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CHECKING UP ON: HANK STEINBRENNER
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It hasn't taken long for Hank Steinbrenner to change tunes.
[Ed's note: From time to time, we like to catch up with those we've profiled in the magazine. How are things going, we wonder? With Hank Steinbrenner, we know. And yet, when we profiled him recently, he sang a different tune.]
This week is like many others in Yankees history. An angry chairman voiced his frustration to management, publicly. This time it was Hank Steinbrenner, channeling his father.
On the future of young pup, and 8th inning maestro Joba Chamberlain, he stated, "I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now. There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."
This surprised few. When a New Yorker sees "Steinbrenner Lets Loose On Manager and GM" in the morning headlines, they may cringe or nod approvingly, but they certainly display no shock. But we did. Hank backed off his initial comments—at least a little—soon after, but those first words were potent. They were also different, or removed from the man we knew. Just two months ago, asked about his philosophy over an interview down at Spring Training, Hank Steinbrenner told the Mag something different.
"I think my breeding background has absolutely had a bearing on my approach to baseball," he told Ryan McGee. "Building through scouting and the draft, then having the patience to see it through, to see the young talent reach its potential, without panicking."
The more youthful Steinbrenner also said how he would run the team differently. He was a patient breeder. He had a different way. He wanted to develop more players. Don't trade as often for a quick fix. Be more patient.
And why not? After all, it's been over seven years since the Yankees won a title, a lifetime for this franchise. So the patient horse breeder is here, and things would change. And yet horse racing is a sport with a quietly sordid background. Great horses usually comes from multi-million dollar stud fees, which is a gentle name for arranging a forced mating process. You could easily spend $30-50 million to build the right horse. If that horse is a bust—and you typically know within two years—that's a sunk cost, and you keep spending until you get a winner.
It's a little like running the New York Yankees.
Calling your newly hired manager and one of the most-respected GM's in the game "idiots" within a month on the job is a bit of a surprise. At least coming from this Steinbrenner, the one who recently preached to us, "having the patience to see it through."
So we quickly remember, these are also the New York Yankees, run by someone named Steinbrenner.
The Yanks were built to win. Their new boss was bred for it.
(To read the rest of ESPN the Magazine's recent profile on Hank Steinbrenner, CLICK HERE.)
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