The X Factors: Yankees at Orioles
How do things happening behind-the-scenes and off-the-field impact the team?
Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008 at 11:05 AMAfter dropping two of three to the Toronto Blue Jays, are the Yankees mentally ready to pack it in? Or will Hal Steinbrenner's optimistic meeting with Joe Girardi and Derek Jeter keep the Yankees afloat?
How do things happening behind-the-scenes and off-the-field impact the team?
External Factor No. 1: Buried in Toronto?
If the Yankees were in a dire situation when they headed into Toronto, they're in an even more dire situation now. Not only did they lose ground in both the AL East and wild card race, they allowed the Blue Jays to pull within one game of their current third place standing.
Missing the playoffs is one thing, but fighting to stay out of fourth place is quite another. And for a team and players who are only familiar with winning, these struggles have to be mentally draining.
While players like Jeter and Mariano Rivera will never mentally pack it in, you have to question the status of some of the others, who seem to be giving up.
External Factor No. 2: Hal believes in miracles.
Although his brother Hank has already begun to look ahead to 2009, Hal Steinbrenner fully believes the Yankees can overcome their six-game wild card deficit.
Shortly before New York was stomped 14-3 by Toronto, Hal called the captain, Derek Jeter, into Girardi's office to offer some optimism during an otherwise pessimistic time.
"I wanted to let him know that ownership believes and is optimistic," Steinbrenner told The Post from Tampa yesterday. "It was kept that simple. I wanted him to know that was the case."
It's nice that Hal is so upbeat, but I think he called the wrong player(s) into Joe's office. Jeter has already voiced his opinion on this situation — it's the other players that management should be worried about.
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