Not Just Another Joe

A Vote for Joe Girardi as Yankees skipper
by Rick Olivares


Even after the 2004 debacle against the Red Sox, I had I LOVE JOE taped on my authentic Yankee pinstripes. But by the last two seasons, I saw a lot of slippage in the team. Never mind the fact that they had one of the best records in baseball since their last World Series appearance in 03.

Back when the New York Yankees began their magical run – let me count in the ’95 Wild Card berth – every move Joe Torre had that Midas touch. How can you not considering how his teams would win one improbable victory and series after another with a different set of heroes?

When the Boston Red Sox broke their 86-year jinx in 2004, it seems that their roles have been reversed. They won when it didn’t matter and they lost games that previously they closed out in surgical fashion – cold-blooded and precise.

So at the start of the year, I thought they should have brought in Lou Piniella. I guess what the team needed was a kick in the pants. The workman-like atmosphere that served them in good stead didn’t work anymore. The lack of emotion and fire summed up the okay-we-lost-this-year-but-we’ll-come-back-next-year attitude.

I missed guys like who openly showed their disdain for losing. Players who played with a certain fire like Paul O’Neill, John Wetteland, Roger Clemens, Scott Brosius, Jim Leyritz, David Wells, and Joe Girardi. The restraint was good for a while, but there was a double standard. When Alex Rodriguez would go about as if he wasn’t in a slump, he was called out. But when Derek Jeter didn’t say a word to lift up his crestfallen teammate two seasons ago, he was Mr. Teflon. Oh yes, DJ’s a four-time World Series winner.

When Jason Giambi admitted to using steroids was he taken to task? When Gary Sheffield moved to the Detroit Tigers instead of shutting him up on the field, the Yankees folded like a bad hand in poker.

It’s time for a different approach, Bombers.

Joe Girardi is a control freak? Shades of Buck Showalter, they say? Dudes, maybe. Maybe not. Give him the benefit of the doubt by letting him install his system and take a crack at banner no. 27. Oh, yes, Girardi has three World Series rings from his time in the Bronx.

What did the old perfesser -- Casey Stengel -- say after he was dumped? I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 again.

Well, New York, don’t make the mistake of the last two years again. Torre had his chances. For that 3-1 meltdown against the Red Sox he should have been fired. They missed out on the Piniella Sweepstakes and now beat out the Los Angeles Dodgers to get Girardi. If people were willing to give -- with all due respect -- a previously underperforming manager in Joe Torre a chance to manage the Yankees, then they should given Girardi their unconditional support and a chance as well.