| Walter A. Nesbeth III. 5th June, 2007 - 9:01 pm
 No one could have thought as that baseball gently settled into the outfield while Jay Bell crossed the plate on that unexpected night in Arizona some six years ago that the end of an era was not only near, it was already here. Since then the Yankees have made it to the playoffs every year, even reaching the World Series in 2003, but for all intents and purposes, the era of Bronx dominance had died at the bat of Luis Gonzalez.
Fast forward to 2007, the bright future and high expectations that were case upon this talent laden Yankees team was absolutely vision through pinstripe colored glasses. Through 50+ games, the Yankees of 2007 have shown themselves to be an aged, overpaid, under motivated collection of ballplayers that bear more allegiance to the dollar sign on their checks than the N-Y on their jerseys.
Yes, Jeter, Posada, Pettite and Rivera, the old guard still represent what you want in a ballplayer, but even players of their respective mettle cannot lift the once proud organization out of the malaise that seems to have infected the team as easily as the flu passes through a preschool classroom. Watching the Yankees now is tantamount to watching seniors play botchy ball. Not much to look at.
What to do? Well as the expression goes, fish stinks at the head. In this case, albeit two classy fish, Brian Cashman and Joe Torre have to go. The time has come for a change to be made. Even the great leaders of our military past reached a point in their illustrious careers where the fire of their voices and the steel of their resolve could no longer move men to great things. I think that this is the case with the Yankees of today.
OK, firing is the easy part, what do you do afterwards? The plan to return the Yankees to glory has to first begin with choosing a new brain trust. That has to start with making Gene Michael, a universally acknowledged talent guru, either the General Manager or something real close to it. When the Yankees passed on Vladimir Guerrero for Gary Sheffield and Carlos Beltran for Johnny Damon, they missed two opportunities to facilitate getting younger while actually improving their talent. That cannot continue. No New York probably will not be willing to watch a team rebuild, but no one said that they have to.
This leads me to the manager.
One of Joe Torre’s biggest failings was that after he became “Joe Torre” rather than “Clueless Joe” he stopped doing what helped him ascend to the top. He stopped believing in the whole team and basically fell in love with one or two arms in the pen and used them until they fell off. I’m surprised that Scott Proctor and Ron Villone can actually tie the their shoe laces considering how frequently they have had to throw over the years. This is not to say that Torre had talent available and didn’t use it. He just never put the team in a position to take the hit today so that they can be standing tomorrow.
The Yankees, while I believe that someday, Don Mattingly will become a good manager, sort of in the Bruce Bochy mold, need to ignore legacy and immerse themselves in reality. Mattingly would have a better chance if the Yankees purged as many of the veterans on this team as possible. There is only so much juice in an apple and this one looks as though it has been pressed dry. |
