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An owner of a team has to know about laundry
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"You Gotta Be Kidding!"
by Mickey Charles, CEO Sports Network
If at all possible, you do not go out there and display your laundry for all
to see until it is cleaned, pressed, folded and ready to be hung or put away
until you plan to use it next.
What is that all about? The recent daytime soap opera featuring Derek Jeter
and the New York Yankees. If George Steinbrenner, The Boss as he became known,
was still alive, none of what we just witnessed, heard or read about would
have taken place. The heirs apparent and current management displayed the
aplomb and professionalism of neophytes.
Then the media ran with it. They did what they always display ... disjointed,
blown-out-of-context, distorted and totally twisted commentary on a simple
matter. Their "public has a right to know" outcry has worn incredibly thin
over the years and lost whatever emphasis it might have had when first stated.
Honestly speaking, the public, of which we are a part as much as we are the
media, does not have a right to know anything other than what it is told. I
know, I know, it sounds good, almost impressive and seems to echo a "right"
directly from the Bill of Rights, Constitution and, if we can find a phrase or
two, the Bible itself. Nah!
Derek Jeter signed on for
3 more years for a reported $51 million with the Yankees.
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What the public has a directive to do is to sort out the overstated from
reality, to use its common sense. Not too tough when you really think about
it.
Jeter is a Yankee ... plain, pure and simple. He is not going anywhere, was
never going anywhere, no one was asking him to desert the pinstripes and
anyone with a scintilla of intelligence knew that. It was always just a matter
of sorting out a contract that would take him to the anticipated end of his
career at the Stadium.
What awaited him after that was just about anything at all he wanted to do.
He knew that, the team knew it and even the media knew it. Hell, the fans knew
it. Duh! However, something as simple as that would not prevent the idiocy and
inane graphic of a New York paper showing Jeter wearing the uniform of the
"hated" Red Sox.
The Red Sox, speaking of them, have gone out and obtained Carl Crawford and
Adrian Gonzalez in recent weeks. They have no intention of heading home at the
end of the upcoming season to watch the playoffs on the giant screens in their
respective dens and trophy rooms. The Yankees are all that seemingly stand in
their way. That is why Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has put a
normally unheard of seven-year contract with nine numbers and two commas on
the table, accompanied by all the perks and endorsements that come from
playing in New York, in front of prized free agent Cliff Lee. He, and one more
close to him, like Kansas City's Zack Greinke, would create as formidable a
pitching staff as you could find in baseball this season.
Then there is A.J.Burnett, a huge "if" for the starting rotation. If, the
biggest little word in the English language, an "if" as large as Mount
McKinley Denali. He has been anything but what New York expected. Is the
potential still there? The jury is out and, if Joe Girardi has any sense at
all - another questionable circumstance - he will make a firm decision during
spring training and not continue with his "season underway trials" of the past
waiting for miracles.
The Yankees were one of professional sports' first teams, maybe the first
team, to understand that sports had changed from just being a sport to being
big business. For all intents and purposes, they went corporate. Everything
about them was big business. Their demeanor, how they ran the organization,
the way the players looked ... dressed ... presented themselves ... the way
contracts were negotiated and completed, the components of the Stadium,
concluding broadcast agreements, establishing their own network. The list goes
on. They set the pace and other teams followed. Heck, they were the first ones
to line up and congratulate one another after a win in the mode of the
conclusion of the Stanley Cup championship. Now every team does it.
You do not continue the regimen, tradition, legend with the sort of nonsense
they allowed to happen with Jeter. Even now, with Lee, details need not be
shouted from the top of the Empire State Building. It is sufficient to
know the obvious ... they are going after him. The world knows it will be
dollars and cents, winning the World Series a number of times, being told how
good things are in New York by his old friend C.C. Sabathia and getting a
contract that ensures the rest of his career, life and that of his family for
a very long time to come. Not bad ... not bad at all. If there is no
announcement about this, a positive one, within the week, it is an educated
and experienced guess that the Yankees are in trouble on this one.
The Steinbrenner offspring have one thing to their credit ... birth. Yes, you
hire people to run your organization, put faith in them, hope they are among
the best at what they do and then you step aside ... just aside, you do not
leave to bask in the rays of Florida only to make appearances on cue, as with
the Jeter announcement of a concluded signing. They got the inheritance, the
team whose value is estimated at well over a billion dollars, security for
life, notoriety on command, photo opps with a phone call and the adulation of
the other members of the country club.
They also inherited the legacy and the responsibility. It is not Girardi's or
Cashman's team other than in the sense of the phrase ... they work there.
They get their ultimate marching orders, when warranted, from the big suite on
the second level, or from Florida.
The Steinbrenner
Family at the dedication ceremony for father and husband George at Yankee
Stadium.
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The good ship Yankees ... George was, after all, in the ship building business
... hit a small bit of ice. Not a glacier. Some minor image damage done, not
much else. All onboard would be best served to see that it does not happen
again, certainly not with Lee since that will definitely breech the hull or,
conversely, add to the fun of the voyage for 2011 if he joins the "crew."
Will the entire episode with Jeter have a negative impact on the season ahead?
Of course not. Will it be forgotten, has it already been forgotten? Of course.
But, even things forgotten are history and, as has been said, we must learn
from history since it just might repeat itself. "Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it."
Will Hank Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner, Jessica Steinbrenner and Jennifer
Steinbrenner-Swindal learn and carry on the tradition of their dad? The acorns
were gathered but the distance they fell from the tree has not yet been
determined.
Is it going to be the Yankees and the Red Sox for the AL crown in 2011?
You gotta be kidding!
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