« Pen Manship Concerns | Main | Monday D-Day For Yanks & Johan? »

December 02, 2007

Hank's Last Interview?

I'll believe that when I see it.

From "Bill Madden breaks bread with Yankees' 'New Boss' Hank Steinbrenner" -

"I had a lot of good teachers whether they know it or not," Hank says now. "All those dinners on the road with Clyde and Woody and Lou - I learned a lot."

"What was the most important thing you learned?" I asked him.

"The mistake of trading young pitching," he answered quickly. "It killed me seeing all those young pitchers we traded back then - (Scott) McGregor, (Jose) Rijo, (Doug) Drabek - who went on to have great careers because we just didn't have the patience. If there's one thing that's going to be different between me and my dad it's patience."

"Maybe," I said, "but it sounds like you're about to do the same thing - trading young pitchers - for (Johan) Santana."

"There's a big difference," Hank countered. "Santana's only 28 and just coming into his prime. I remember consoling Woody when my dad insisted we trade Drabek for (Rick) Rhoden. Rhoden was 32 or 33, but back then that's the way we did things.

"There was stuff we all wanted to do but weren't allowed to. We all treaded very lightly."

"My dad always loved the limelight," Hank says, "and that was part of the reason he never wanted to retire. Me? I could take it or leave it, although I do enjoy connecting with the media and, by association, our fans. The last couple of years he'd been after me to come back into the baseball operation and this time I could see he really was looking to get less involved and to turn over a lot of the responsibility for running the club to my brother and myself."

"Like I said, I feel I have a duty to let our fans know as much as I can with their team, although sometimes I do go too far," he admitted. "In the respect of being the front guy, that's gonna slow down now. This is my last interview."

"No, I guess what I'm saying is we don't want these huge media circuses that were associated with my father. I mean he wasn't Jonas Salk."

No, but from a baseball standpoint certainly, he was pretty big, turning an initial $8.8 million investment into a billion-dollar empire while restoring the Yankees as the most prestigious franchise in sports. Hard as it was to work for Steinbrenner, following his act figures to be even harder for his two sons.

"I don't know," Hank said, "I see myself doing this for another 10 years and then my son, George Michael, will be 21. He's already getting ready."

He's got the name, too - GMS IV. And according to Hank, young George Michael already has a lot of his grandfather's bravado.

"Last summer," Hank says, "George Michael was watching one of our games at his grandmother's house when she started putting a tape in the TV. 'That's okay, Grandma,' he said. 'We own the rights.'"

Why can't I get the image of George-Michael Bluth out of my head now?

Posted by Steve Lombardi at December 2, 2007 12:45 PM

Comments

I was thinking of George-Michael Bluth even before I saw the link you posted.

There's obviously a lot we have to learn about the new era of Steinbrenners, but I don't think all this talking is necessarily bad. It's better than secretive paranoia, which the Tampa group seemed to descend into before Cashman demanded control.

Posted by: jdasilva [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 2, 2007 07:03 PM