Hanky's Yankees

I will surely eat my words for what I am about to write: I applaud Hank Steinbrenner.

I have to imagine that George Steinbrenner is locked away in an attic of his family's estate somewhere, under constant medical attention and out of public view. By all accounts, George has slipped into the confines of old age and is suffering from dementia and even though he is said to be a crucial part of the Yankees' decision-making process, I'm sure his responsibilities have been relegated to sitting quietly and looking like George Steinbrenner. The sad thing is that he probably knows as much about baseball now as he did when he was mentally sound. But I'm not going to bash George too much. For all the insanity and drama of his Bronx Zoo, the man still led the Yankees to 10 pennants and six World Series championships. Those are impressive feats and we should celebrate his accomplishments. But he also made some crucial errors that would have crippled any team that didn't have the checkbook to buy its way out of trouble.

George's incessant need to win "right now" clouded his already-cloudly judgment. He was always quick to trade or release home-grown talent for big name stars, even if those players were past their primes and even if the team didn't need them. If you have Jeter, Posada, Matsui, Giambi, Williams, and Sheffield in your lineup already, you probably don't need Alex Rodriguez, especially when your pitching rotation includes Kevin Brown, Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez, and a fifty-seven year old El Duque. Instead of building his team around a few stars and getting other guys that fit well in the system, George built a team entirely of big name players. That, in short, is the Steinbrenner Problem: the propensity to trade -- or fail to invest in -- young, home-grown prospects for older, expensive stars. He traded Willie McGee and Fred McGriff in the 80's and Jay Buhner and Mike Lowell in the 90's. He was talked out of trading Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte several times and let countless other young prospects go before ever giving them a shot at the Bigs. But with King George fading quietly into the background and his sons rising to the throne, it seems that there might finally be a new way of thinking in the Bronx.

Hank Steinbrenner's first act as owner was to bid farewell to Yankee hero Joe Torre. This may be the worst first task in the history of any job, anywhere. There was no way for Hank to look good here and he looked awful. When the heir to the Yankee dynasty, who did nothing to earn his position except be born, decides not to rehire the greatest manager in generations (that contract offer was a sham), he will not look good. No way, no how. So for this moment, let's excuse that. It was his first act on the job and was certainly an unenviable task. It was not handled well. But the three things he has done - or not done - since then, deserve thunderous applause.

1. Letting A-Rod Go

Hanky's Yankees put together a record-$300 million dollar package to sign the best player of our time, Alex Rodriguez. They made a valiant effort to make the offer, but told A-Rod that if he opted out, they would not chase him. A-Rod opted out. Hank, in no uncertain terms, said goodbye. "If you don't want to be a Yankee and paid what you're being paid, we don't want you, that's the bottom line. You'd be hard-pressed to argue that point. If you don't understand the magnitude of being a Yankee and understand what that means, and being the highest-paid player in baseball, I think it's pretty obvious." The Yanks stopped chasing A-Rod on principle and picked up Abreu's option to keep a big bat in the heart of the lineup. Finally!!!!! The pride of the Yankees has returned! An owner is governing based on principles. It's about f'ing time!

2. Signing Girardi Over Mattingly

The Yankees signed Joe Girardi as manager, which was the best possible move that could have been made. It's also the way we know that George has absolutely no say anymore. Don Mattingly has always been George Steinbrenner's favorite Yankee. I'm convinced that if George could have traded both his sons, Hank and Hal, in a package deal for Donnie, he would have done it a long time ago. He brought Donnie in as coach to groom him to be manager and apparently suggested in a not-so-subtle manner that one day the job would be his. But when it came down to it, Hank and Hal went against George's wishes and hired the best man for the job. The truth is that Don Mattingly is no way capable of managing the Yankees and the fact that George wanted him is further proof of his irrationality. In the end, Hank and Hal picked the guy who had played for the Yankees' championship teams, who played catcher and thus knows the pitchers and the game, and who has a proven track record of winning as a manager in the Major Leagues. Just because Donnie Baseball played on the Yankees doesn't mean he is qualified to manage them. To spend hundreds of millions of dollars on player contracts and then put Don Mattingly at the helm would be like hiring Dave K. to fly the space shuttle Discovery just because he used to fly twin-engines. I'm 99% sure this analogy works.

3. Keeping Young Prospects Instead of Getting New Stars

Chamberlain, Hughes and Kennedy are the most exciting young pitchers in New York since Isringhausen, Pulsipher, and Wilson. But unlike the Mets' flops of the late nineties, these kids are GOOD. In George's day, this would have meant that they would be marked for trade bait. Hank seems to feel differently. The buzz has been abound about the Yankees possibly making a blockbuster trade for Marlins third baseman Miguel Cabrera, one of the best young hitters in the game. If Papa George was in charge, the Yankees would have traded Melky Cabrera and at least one of the Big Three for Miguel. But those days appear over. Hank indicated this week that the Yankees' future is in its home-grown talent. "It's pretty obvious which players we're not going to trade," Hank said yesterday. "Chamberlain, Hughes and even Kennedy. Not for a position player." THANK GOD. One great, young pitcher - let alone three - can anchor a rotation for a decade. Look at the Braves in the 1990's. Or for a Yankee reference, look at Whitey Ford or Andy Pettitte. Or Mariano Rivera in the bullpen. Hank's unwillingness to part with these pitchers signals a change in the 35-year Steinbrenner policy of shuffling prospects out the door faster than you can say Schowalter.

I hope I don't eat my words. I hope that in a week or a month or a year, I'm not writing about how I hate Hank Steinbrenner and how he's no more than a worse version of his father. But right now, he seems to be making all the moves his dad was too foolish to make all those years. He has exercised pride, intelligence, and restraint in the three key decisions he made after letting Torre go - three things we haven't really been able to associate with Papa George.

The 1996 Yankees began a dynasty that lasted a dozen seasons. If Hank keeps this up, the 2008 team might begin another. It's too bad George won't be able to appreciate it.