.

Thanks to spaluch1 via Wikipedia for the photo

Girardi's job should not be an issue

Without the security provided by a long-term contract, Joe Girardi's job status will quickly become a major issue if the New York Yankees have trouble winning baseball games early in the season. But Hank Steinbrenner sought to put a quick end to any speculation that Girardi's lame-duck position means he has to repeat his World Series championship to keep his job.

While making it clear that winning the World Series always remains the goal, Steinbrenner flatly answered no when asked if Girardi has to win it all again. He said that Girardi was both his and general manager Brian Cashman's choice and that his manager proved them right last year. Girardi himself seems unconcerned about his contract and why should he be? He won the World Series last year and he's already been fired once as a manager so I'm sure he's not worried about losing his job.

The media right now are more focused on the contracts of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. But I think the lack of a contract for Girardi has the potential to be a bigger distraction. Hopefully the Yankees get off to a good start and this becomes a non-issue.

Thanks to Keith Allison via Wikipedia for the photo.

Jr Boss ready for Yankees repeat

Hank Steinbrenner is ready for the start of spring training baseball, which he considers a mere formality in the quest for a repeat championship for the New York Yankees. As Yankee Captain Derek Jeter said Wednesday, the mantra for the Bronx Bombers does not change: win it all or the season is a failure.

Steinbrenner thinks the offseason moves made by Yankees general manager Brian Cashman (trading for Curtis Granderson and Javy Vazquez) have improved the team. I would quibble with that notion on the Vazquez end, but he may be right. The Yankees did fulfill Cashman's stated desire to get younger and more flexible. They managed to revamp their roster in a cost-effective way, a goal of Hank's brother Hal after years of what he sees as out-of-control spending by the real Boss: George Steinbrenner.

Yet, I think Jr. Boss & Co. are underestimating the impact of losing both Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon, good guys with clutch bats. The brass is counting on Granderson and Nick Johnson to fill that void both in the lineup and the clubhouse. We'll see if they have the goods to do it.