Blogging a blog

Another Yankees blog? I don't believe it. I thought it was my idea.

Mark Strawn seems convinced that Jason Giambi is not a gamer. He is wrong. Giambi did not ask out of game five of the World Series. He was benched by Torre in favor of Nick Johnson. Soriano was benched the same game in favor of Enrique WIlson. Neither were benched for injury, both were benched because they were not hitting.

Strawn might have heard the idea from Mike Lupica and Lupica is wrong about a lot of things. Giambi has never asked out of a game in his life, he has played with injuries since he has been with the Yankees, and he just went on the DL for the first time ever. In game five of the World Series, he came off he bench and hit a ninth-inning homer. Had Paul O'Neill done the same thing, I'm sure he'd be a ... what's the word I'm looking for? ... oh, I know! ... a "Warrior."

Torre does this kind of thing all the time. Just last month, Torre said he was benching Bernie not solely because he was hitting .175 and deserved to be benched, but because he wanted to rest Bernie's back, rest Bernie's knee, rest Bernie's appendix. Bernie was ticked off and made damn sure he played the next day. Torre just needlessly made his player look like a wimp. (I know, I know, Bernie makes himself look like a wimp every time he's in CF and he pulls up on a fly ball that is approaching the outfield wall.)

Maybe Torre is trying to protect the player, maybe he doesn't want to hurt his player's confidence, maybe he's trying to protect himself from questions about the real reasons for benching his star players. Torre doesn't need to apologize for benching star players who are playing like stiffs. It's better than indirectly impugning their character and heart.