The Boss Is Back

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

It was just three weeks into this season when Hank Steinbrenner—who has taken control of the New York Yankees from his ailing father, legendary team owner George—lost patience with his ball club's lackluster .500 start and fired off his first meddlesome shot from the hip (and, of course, the lip).

Hank, unmistakably a chip off the old block, was clearly peeved, criticizing his management team for keeping its young fireballing reliever Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen when the team's starting pitching has been so woeful. His first vent of the season, to the New York Times, made headlines: "I want [Chamberlain] as a starter and so does everyone else … There is no question about it. You don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him a setup guy … You have to be an idiot to do just that."

The idiot in question is, of course, general manager Brian Cashman, who may indeed be an idiot if he imagined that he would ever be able to run the Yankees' baseball operations without some heavy-handed Steinbrenner berating or second-guessing him publicly. And it certainly raises the question of whether Cashman, a savvy baseball man in the new general manager mode, will remain with the Yankees after his contract expires this season.

I freely admit that we who are not enamored of the Yankees were lying in wait to pounce on Hank at the first sign that he was channeling his dad's bluster. Still, what was remarkable about Steinbrenner's opening popoff—before the season he had displayed considerable chippiness, particularly about the rivalry with the upstart Red Sox—is that it was so ill-considered, ill-timed and, quite possibly, completely wrongheaded.

Ill-Considered: It is one thing to sound off when the team is playing lackadaisically or there is a discernible malaise on the team. But there is no evidence of that. Going into the season the Yankees were well aware that there were big question marks surrounding the team's starting rotation. Veteran starter Mike Mussina, at age 39, has shown no Clemens-like sign of being able to thrive in old age. (Even my New York-based fantasy league demonstrated the conventional wisdom that Mussina was cooked; at our auction, he went for two dollars less than Boof Bonser.) And it is always perilous to count on young hurlers, even if, like the fresh Yankee arms Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, they arrive highly touted. (Though the Red Sox are off fast, their two hotshot kids, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, have struggled on the mound too, combining to allow 87 base runners in a little more than 52 innings.)

Knowing all this, the Yankees brain trust, including Steinbrenner, agreed on a plan for Chamberlain that started him out in the bullpen, and there is simply no reason to panic in April and undermine your GM and manager. As much as he would prefer not to, Steinbrenner might take a cue from the Red Sox. About this time last season, rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia wasn't hitting his weight (or just as bad, maybe he was hitting his weight) and fans were clamoring for the Sox to put him on a bus back to Pawtucket. Red Sox manager Terry Francona, backed by GM Theo Epstein, kept Pedroia in the lineup (while ownership kept silent), and Pedroia went on to win Rookie of the Year honors.