It’s funny how Joe Girardi has this golden reputation because he had one good year for the Marlins organization. I’m not knocked the choice because I think out of the three guys the Yankees looked, Girardi was probably the best guy but you also don’t want to latch onto a guy who blows his wad in his first a la Lou Piniella. I love Lou too and he’s a Yankee but he’s been riding that 1990 Reds championship (and Pete Rose actually built that team) and while he’s been successful, he hasn’t taken a team to the promised land since.
A-Rod is gone too so that’ll be one less distraction to deal with. It also frees up some money to get Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada back into the fold. Yeah, they’re up there in years but they were all there when the Yankees were winning. It’ll just be interesting to see how Girardi, who couldn’t get along with ownership in Florida, copes with George Steinbrenner.
I’m also going to do something I don’t normally do and that’s give the Red Sox props. They’ve won two World Series in a time where the Yankees haven’t even played in one and this Red Sox team looks like it’s going to be good for quite some time. That just makes Girardi’s job that much tougher and will put him under the spotlight a bit more.
And it looks like Joe Torre already has found a home. Former Red Sox manager and now former Dodgers manager Grady Little stepped down as the team’s manager and the rumor is that Torre is the number one target. It also looks like Don Mattingly is going to follow him there. Good luck to Joe because he’s a class act. That is, I wish him luck up until we face him.
