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Hank Gives Yanks Spark They Need

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By JOE HENDERSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 31, 2007

Updated: 10/30/2007 11:55 pm

There was a refreshing sound coming out of Legends Field the past few days.

It was the sound of defiance. Of conviction. Of an empire - your choice whether to call it evil or not - preparing a counterattack. It was the sound of the New York Yankees on the offensive.

It was the decisive, unmistakable sound of Steinbrenner in full-throated bluster.

We haven't heard it in so long.

No, not that Steinbrenner. It was Hank - the new Boss, chip off the old Boss, son of George and now the Yankees' new boy king. Welcome aboard. And I think I say this on behalf of sportswriters everywhere: We missed you guys.

The back pages of the tabloids missed you, too.

When Alex Rodriguez boorishly tried to upstage the decisive game of the World Series on Sunday by opting out of his Yankees contract, Hank's response was so perfect that you could have sworn it was his father screaming at Reggie Jackson.

'It's clear he didn't want to be a Yankee,' Hank Steinbrenner told the New York Daily News. 'He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field. I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee.'

And when Joe Torre referred to the Yankees' offer of a reduced contract loaded with incentives as an 'insult,' Hank responded to the New York Post, 'Where was Joe's career in '95 when my dad hired him? My dad was crucified for hiring him.'

Ah, yes. That's what we remember.

Had Gotten Boring

Hank is the new face of the Yankees. If we weren't sure about that before, the events of the past few days have answered those questions. His father will always be the patriarch of baseball's most glamorous team (sorry, Boston), but as the elder Steinbrenner has been seen less and less in public, it created a leadership void.

Hank has essentially assumed the role of the true spokesman for the Yankees, and we can assume his father is pleased with his initial performance. It was like a trip back to the 1970s and '80s before the Yankees got all smug and corporate and, to be honest, boring.

They've won a lot of games, but they haven't been the Yankees we came to know, probably since losing the 2001 Series to Arizona. They got old, they got stale, and when they flopped in the playoffs it wasn't even a surprise.

What was surprising is how long they put up with it.

Torre kept his job despite a succession of postseason flameouts. The roster was stocked with as many big-ticket trinkets as could be purchased on the open market, but it lacked cohesion. The pitching staff was patched together with as many sewn-on arms attached to has-been bodies as possible.

Yet no one paid the price for this fiasco.

But now Torre is gone in a well-played move. They needed to make that change, but by offering him a reduced contract with performance incentives, the pressure was on Torre to take it or leave it. When he left it, he got a broadside from the new Boss.

When A-Rod manufactured an excuse to opt out (he wasn't sure, whaaa, that the new regime would keep all his old teammates on the roster), Hank slammed the door behind him and hid the key.

Baseball Beware

Yes, indeed, the beast is awake now.

The Yankees will always win 90 games by default. Most years it will be closer to 95 or more. That's not how they judge success, though, as we all know, but they had lost their champion's swagger. It was truly amazing to see how passive they were last season, even as the Red Sox were ending their run of division titles.

Imagine, the Yankees content to sneak into the playoffs as a wild card.

It takes more than blunt words. The whole organization needed a goose, and that has happened. They are developing some of the game's best young arms, and although you can't replace what they lose statistically from A-Rod, baseball is not just about numbers. Chemistry and attitude is as important as talent.

The Yankees always have had the money to buy what they need, but something has been missing. Call it leadership or call it the final spark.

That seems to have changed. We'll see how it plays out, but each time Hank Steinbrenner opens his mouth it sounds more and more like the Yankees of old.

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