From Mark Feinsand:
The last time I remember hearing the Yankees use words like “rock bottom” was June 10, 2005, following a particularly ugly 8-1 loss in St. Louis to the Cardinals.
That night, the Yankees made three errors, looked lackadaisical in the field and at the plate, and watched their record fall to 29-31 just as they believed they had put their 11-19 start behind them.
Joe Torre held a closed-door meeting after that game, ripping his team to shreds for what he felt was a lack of effort. It was the angriest I ever saw Torre after a game, and several players told me it was the maddest they had ever seen him.
Joe Girardi didn’t lash out at his players after tonight’s game, though maybe he should have. No, there was no indication that any of them were being lazy, but there was certainly some sloppy play – Robinson Cano not covering second base on the play that wound up as Derek Jeter’s game-turning error, Johnny Damon dropping what should have been a routine fly ball – and there were plenty of at-bats that looked like the Yankees just wanted to go home.
After Torre "ripped his team to shreds" the Yankees won 7 out of 8 and finished the season going 66-36. Sometimes the manager needs to flip out, or flip a table, or call someone out in front of the team. Tonight was one of those nights.
Here's a quote from Mike Mussina following tonight's loss (also from Feinsand's article): “If this is the same place we were a year ago, it sure feels a lot worse than that.”
I wonder how much of that has to do with the absence of Joe Torre, the guy almost every member of the team credited with keeping last year's team together through the early struggles. And it wasn't because he was nice, and buddies with the players.
It's time for Girardi to step up and truly step in to the role of MANANGER OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES. This is your team, put your mark on it and stop pussyfooting around.
4 Comments:
The optomist in me says wait until tomorrow's game. I could see him forcing the team to go home with the game in their heads and ripping them tomorrow before the game. Probably won't happen, but we can hope. I'm still having trouble figuring out the post-Torre era.
I'm not saying it can't happen, it definitely can. I hope it does. But like you said this team is hard to figure out.
With the exception of Cano, they don't need to be ripped for their effort. They need to be told to stop swinging at first pitches to to work counts. They need to be told to blaming teammates (you listening Mussina and Jeter?) and get their heads back in the game when something goes wrong.
Joe has remained remarkably unemotional this whole season, and I don't think it's a good thing. He needs to get fired up, chew out the players, get thrown out of a game arguing with a ref and show the players and the fans that you care about this team. I'm not in the clubhouse and can't get a good handle on how the players feel about Girardi, but I wonder if he hasn't really won their respect yet.
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