There’s nothing like a rambling, underinformed, hot-air rant from someone named Steinbrenner to whisk us back to the bad old ‘80s — you know, that Yankee dark age when the franchise was soaked by lunacy’s constant drizzle (courtesy of you know who).
The Bombers were treated to more of the same in the last two days, except it wasn’t George who barged his way on to the back pages of the tabloids. It was his rogue son Hank, the more reckless, albeit more interesting of the two siblings, who decided to take on Derek Jeter, of all people.
Understand this about the shortstop: His star power isn’t what it used to be, certainly not after being taken down during last fall’s contract negotiations. Another .270-something season and Jeter will learn the hard way that New York’s love of its superstars isn’t limitless.
But for now, Hank is no match for Jeter’s celebrity, which is why any criticism of the “mansions” the shortstop supposedly was building while the Yankees were falling short of the World Series in 2010 is more amusing than it was insulting.
Still, the idea that Hank is once again on the loose after a two-year hiatus could mean trouble, if not for Jeter, then for Joe Girardi and especially Brian Cashman, who’s in the final year of his contract.
The team’s hierarchy understands many, many things have to go right for the Yankees to prevail in October, assuming they even get there. This delicate equation depends not just on the emergence of credible fourth and fifth starters (and a bounce-back season from Jeter), but on good chemistry and competent management — two factors that Hank has a chance to nuke.
He is very much the ‘80s version of his father: demanding, unfiltered, boisterous. But while George was an astute businessman a shark, no doubt — Hank acts and sounds like a knee-jerk, one-dimensional thinker
Hank, for instance, said some of today’s players are richer than their bosses “thanks to good old revenue sharing,” which he called “not the American way.” Steinbrenner saved his most irrational explanation for why small-market teams struggle, invoking “socialism, communism, whatever” as the culprits.
Anyone with sense, of course, will treat Hank like the raging bull he is, which is to say, allow the beast to charge (and vent) until it’s exhausted. With any luck, Steinbrenner will fade into the background, just as he did for most of 2009 and 2010.
In the interim, the Yankees became his brother Hal’s team, more smoothly run, a model of professionalism, even if last season ended in disappointment. Hank used the devastating ALCS loss to the Rangers as an excuse to step in front of Hal this week. Observers say Hank was tired of being eclipsed, the way his father eventually resented how Joe Torre became the face of the organization in the mid- to late-’90s.
It’s anyone’s guess whether Hank and Hal will compete for power, if not for exposure. Hank’s impact in the clubhouse is relative, at least with players as grounded as Jeter. The captain maneuvered carefully around the flap, saying he had “no problem” with an owner speaking his mind.
Steinbrenner must’ve realized how foolish he’d sounded a day earlier, insisting the reference to those “mansions” wasn’t directed at Jeter — it merely was a “euphemism.”
Even in trying to defuse the story, Hank was too clumsy for his own good: Of course he was talking about Jeter, who lives in a recently constructed home on Davis Island — the biggest residential structure in Hillsborough County.
When Yankee officials whispered that the size of Jeter’s home was a reflection of his ego, not one of them, even in the most acrimonious stretches of the contract negotiations, questioned the shortstop’s competitive edge.
Hank, however, had a problem with the “mansions,” which he equated to opulence. In his mind, opulence is complacency’s embryo. The logic was too weak for Hank to repeat it a second day. He finally admitted, “You don’t get five (World Series) rings by being complacent.”
Yet, Steinbrenner couldn’t back down altogether. He continued to insist the Yankees weren’t as driven in 2010 as they were in ‘09, to which even Girardi, the ultimate company man, had to disagree.
More detail about Yankees’ Hank Steinbrenner no match for Derek Jeter’s celebrity
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