WHY GEORGE JUST ROLLED OVER IN HIS GRAVE

The Yankees didn't make any moves at this trade deadline, even though they were clearly in need of a top flight pitcher and some relief help; Hell, maybe even another bat. The first thing I thought of was George Steinbrenner rolling over in his grave in disgust.

George's philosophy during his entire life was win or nothing, and sorry to the 2011 Yankees, with whom I love to death, but we don't look like we are 100% positive that we can beat the Red Sox, Phillies, or Giants in a 7 game series at this point, and in George's time he would have made a trade for a huge name to do that. I think that if George were still around he would send everyone except Manny Banuelos to Seattle to acquire King Felix, and convince the Mariners why it's a great deal along the way.(In Photo: Manny Banuelos)
George was a hard nosed business man who had one goal in his business, to win. Hal, although he is a nice guy did not completely receive that trait from George. Dammit do I wish he did. If it were up to me, I would give Hank a bigger say in the day to day operations of the Yankees. Hank has a bad reputation as being alittle wild with the mouth, but he is not afraid to speak his mind, or spend his money. Hank has some of the good George traits.

If it were up to me, I would let Hank and Hal both control the Yankees in different ways. For example, Hank seems better with being vocal, dealing with people, and he has the George win attitude. Hal's positives are his business background (he studied business in college), his professionalism, and he displays the Yankees as a classy franchise, which he also is.
Let Hank make the moves, let Hal deal the cash and if things get alittle too out of control, Hal is there to reign him in, but one things for sure, we missed a good opportunity this trade deadline and if Hank was out of his cage, doing what I'm suggesting, I think there would be a different outcome today, August 2nd, then again, maybe I just miss Good Ol' George, who knows.

But, what do you think about my idea? Hit me on Facebook or add the Blackberry Messenger group, which is on the right side of the BYB page. Let me know what you think.



--Will Cohen, BYB Staff Writer

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WHY THE YANKEES ARE CLASSY

NOTE: This will be the last time I refer to Hank Steinbrenner is reference to his rant earlier this week. It's old, tired and pathetic.The best part of the Hank Steinbrenner's rant earlier in the week is that nobody cared in the clubhouse, only us... and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure we did either. The New York Yankees may have the classiest group of players ever with Derek Jeter leading the pack. I love what he said at Spring Training after the incident occurred:

"I think every time it seems like you don't win, people say that you don't have the hunger . We got beat by a team that was better than us in that series, that was the bottom line. I wouldn't say there was a lack of hunger. I just think we didn't play as well. That's why we lost. But any time teams lose you always hear that."

On Hank specifically he said: "Owners can say anything they want to say, They're owners. They're entitled to their opinion. You don't have to necessarily agree with their opinion but they can say what they want to say. I have no problem with it."

The Yankees never speak out of turn, they have each others backs, and prediction, they'll turn the Hank rant into a motivational tool and move forward. It was stupid anyway. Unfortunately for everyone else, it was a total circus.

I'm not going to lie, I love when Hank speaks. The guy just opens his mouth and everything pours out. Did you ever see Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty and the bees fly out of his mouth? Then you know what I mean. There are always 3 to 8 nuggets to talk about around the water cooler or write about. And we, following our team, feed into it like hungry dogs and bring it to all of you.

It's funny when it happens, but the one thing I notice all the time is the way it's handled, almost like a bunch of kids moving away from the old man farting in the rocking chair. They snicker and laugh, but they get out of there quick and continue their day. You have to love that.

So hopefully, now that the week is over and the first Spring Training game's under our belt, The Yankees will have cleared their minds of chaos and are focusing on baseball and a new season, and maybe just maybe, the old man in the rocking chair will stop farting, or at least do it less.

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WHY HANK WAS RIGHT

Today begins the quest for 28. The Yanks put on a nice little ceremony, once again proving they’ll spare no expense on pomp and circumstance. Seriously, who needs a military flyover at a Spring Training game?

Now, last week, Hank came out and ripped on MLB’s luxury tax and rightfully so. As usual, the Yankees pay the most into MLB’s version of revenue sharing. Revenue sharing works in the NFL because they have a league wide television deal and league wide merchandising. Baseball is different.

Each team does what they want, with whom they want. Everyone rips the Yankees for “buying championships”. ATTENTION, the Red Sox aren’t too far behind. But so what? The Mets are here in New York and have the same resources available to them that the Yankees do. The difference comes in when you look at how teams spend their money. Yankees & Red Sox ownership understands that you need to spend money to make money. Basic business principles say if you invest wisely in your asset you’ll see a return. This most basic fundamental seems to be lost on the Wilpons and other owners such as Peter Angelos of the Orioles. It's been well documented that a few years back, Peter Angelos took the earnings he acquired from revenue sharing and bought a yacht. I’m sorry, doesn’t that seem to slap the face of the original intention of revenue sharing. Doesn’t it exist to make teams equal, not to line the pockets of cheap owners?

Friday, it was revealed that MLB has loaned the Wilpons $25 million to help cover expenses after what they lost in the Madoff scandal. While I feel bad for the legal troubles that are about to ensnare the Wilpons, I don’t feel bad for the Mets. The Mets have never spent money wisely. The organization was seen as a business and “winning at all cost” attitude has never struck me from Fred or Jeff. They treat the Mets, much like the Dolans treat the Knicks & Rangers, as toys. I can honestly say I feel bad for the fans of these teams.

Whether you agree or disagree with Hank, he brings up a good point. Revenue Sharing needs to be reevaluated or maybe some of these teams shouldn’t exist. Winning needs to bred from Ownership right down to the field. Maybe the Wilpons should sell to Donald Trump. He may not always succeed, but at least he tries. Something the Wilpons haven’t done in years.

--Lem Allen, BYB Freelance Contributor

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WTF, UNCLE HANK

"In 09 I saw it... Sometimes they celebrated a little too much last year. Some of the players too busy building mansions and concentrating on other things and not concentrating on winning. I have no problems saying that. They've come into this spring with a new hunger and that's what it takes to win."
--Hank Steinbrenner

Oh good, just in time for Yankees Spring Training, a confusing, angry and belligerent rant from our crazy uncle, Hank Steinbrenner. He's be great at Thanksgiving, wouldn't he?

I've said it many times before but it's worth repeating, Hal Steinbrenner has the business end of the Yankees wrapped up. He inherited that trait from his father George. Hank however, he inherited the nutty side. He learned how to talk to the media. The trouble is, he doesn't make points and leak info like his dear old dad, No. Instead, he makes nonsense, something the Yankees don't need.

Hank took off his muzzle today and rambled about how the Yankees celebrated too much after the 2009 World Championship and also blabbered about how some of the players were too busy last season "building mansions." Geez, sounds like he was talking about the Captain, Derek Jeter. But maybe not, Hank said he wasn't "singling anyone out". Really Uncle Hank? Really? Ok.

Look, Jeter's a class act, a lot of the team is, they'll probably just blow it off. They probably will use it as a motivational tool. Me? I just find the rants from Hank to get better and better. I do get concerned though, one day, he's going to say the wrong thing and Hal and his sisters are going to have to drag him back to the house, chloroform him and throw him back in his cage. Otherwise he'll run wild offending everyone in Yankeeland, and no one wants that.

Actually, I have a better idea, let him loose in Boston. Uncle Hank blabbing aimlessly down Yawkey Way? Can't you picture it? I sure can.



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TICK, TICK, TICK

be-hoove [bih-hoov] verb: to be necessary or proper for.

Hank Steinbrenner: “For somebody of that stature, it would certainly behoove him to be a Yankee, which would probably be for the rest of his career."

2 things

1. The waiting game is killing me.
2. Can someone shut Hank up? Honestly.

There's no doubt about. Tom Petty was right... "The waiting IS the hardest part." So far, the Evil Red Sox have schooled everyone in this years Winter Meetings, except for the athletes they are paying. Man oh man, it was not exactly what I expected. The Yankees don't have any tricks up their sleeves as of yet, and man oh man, everything is so public. If Cashman takes a piss, Buster Olney is reporting it.

So far this winter, the Yankees hand is exposed. Everyone knows what they're doing. They want Cliff Lee and they don't care who knows it, they just want it done. But waiting and waiting is giving me stress headaches because it's really not about if we get Cliff Lee. No, now it's about if we DON'T. Like I've stated, signings have happened and the Yanks haven't done anything while it's going on around them. They are trying to catch Moby Dick. It's Cashman, concentration, aggression and finesse. Hopefully you can also factor in alittle CC texting and maybe even a Jeter phone call, but who knows what it's going to take to get Cliff Lee to see the light. By Sunday, hopefully, Cliff Lee will decide he wants to be a New York Yankee, if Lee decides not to? Well, then we have some serious issues.

Russell Martin, former catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, while a smaller fish, is still an important fish, in my opinion. Like I said in WHAT THE BUCK? back on November 15th, A veteran, or in this case, an experienced catcher may be a good idea instead of a Montero, Cervelli platoon. You know I love Cervelli's passion, but the hitting isn't there and dare I say either is his defense. Signing a Russell Martin can help a lot. Personally, I think it would give a lot of Yankee fans a sigh of relief. The truth is, I think at this point, we just want to see signings in our favor, ANYTHING to better our club. Selfishly, I lashed out a friend of mine who happens to be an Evil Red Sox fan via text earlier today:

Me: Tell the red sox to stop hogging everyone. I want russell Martin. They r trying to take all the good players

K: We need a catcher!

Me: We need one. We have a old man behind the plate and a rookie named Jesus. Not going to happen.

K: We have v-tek who is 52 and Saltalamacchia who is eye-talian.

That's how it went down. Now, if you need to know anything about this woman, she's offensive toward Italians (That's a joke), but more importantly, she absolutely hates the New York Yankees. Any conversation about the Yankees and Red Sox turns vicious. So, what's my point? It's that same aggression by the Red Sox that's currently kicking our ass in this Free Agent market. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the Red Sox were in on Lee too! Right now, anything can happen. That's just the way this winter is going so far.

So what does the fanatical Yankee fan do right now? Let me guess, you read the blogs like crazy looking for an update, and when you go to your favorite blog, and it's not updated, you get pissed. Well, welcome to my world.

I just want to see something happen, maybe a good bullpen pickup, a trade for alittle bench help, Lee, a solid catcher type like Martin. Give me something I can be happy about and maybe even think of something clever to write, because let's be honest, as a Yankee fan right now, waiting sucks. It could be worse though, you could be a Mets fan.

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OMFG

11-24-2010: Latest brought to you by Jon Heyman and
Sliding into Home, one of the better Yankees Blogs around:












11-24-2010: The Yankees were winning the PR war, and it was looking good, Brian Cashman is a genius, he handles players excellently when it comes to negotiations. Then this guy opened his mouth:

Hank Steinbrenner told the Assoicated Press:

"As much as we want to keep everybody, we've already made these guys very, very rich, and I don't feel we owe anybody anything monetarily," the Yankees co-chairman said Tuesday. "Some of these players are wealthier than their bosses."

Hank, for the love of God, don't talk about riches and wealth to a player that's given his all for all these years, offer 3 years and $45 million and then on the other end offer a Cliff Lee, 6 year $140 million contract. You're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Hal, get this guy sedated, quick. He's blowing it.

11-23-2010: Brian Cashman made the following statement to the Newark Star Ledger:

"He should be nothing but a New York Yankee, He chooses not to be."

Cashman tells the Star Ledger that he doubts Jeter truly wants to remain in the Bronx. Hard Ball like I've never seen it before. Your turn Jeet, Your turn.

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