It’s unattainable to know if Hal Steinbrenner spoke with a straight face when he delivered probably the most perplexing remark from his Wednesday telephone interview with “The Michael Kay Show.”
But given the Yankees proprietor’s befuddled tone, it’s truthful to imagine that Steinbrenner spoke significantly.
“I’m a little confused this year, being the third week of June, why they’re so upset,” Steinbrenner stated when Kay requested if he’s conscious of distraught Yankees followers. “But they’re upset and that’s gonna get my attention, of course.”
Steinbrenner’s phrases got here simply earlier than a Yankees win, the staff’s second in a row. But as baffled because the boss could also be, the assertion is way extra puzzling contemplating the place his staff awakened on Thursday.
Yes, the Yankees are 41-33 and in possession of the second American League wild card by half a sport regardless of a barrage of accidents, together with one to Aaron Judge that has hindered the offense. But they’ve additionally been caught in third place since mid-May, they usually’re a lot nearer to the fourth-place Blue Jays and last-place Red Sox than they’re the first-place Rays and second-place Orioles.
Some of that has to do with the energy of the AL East, and there’s nonetheless numerous baseball to be performed. But Steinbrenner shouldn’t be appearing just like the 2023 season remains to be in its infancy, both.
And with these standings and the second-highest payroll in baseball, he ought to be sharing within the followers’ disgust, if not continuing as unexpectedly as some might want on the subject of among the potential choices going through the Yankees, like what to do with expensive underachieving veterans, Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone and the staff’s teaching employees.
“Nobody’s on the heat seat right now,” Steinbrenner stated when particularly requested about hitting coach Dillon Lawson. “Let’s get through the season.”
Steinbrenner added that he’ll think about adjustments even when the Yankees get into the playoffs and don’t carry out — pending good well being. “If we don’t make the playoffs and we’re healthy the second half of the year… then I’m going to be asking some tough questions,” he continued.
Acting as rash as his late father as soon as did has by no means been Steinbrenner’s model, however the son of George ought to grasp the place the Bronx devoted is coming from after rising up in a family the place successful was a core tenet.
At least Steinbrenner shares that want to win, as he dismissed the thought of tanking — and thus shedding payroll — as a option to remake the Yankees over the long term.
“For all the talk that I’m not like my dad in a lot of ways, that’s one way that I’m just like my dad,” Steinbrenner stated. “It’s not in my DNA. I want to be in the playoffs every year. I believe if you get into the playoffs, wild card or not, you’ve got a legitimate shot to make it happen in any given year.”
But the Yankees haven’t received a World Series since 2009, and easily making the playoffs is a far cry from the championship or bust mission assertion they’ve constructed their model on and conditioned followers to consider.
Some now marvel if Steinbrenner has eased up on that mantra — another excuse followers are upset — however he insisted that’s not the case when speaking to Kay.
“No, it has not been adjusted,” Steinbrenner stated of the mission assertion. “Our purpose yearly is to win a championship.
“Do I feel that the whole season is a failure when we don’t? No, I don’t, because I’m not going to ignore when we win X amount of games and win the division or win the Division Series. I’m not going to ignore that. But we have failed, for many years, to win a championship, and that is our ultimate goal.”
If Steinbrenner understands that, then he ought to perceive why followers are annoyed with the place the Yankees are at practically three months into the season.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com