[NU Sports] Yanks

[Jeff Beamsley]

I agree with you.  The Yanks showed their true colors yet again in their
shabby send-off of Torre.

However, you have to take ego into account here.  Tony LaRussa has a lot of
it.  He wants to go down in history as the best baseball manager ever.  He
has been angling for this job for a long time.  Now that the opportunity is
here, this is his last mountain to climb.  He won in Chicago. He won in
Oakland. He won in St. Louis.  His swan song is going to be winning the WS in
New York on the biggest baseball stage in the world.  

The timing couldn't be better.  The team is going to be rebuilt.  The Yanks
showed this year that they have enough good young talent to build a team
around.  LaRussa will continue to have an unlimited budget AND they are going
to have a new stadium.  Don't think for a minute that LaRussa doesn't get a
little wood every time he thinks about being the first manager to lead the
Yankees to a WS championship in the new ballpark.  

Also the game is changing toward more of a National league model with small
ball (pitching, speed, and defense) proving to be a better strategy that
big-inning baseball.  LaRussa has proven he knows how to win with that model.


Mattingly is clearly their manager in waiting, but he has already said that
he doesn't think that he is ready now to take on the job.  He's been in
organization long enough to know that it's going to take a year or two to get
this team rebuilt to where they are going to be competitive.  The new stadium
is scheduled to open in 2009, so the timing for LaRussa is great.  He
rebuilds the team.  They open the new stadium.  He leads them to the WS.
He'll turn 65 that year.  He maybe manages another year or so, turns the
reins over the Mattingly who will be in his early 50's (Torre was 56 when he
took over), and rides off into the sunset and into the hall of fame as the
greatest baseball manager ever.

Does this all mean it is going to happen?  I don't know.  It is really hard
to predict situations where the room is too small to hold all of the egos.
But the entrails definitely point out the possibilities.

Jeff




-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Dennis W. Brandt
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 9:33 AM
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Yanks

Anyone who considers working for George Steinbrenner should be put into a
strait-jacket and locked in a rubber-lined room.  He will eventually get
there anyway.  If Tony LaRussa is smart, he'll stay right where he is.  Don
Mattingly is a lifetime Yankee, so he might not be as smart. 

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