I like this guy. Always have…I’ve been watching Joe Girardi on the tube tonight and have seen a couple of moves I’ve found impressive.

First, when Melky Cabrera lined out hard in his first at-bat you could see Joe trying to catch Melky’s eye while the center fielder was putting his helmet back in the cubbie. Moments later the camera panned back to Joe, with his back to the game, talking to Melky and seemingly offering encouragement to the struggling young player. The next time up Melky hit a double. Now, Melky may have hit a double regardless of Girardi’s pep talk, but all players — particularly young ones — need encouragement from time to time.

Second, Darrell Rasner has just finished the top of the fifth inning and has struggled, yet managed to keep his team ahead 4-2 to this point. Once again, Girardi is up and this time talking to Rasner. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I can’t help but find this mentality refreshing in a world of laissez faire managing.

The Yankees are getting hot right now, and I begin to wonder if Joe G’s personality is beginning to take hold on a club that may have felt a bit unstable without Joe Torre anymore. The jury is still out, and the Yankees are not hot enough to get too excited, but it’s nice to see a coach connecting with his players.

A lot brewing today including the 3am firing of Willie Randolph and Hank Steinbrenner looking to change how the NL plays ball because Chien-Ming Wang broke his foot.  One is kinda like someone punching your cousin and the other is like seeing a child cry because one of his favorite toys is broken.

First with Willie, forever a Yankee, it will be the Mets’ loss that he’s gone.  Like many say, he was set up to fail by a power structure that did not support him…the Mets’ management wanted Randolph gone and thus Randolph was blamed for Carlos Delgado’s .242 average as well as slumps by Jose Reyes and the relief pitching. Meanwhile, the Mets’ pitching staff is 6th in the NL in ERA…yet the pitching coach also took a hit.  Foolish.

Perhaps the Yanks will make a little room to bring home a faithful third base and bench coach…

As for Hank…well, I know his years in the game (and then years out) give him the right to brush off NL rules that would have a pitcher run the bases…or is it his money and birth family that give him that right…here’s the million dollar quote:

“The pitcher has enough work to do. It’s something Bud (Selig) needs to address and he needs to address it soon. Don’t give me that traditionalist crap.

“We go to these NL cities, draw great crowds and we end up losing one of our best pitchers. I’m not happy.”

Of course you’re not happy, Hank…you lost a very expensive toy…and it’s hard to buy new 19-game winners. 

Yeah, um….November as my last post…wow, this is awkward. My bad.

I mean I knew in my mind that I wouldn’t be posting until June, but this still feels like a hell of a long break.

But there’s good reason and I won’t bore anyone who still looks in at this site once in a while with many of the details. See, I just finished my first year of teaching Sports Journalism to high school students. Seriously, it was a trip…and in our last month I taught them how to make sports blogs. Honestly, a great experience I wouldn’t trade for the world as my kids started with game recaps, learned sports columns, profiles and finally the blogs…from writing a new curriculum, to writing grants for supplies and taking educational grad classes, there was just no time for the blog. Still, I managed to squeeze in coverage of a few games here and there (Rangers, Knicks, Mets and Yanks)…and now, with school out for the summer, I’ve got nothing but time.

So here the Yankees are seven games out and off in Oakland…did anyone expect much else? New manager…young (and oft injured) pitchers…I have to say if Joe Girardi has made one good move (and he’s made several), it’s that he threw Jason Giambi back at first base. It seems that everyone in the world besides Joe Torre knew that Giambi hit better when he also played in the field. Call it a psychological quirk or what have you, the numbers simply did not lie…yet Torre insisted on sitting Jason for health reasons even when he was healthy — Joe T. used to worry about Jason’s knees — and for defense. Well, after starting the season with a woeful .165 average in April, Giambi hit .315 in May and is at .364 for the month of June. Not to mention that Giambi is 4th in the AL in home runs. Kudos, Joe G.

Meanwhile, Giambi has 4 errors in 43 games at first for a fielding percentage of .990…his glove is always good for a scoop and even though he won’t get to all the balls in the hole, he’s not losing games with his defense.

Not bad at all…

Anyway, I don’t see any reason why I won’t be back at this on a regular basis throughout the summer. Hopefully, I haven’t been gone so long as to lose all of my readers. Certainly, it feels good to be writing again.

So the final word has been spoken on the 2007 season for the Yankees and A-Rod is the league’s MVP. Congrats to him, he deserved it…but he played his hand just about as badly as one could in city where an athlete of his caliber is constantly under the microscope. Instead of working out a contract extension with the Yankees and accepting this award on opening day of 2008 like a conquering hero, A-Rod will have another PR crisis on his hands.

Now he’ll have to have a repeat MVP performance next season to make the fans in the Bronx forget that he wanted to test the waters of free agency only to find out they were frigid. He’ll have to win more games in dramatic ninth inning walk-off fashion for the rumbles about his post-season failings to take a back seat to his regular season work. Unfortunately, this guy does not know how to thrive on success without tripping over his feet — which is what he did when he either thought he could make more money in California, or listened too keenly to his agent.

Either way, this award only symbolizes what he’ll have to do in 2008 to win back the fans he had just won over in 2007.

His agent convinced him he needed the money and a change of scenery…and frankly, the Yankees are better off without the circus.

Here’s Brian Cashman’s official press release on A-Rod opting out of his contract:

“I received a message from Scott Boras last night informing me that Alex Rodriguez formally opted out of the final three seasons of his contract. We always understood that it was his contractual right to do so.

“We expressed our interest in keeping him in pinstripes, and requested the opportunity to convey those feelings to him directly with the Steinbrenner family in an open, face-to-face dialogue.

“Alex was a key part of our success over the last four seasons, and I appreciate having the opportunity to work with him. I wish Alex, Cynthia and their growing family the best of luck in the future. I only wish we could have raised a championship trophy together during his time here, which was the ultimate goal we all shared.”

Let’s think about it. How would you play it?

If Joe Torre has to go, what better way to do it than give the world the illusion — albeit a transparent illusion — that he left on his own terms. The Yankees owed him that much.

When the Tampa-based brain trust of the New York Yankees met earlier this week and low-balled their now former manager with a one-year contract, they never expected him to take it. And, as expected, Torre said ‘no’. Win-win. The Yankees don’t look so bad because there was some effort to keep Torre, and Torre gets to say he left on his own terms.

Yes, of course the papers are playing up the line that the ex-skipper used, saying he was “insulted” by the offer. But this way Torre gets a choice, gets to tell the world he demands a level of respect and can further embrace the role of ‘victim’ to the management.

He will reach the level of martyr by the time all the media members who spent years enjoying his warm heart are done paying homage.

The Yankee management could have slammed the door in Torre’s face down in Tampa. Instead, they let Torre walk out of that door with a good bit of his dignity intact. For those who admire and respect Torre in this town (including free agent Yankee vets who look at their old skipper as a father) this was the best way for it to play out.

Now, on to hiring Joe Girardi or Don Mattingly.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the man.

Joe Torre has always been a kind and warm individual who has never turned his back on the NYC media despite the amount of pressure put upon him. His track record has been debated at length and the numbers speak for themselves…And the playoff losses are not his fault.

These days, the post-season is more or less a crap shoot anyway…can you blame a guy for getting to the holy land of the playoffs and not delivering the grail? Three rounds, each of which require you to have no more than two stud pitchers, can see months of hard work turn fruitless with a few bad breaks. Even the Yankees of the 20s through the early 60s would have walked away losers more often than not if they had to go three rounds instead of one.

It’s not Joe’s fault by any stretch, but it’s time for him to go — and get replaced by another Italian ex-catcher with the same first name.

Simply, the Yankees need change and some youthful managing to go with their youthful roster. A-Rod will be gone because the Yanks won’t pay him, but Pettitte, Posada and Rivera may all stay if they bring in the right man. Joe Girardi.

It may all come full circle. Just as Girardi aided in the grooming of his eventual replacement, Posada, Torre may very well have educated his successor in Girardi. We all know that since 1996, when Girardi first arrived with the Yankees, that ‘he would one day make a great manager’. Well, catchers often do. Girardi has already won manager of the year in Florida for taking a group of young players and putting them on the fringe of a playoff birth in 2006. He’s just the man to take a roster full of young and talented Yankees and get the most from them.

Phil Hughes, Joba Rules!, Ian Kennedy, Chein-Ming Wang…four young arms who are all right up Girardi’s ally. Cano, Melky, Duncan, Phillips…kids that can work with Joe G.

Now, what about the Torre-loyal vets who can walk this year?

As young pitchers, Pettitte and Rivera learned to throw at a big league level with Girardi catching. Meanwhile, Posada may owe much of his career to the selfless tutoring Girardi gave him.

Simply, he’s a man who these Yankees can play for. And unlike Torre, his energy and passion for the game are still fresh. That’s not to say that Torre wasn’t giving his all until the end. Absolutely not the case. But the Yankees need a breath of fresh air right now. And their old catcher is just the man to do it.

Well, Joe Torre has a job for one more night…at least. Thanks to Phil Hughes, Johnny Damon and Trot Nixon. Hughes, of course, came in and pitched 3.2 innings of shutout ball while bailing out the gimpy Roger Clemens. If there is another game for Hughes to pitch down the line this post-season, you can bet that Torre will hand him the ball. Then there’s Johnny Damon who went 3-for-4 with four RBI and a clutch home run that gave the Yankees the lead for good. Meanwhile, old Yankee-killer, Trot Nixon — who homered off Clemens early in the game — misplayed a ball hit by Robinson Cano so badly that all three runners on base at the time scored to cement the game for the Yankees.

So Torre lives another night…Damon was honest enough to admit that the Yankees wanted to win for Torre and that all the players loved him. A far cry from Derek Jeter — a player that has never had another manager — who stated he was only thinking about winning today, not the future of Torre…so much for loyalty. And it also speaks volumes to the value of a guy like Damon who stated his opinion in a constructive way. Not so hard, eh?

Well, if these are Joe’s final days I’d like to give him props for two moves and question one. First, major props for taking out Jason Giambi and putting Doug Mient-whatever in to pinch sac bunt. Slick way of getting Doug in the game because we all know that Giambi can’t do anything with a bat besides pull a ball right into the shift.

Second, great call in pitching Chein-Ming Wang tomorrow…as a sinkerballer, he may have had too much rest before last start. Now, with short rest, we should see the drop that we know and love from Wang’s sinker. Also, we know he’s WAY better at Yankee Stadium.

As for the area of critique, let me ask the following: why was Joba in the game for two innings? Sure he’s available tomorrow regardless, but with an 8-3 lead and Hughes having only thrown 3.2 innings, don’t you think you could have held off on Joba one more inning?  Plus, when Joba finished the seventh with a 8-3 lead, don’t you think Kyle Farnsworth could have been tested with a five-run cushion? Hopefully, the Yankees won’t need a rested Joba in a tight spot tomorrow…

Anyway, it was great to see the Joe Torre-era last one more day…hopefully, it will extend a little longer after tomorrow.

School lessons abound for my Sports Journalism classes — all of whom picked the Yankees to win the World Series in our class pool…still, here are a few thoughts from Game 1 against the Indians tonight.

*Wang shouldn’t have started…he is twice the pitcher at home this year as opposed to last year. He got nailed for seven earned runs in 4.2 innings. I would have liked to have seen him in the Bronx for game 3 instead, with Andy Pettitte going game 1 and Clemens going game 2. But what’s done is done which leads me to my next thought…

*Last year game 2 would have been Randy Johnson’s or Mike Mussina’s start in hopes of preventing the Yankees from falling into a two game to nothing hole…Pettitte might not win tomorrow, but I’ll take my chances with the old Yankee staple who has returned to the fold…

*Hughes gets in the game. It’s important to get the kid some post-season experience even if it was in garbage time…if he’s needed in a game or two, perhaps the butterflies won’t be flapping quite as hard.

*Foolish to show off Raphaels…the Indians have a pair of stud set up men who the Yankees don’t have much recent history against. Still, Cleveland manager Eric Wedge chose to have Raphael Perez and Raphael Betancourt show off the goods to some very perceptive Yankee hitters…something to think about as this short series continues…

“Take the wave to Shea! Take the wave to Shea!” That’s the chant coming out of the right field bleachers as the rest of the fans at Yankee Stadium perform the ultimate time-killer for the disengaged fan. In the RIGHT FIELD bleachers it’s a crime to perform the wave. But, right next door in the LEFT FIELD bleachers, they started this wave. (A lot could be said about the difference in these sub-cultures…).

Think what you will about this ritual from the 80’s. The disappointing thing about the wave right now is that it’s the top of the seventh inning with two on and no one out for the Blue Jays while the Yankees hold a 6-3 lead. The top of the Blue Jays order is batting. This game is not over and it’s getting dangerous.

My message to the fans waving their hands in a frenzy? Take a page from the crowd in right field and watch the game.*

*(Note: this was written and posted during the pitching change…with the Yankees only leading 6-5…I blame the fans NOT in right field for jinxing this…)