After suffering through a losing streak that started last Friday, the Yankees finally found some salvation. And it came in the name of a guy named Ken Igawa:
It is the ultimate sign of Manager Joe Torre?s satisfaction, bestowed only on pitchers whose work far exceeds expectation. When Torre claps on his way to remove a pitcher, he is especially proud.
Torre clapped twice as he greeted Kei Igawa in the seventh inning yesterday at Yankee Stadium. Banished to the bullpen, pressed into emergency duty and facing the first-place Boston Red Sox, Igawa was a revelation.
He worked six shutout innings after Jeff Karstens was struck by a line drive in the first inning, guiding the Yankees to a 3-1 victory that snapped a seven-game losing streak. The game ended with the first save of the season for Mariano Rivera, and, presumably, with a deep breath from a gurgling volcano in Tampa, Fla.
George Steinbrenner, the principal owner, has been growing increasingly anxious with his team?s April slump. Steinbrenner is again considering firing Torre, whose contract expires after this season. The prospect of more embarrassing losses this weekend, like the one on Friday, made Torre?s future tenuous.
But the Yankees played a clean game this time, led by Igawa, who allowed two hits and four walks and pitched into the seventh. Kyle Farnsworth navigated a tense eighth inning with two strikeouts, and Rivera survived a leadoff single in the ninth with an assist from Alex Rodriguez, who charged to make a barehanded grab and threw out the speedy Julio Lugo for the second out of the inning
And, thus, New York’s nightmare is, at least temporarily, over.
But the questions remain.
Frankly, you can count me among those who think that firing Joe Torre — either now or at the end of the season — isn’t the issue. The problem isn’t Joe Torre. It’s, quite honestly, the entire philosophy that the Yankee front office has had in the past several years, if not longer.
Instead of acquiring prospects and building a program. They’ve concentrated on buying superstars and a World Championship. Sometimes, it’s paid off. Most notably in the late 1990’s when they brought in Roger Clemens and others who helped push the Yankees to four World Series wins.
On the other hand, though, it’s also proven to be a less than worthwhile strategy. Can anyone forget Hideki Irabu ? Or, quite frankly, Randy Johnson. Yes, he performed well, but he wasn’t as good in New York as he was in Seattle and Arizona.
So, the question remains. Is this a coaching issue. Or is it a management issue.
Quite honestly, I’ve never been a fan of George Steinbrenner. I know he loves the Yankees, probably as much as I do if not more, but I’ve always thought that he interfered in team operations far more than an owner needed to. Back in the 1970’s, his arguments with Billy Martin were entertaining. But, when we got into the 80’s and 90’s when he was changing managers at the drop of a hat, it was frustrating for fans, and it was affecting performance. It’s no coincidence that the, prior to Joe Torre becoming Manager, the Yankees had failed to make a World Series appearance for fifteen years.
The one flaw I’ve always seen in the Steinbrenner strategy, especially over the past decade, is the idea that it’s better to spend hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring a superstar (even one who is arguably past his prime such as Clemens or Johnson) than to invest that same money in building a minor league organization and bringing up prospects who can produce for the team for years to come.
Let’s take this year for an example. The Yankees are one of two or three teams who may be able to convince Roger Clemens to come back to the mound one more time. Clearly, he’s one of the best pitchers in the history of the game and, even now, still is a great pitcher. At the same time, though, he’s older and not the same guy he was when in he was in New York a few years ago. Given that does it make sense to pay him to pitch half a season at best ?
As much as I loved seeing Roger Clemens in pinstrips, I don’t think it’s worth the money.
Quite honestly, though, I think that Steinbrenner will pay whatever it takes to get Clemens to New York for the publicity value if nothing else. In that sense, even though he’s a native of Cleveland, Steinbrenner, is a native New Yorker. Whether that results in anything come October, only time will tell.
