Hello To My New Friend Joe

The search is over and the Yankees have a new Manager Joe Girardi. I like this choice personally, Joe was a catcher on three of the four winning Yankee World Series teams. He was a bench coach under Torre for at least a year and he coached a young Florida Marlins team to a better than expected season, he also received the award for coach of the year. He was also fired from that job, a story that the media can't seem to let go of recently. Between ESPN, FOX and even MSNBC, they all think that Joe is going to rankle the Steinbrenner feathers and get himself booted. So let's clear the air about that little mishap in Florida. He was fired by owner Jeffrey Loria over disputes regarding personnel and clubhouse access, um okay, that's a strange thing to be fired over, I mean the guy won coach of the year for Christ sake. I guess it didn't help Joe telling his boss not to yell at the Umps during the game, but whatever, I don't think this kind of thing could happen in NY. He could be fired for not winning games but I doubt they would fire him for some dumb crap like clubhouse access. Loria seemed like an overbearing buffoon at any rate. Not to mention I believe he was the same dumbass who traded his entire team after they won the World Series a while back.

Anyway Girardi is here and he brings with him a wealth of knowledge. A few of the Yankees best managers have been catchers like Ralph Houk, Yogi Berra and Joe Torre. I really like catchers as Managers, in order for them to do their job they have to think like Managers anyway. They have to be able to build confidence in their pitchers, they have to call the pitches and a great catcher is always the smartest and most able to think on their feet.

There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the direction of this team. The Yankees are likely to lose A-Rod, and possibly Jorge Posada, Mo Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu and Luis Viscaino. That's a pretty large portion of the team. So we will have to see as the winter presses on what kind of deals the Yankees hope to make. At least the pitching staff is still pretty solid. The Yanks still have Joba Chamberlain, Phillip Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Wang and the Moose. It sounds like they might be going after pitcher Johan Santana of the Twins. So there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel, but time will tell. It was an up and down season but I enjoyed it, and I look forward to the last season played at Yankee Stadium next year.