Report from Yankee Stadium
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Oct 09, 2007 
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Sorry for the lack of updates. But I’ve been on the phone all day or in the clubhouse interviewing people.
Only a handful of players (Mientkiewicz, Wang, Phillips, Molina, Duncan, Ohlendorf) were on hand and were unanimous in their support of Joe Torre.
Ron Guidry said the same thing. But he did say that he would be willing to return as pitching coach under a new manager.
Kevin Long said he hoped his relationship with Alex Rodriguez would be something A-Rod would factor in. He believes it would be hard for Alex to leave New York because of the relationships he has formed with the players and staff.
The best comments came from Don Mattingly.
He forcefully said several times that Torre needed to be treated with respect. “He demands it because of the way he treated people,” Mattingly said. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Mattingly said he wants to manage but would not address the Yankees out of respect to Torre. Following Torre, he said, was a “no-win situation.”
“It would be like following John Wooden,” he said.
But Mattingly clearly wants the challenge. He spoke with more presence than I have ever seen him before. He was, yes, managerial in his manner.
Scott Boras, meanwhile, is saying A-Rod wants to play until he’s 45 and that he is worth billions (that’s with a b) to a regional cable network. If he’s staying, the Yankees are really going to have to pay.
From what I have been able to gather, the Tony La Russa story is speculation. While he has a few supporters in Tampa (and remember, he is from Tampa), Steinbrenner is a Mattingly supporter.
Pete – thanks for the update. As you can probably tell, the suspense has been killing everyone. Your insight is great. I guess we have to wait for the paper tomorrow to hear what the players said.
I agree with Scott Boras. Alex will be worth billions. Now, I know Alex can’t get ownership of a team, but what about ownership of the YES network while he is still a player? More motivation to do well in the post-season! Or is that to much of a conflict? What happens the first time someone says something snarky about Alex on screen, I guess.
The Yankees need Larry Bowa to be the next manager. The young kids seem to love him and he has the fire that Joe seems to lack at times. Bowa should be next in line. Mattingly can learn a lot from Bowa’s sparkplug like energy. Energy Energy Energy…
I’d take the $30 million per season that the Yankees will be shelling out to A-Rod on a long-term deal, and sign four or five above-average players at $7 to $8 million per year. Sure, they won’t have the big impact that Alex has had during the playoffs… wait, scratch that. As we’ve seen time and time again, good pitching beats good hitting, and we need more of it.
Thanks for the update, Pete!
It’s odd being a history major and at the forefront of such change…
I’m so used to looking back…but now I have to force myself to look forward.
Not easy.
Thanks Pete. As you can see from the post before this, we’re all working very hard at not doing our jobs today.
Good to hear about Mattingly. I’d love to see him manage, and any sign that he’d succeed is great. With the right coaching staff, I think he’s definitely got it in him.
Yikes, following John Wooden. It took UCLA 20 years to win a title after he retired. Surely it won’t take the Yankees 20 years to win a World Series. The next manager definitely has a full cupboard with some really talented young pitchers!
Don Mattingly=Standup guy. A rarity in sports today.
Good for him. That comment alone should land him the job, IMO.
It takes high character to act like that under the swarm of NY media. No small order and I think that engenders a ton of respect from players. VERY important to be a good manager.
Give him a high quality bench coach and go for it.
Arod? If that’s what Scott Boras wants, and he plays along with that, goodbye.
Great player but, not worth turning him into a walking, talking, playing regional sports network.
No ONE player is worth that on a baseball team. Give me two power arms at the top of the rotation and I will beat ANY team with a walking, talking regional sports network playing any position on the field.
Here is the dilemma Arod faces. For the first time in his life, he was “one of the boys” on a team. He wasn’t treated differently than anybody else and he THRIVED under it.
Now, once again (as he did with the Texas deal) Scott Boras wants to turn him into a commodity and not a baseball player. All that accomplishes, besides making him a ton of money, is making him a 24+1 guy in the locker room again.
Precisely what he DOESN’T need at this point in his career.
If its a baseball decision, its a no brainer, Arod stays. If it becomes a, “he is bigger than life” deal (which will happen if he opts out), wish him well and say goodbye.
Why would Guidry be brought back?
Good riddance to Alex if that’s the cards they are going to play during this offseason. (I cannot stand Boras.)
Focus on the people that we really need – Mo, Posada and Pettitte.
Forbes Magazine says the Yankees are worth $1 billion so how is A-Rod worth more than the Yankees? Fuzzy math.
if Donnie’s offered the job, he should ask to have his mustache “reactivated”!
Mattingly definitely is a standup guy. I’ll never forget one year he was benched for refusing to cut his hair. Seriously.
Thanks for the update, Pete.
All the talk about Alex, I have to wonder if he really wants to start over . . . again with a new team. I don’t think so. He just needs to go back and remember how miserable he was in Texas with that big contract. He has finally made peace with New York and (I) believe it is now home to him.
Scott Boras is some piece of work, but I understand where he is coming from.
As for manager, I would love to have Joe Torre back, but I would be fine with Don Mattingly or Joe Girardi, as long as they keep it in-house. I don’t want a Tony LaRussa or Bobby Valentine or anyone else like that. Wasn’t Valentine the one who snuck back to manage the game in a “disguise.”? And LaRussa wouldn’t be a good fit either.
“The Yankees need Larry Bowa to be the next manager. The young kids seem to love him and he has the fire that Joe seems to lack at times. Bowa should be next in line. Mattingly can learn a lot from Bowa’s sparkplug like energy. Energy Energy Energy”
Replace Larry Bowa’s name with Girardi’s everywhere in this paragraph, and I agree wholeheartedly. Bowa is a fantastic coach, but if he couldn’t handle Philly I really doubt he’ll be able to handle NY.
The Yanks should say to Arod and Boras today our 1st and final offer is $150m for 5 years. Take it within a week or leave it. I dont care what anyone says or Boras wants to think in his blown up head…Name me 1 team that is going to pay him $30m a year and actually have more money to be pay other players, be competitive and make the play offs. When does the $$$ in his bank account become enough??!! you would think he learned enough from signing his contract with last place Texas. If he thinks he is getting more then $30m then he is out of his mind. He is getting the best offer with the Yanks, money and play offs. If he wants to be on a garbage team like the Giants then good bye. He has known for a year what he is going to do. No need to draw it out even more.
Whether you hate Boras or not, from a business sense he’s not entirely wrong. He didn’t say A-Rod is looking for billions. He said he’s worth billions to a network. The YES network has grown to be worth 3 billion dollars in a short period of time so it’s not a stretch to think another network could grow to billions with the right product to market. The run to breaking a homerun record (Barry watch on ESPN showed us that) is a pretty good product
Random, but I can’t wait to find out what Shelley had to say. Even on the darkest of days like today, the kid for whatever reason rarely fails to put a smile on my face.
Scott Boras epitomizes greed. Alex is already richer than any of us can imagine and if he plays his cards right, his family will be set up for generations. Boras and his antics are a day to day distraction to the team and I am tired of it. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t negotiate with the man at all for any player. He is a cancer to the team and the game because he thinks he and his clients are bigger than baseball.
Earth to Boras: It is painfully evident that Alex is not great enough to be able to guarantee a championship, nor is any player. Kindly go away.
If Alex is the driver behind Boras’s behavior, then he can go as well.
We won a couple of rings with Scott Brosius at 3rd base…
At the end of the day, ARod is not worth it…
We need more heart and guts players on this team like O’Neill, Martinez and Brosius…
Have there been any comments from Wang? Or anyone ask from why he spit the bit?
I really like Bowa he speaks the truth. He was just on Kays show and he said the obvious. Wang is not an ace, doesnt match up good against other peoples aces. Pettitte did his best to match up against Carmona. Yanks should of killed Byrd they had alot of hittable pitches that they didnt hit. Going down 4-0 then 6-1 really killed the hitters confidence and they lost there patience. The hitters dont hit really good pitching.
Baseball is both a sport and a business. A fan who looks at it as a sport may be happy with hearts and guts players. Owners want the guy who will give them the biggest return on their investment no matter how big or small that investment is.
We Want La Russa! Make it happen, George! La Russa wins, baby!
Good-bye Alex. Have fun in….where ever you end up….
Let’s hope Cashman builds a team with energy and grit, like the teams that have beaten the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs the past 3 years.
“A fan who looks at it as a sport may be happy with hearts and guts players. Owners want the guy who will give them the biggest return on their investment no matter how big or small that investment is.”
Winning world championships is the biggest and best return on investment from both fan and business point of view.
#9
David Eckstein is a hearts and guts player who has won 2 world championships. Do you think the Cards have made a larger return on investment off of him than the Yanks have made off of A-Rod? Maybe not in the hearts of fans, but in a business sense, Hall of Fame will always be a better return on investment than Hall of Very Good everytime.
_if Donnie’s offered the job, he should ask to have his mustache “reactivated�!_
he should just take Guidry’s when he leaves.
#9 “Winning world championships is the biggest and best return on investment from both fan and business point of view.”
Yankees have spent around a billion dollars since they last won the WS…do you really think they lost money in any year since them? NO WAY. The way the payroll was increased or maintained I would say they turned a profit, if not a huge profit, every year.
I hope Mattingly was “managerial in his manner” because during the post game manager’s report this year, when Torre was suspended, the had the look of a deer in the headlights.
Big part of this job is handling the NY media.
Girardi is too “Buck Showalteresque”. Too many rules and an iron hand for the veterans to accept.
I wonder why neither Pena nor Bowa were mentioned, although if Bowa couldn’t handle the Philly media, he’s got no chance here.
I think the ALDS should be 7 games. The post season is a roll of the dice. The baseball season is a marathon that leads up to a sprint. A 5 game series is an insult to the integrity of the season.
scott boras is either a maniac or a genius. i can’t decide. maybe both. either way, wouldnt you LOVE to hear what owners have to say about him?! lol…. i would imagine it is something along the lines up “dear god, i wish we didn’t have to deal with him…. bust out the checkbook….”
I’d like to see something where we get Girardi AND Mattingly. Obviously, Mattingly would have to stay as a bench coach and I’d think that would be fine since he doesnt sound like he wants to be the one to follow Torre anyway.
Girardi won’t work, it would be hard for Jeter, Posada, Mo – (assuming they stay) to deal with his form of discipline when they used to be teammates. Don’t think they would stay if Joe G came to manage anyway. Although, none of them played with Donnie Baseball. Tony LaRussa can’t even handle the STL media, why in the world do you think he could handle 8 papers of NYC?
As for AROD I keep coming back to one thought:
Play out your current contract.
how is another $5 or 6 or 7M going to change or enhance your lifestyle? would be hard to do, right?
how could remaining and retiring as a Yankee change your life?
can we say “Monument Park”? hmmmm…..where else can u get that?
if the Yanks do offer him a new K, it better be not all guaranteed money. give him a raise,sure, but fill it with PostSeason incentives.
what I’m saying is give him more of a base than he making now, not a whole lot more, but to get to the rest, build it in incentives.