One thing I haven't really considered --mostly because I lack the credentials to wander thru the locker room before and after games-- is how the impact of Posada's absence has affected the team.
The Yankees did not expect Posada to duplicate his 2007 season, when he hit .338, but they relied on him for extra-base power and at-bats that wore down opposing pitchers.
They have also missed his presence as a clubhouse enforcer. Girardi is relentlessly upbeat, and the captain, Derek Jeter, is even-tempered and optimistic. Posada, who played only 51 games before season-ending surgery, has a different leadership style.
“We’ve missed him tremendously,” Long said. “First of all, Jorge’s one of those no-nonsense guys who will jump in a player’s face, jump in a coach’s face. He’s got that mentality of, ‘You know what, I don’t really care about this or that, this is how we’re going to do it. If I don’t like what I see, I’m going to tell you.’ We miss that.”
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I think they also miss Cabrera being good, Cano doing well the first two months, Wang, Joba, ...
Jason, just watching the latest pathetic debacle of a Yankee game and I have to say...how the HELL can they be playing this bad when Jeter is doing so much?
They've given up. You can see it clearly in their body language, disregarding the stupid mistakes and lack of hitting and other issues. But HOW can they be playing like that when their captain is giving everything he's got?
I watched a documentary about Mickey Mantle and his teammates (Skowron, Berra, Blanchard, etc.) were saying that he made them better...he played with so much skill, talent and, above all, determination to win that they tried their best to make themselves worthy of playing with him.
For sure there are a couple of guys still trying hard (one might be trying TOO hard) but for the most part this is a team that has given up. Yet Jeter is 3 for 3, closing in on Gehrig's Yankee Stadium hits record (which you know means nothing, or very little, to him), going hell-for-leather after hits that he has no hope of catching. Why? He's a winner, that's all there is to it.
I'm sure they'll all say that losing sucks, but they have nice paychecks to make them feel better, and 'there's always next year'. I think the difference is that Jeter can't bear losing, it looks like it causes an almost physical reaction in him. I know a lot of people don't think very highly of him, and they pull out all these statistics to show that he isn't that great...but this guy is a winner, because he never stops trying to win, ever. How can you not admire that in a player?
And, again, how can the others on the team not be trying just as hard to win with that example before them? This is a guy who has a handful of WS Rings, who has all the money he could ever need, has EVERYTHING...yet he would run through a brick wall for just one out, or tear every bit of fibrous tissue in his legs trying to leg out just one single BASE. How can you give up when you've got that guy on your team?
If the reason they suck this year is because Posada didn't hit like he did last year, well, we better get used to fourth place clubs.
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