Everyone will link this story because it tips Girardi as the front runner for the Yankees' job. I'm linking it because it contains the biggest bunch of horse hockey I've seen in the past couple of weeks. Specifically, in connection with the Yankees' efforts to hold on to Alex Rodriguez:Hank Steinbrenner said he would try to impress on Rodriguez the value of winning titles and making his legacy as a Yankee. He related a story of talking to Joe DiMaggio, who told him his championships would not have been half as meaningful if he had won them for any other team.
I call bullsh*t mostly because I can't feature Joe DiMaggio giving a young Hank Steinbrenner the time of day in his lifetime, let alone opening up to him about the glory and wonder of being a New York Yankee. This is the same Hank Steinbrenner, we must remember, who was coaching high school soccer and not getting much respect from anyone back when DiMaggio was still kicking. Back then, even mortals like Dave Righetti thought he was a putz. If Hank had approached DiMaggio in those days, Joltin' Joe would have had Morris Engelberg slap a restraining order on him.
More generally speaking, however, I'm going to go out on a very short limb here and say that if Joe DiMaggio had won nine World Series Championships for, I don't know, the Pittsburgh Pirates, there would be nothing so damn special about the Yankees in the first place. Further, I'm going to say that Joe DiMaggio knew it, and because he knew it, he wouldn't feel much of a need to tell one of George Steinbrenner's kids that he owed more to the Yankees than they did to him.
2 comments:
Hmmmm...."nothing so special about the Yankees". I think I have to steal your "(cough) Bullsh*t (cough)" for that one!
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Casey Stengel, etc.
Just scratching the very bare surface there is much that has made the Yankees special above and beyond Joltin' Joe. This is NOT to belittle his accomplishments in any way, just to point out that their legacy is far more than one single player. Joe himself was incredibly proud of the fact that he was a Yankee.
Now, as to Hank Steinbrenner's comments...well, it IS the kind of the thing that DiMaggio would say, but I wouldn't bet on him saying it to Hank. Let's face it, Hank is very much like his dad in that he has a 'reality distortion field' that makes Steve Jobs' look plain glass.
Maybe that was putting it too strongly. That said, without Joe D, the championships stop in 1932 and don't resume until, what, the early 50s? Well, save 1943's 4F team.
And maybe they don't even resume then, because who is to say whether talent like Berra and Mantle and Ford sign contracts with the Yankees if they didn't grow up with NY as the World Champs almost every year?
Of course the problem with alternative histories like these is that you never know. If they don't get Joe D maybe they sign Ted Williams and Bob Feller and they win even more championships, so there you go.
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