Random thought’s about 08′ Yankees, Yankee Stadium II.

I’m horrible with change.

But I think this is the first time I’m looking forward to it. It’s taken a while, but I’m ready for a new stadium, a new manager, and some new, homegrown talent. If you’re not, and you’re a Yankees fan, that’s too bad, because that’s exactly what we’re getting in 2008.

It’s gonna be the last season at the House that Ruth built, and the first season with Skipper Joe…..Girardi. If you  hated Joe T, then awesome, now we have Joe G, if you loved Joe T like I did, then hey, I don’t think there’s a person more different than Joe G to replace him with. That’s one thing I knew all along. The new Yankees manager couldn’t be like Joe, because no matter how much he was like Joe, or even better than Joe, he’d fail. He’d be compared to Joe in every way. He’d be expected to do exactly what Joe has done, in the exact same way.

That’s not Joe G. He’s young, he’s more fit than his player, he’s a Yankee, and a catcher (like Joe T was too), and he’s fiesty, fiery, sympathetic, clever, and brave. He’ll be an @$$hole when he needs to be, he’ll challenge the owners, the bosses and all. He’ll be different. I think he can be successful, but he needs to be given time; 1996 doesn’t have to be 2008.

In terms of new players, they’re not really new, but just different. They’re not old, established, distinguished, rich men with egos larger than Barry Bonds’ head. They are young, hungry, homegrown players who could one day become franchise players: Meet Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, and their counterparts in the minors of which I will talk about later. Will they be successes? Who knows. But if they aren’t, we won’t lose millions of bucks just to se them throw rehab batting practice in Game 7’s of ALCS’ (cough Brown and Vazquez, cough), or to push away the media on their first day in town,  or to punch walls, or spend their entire contract on the DL. We ARE the Yankees afterall, these guys don’t do well, we move onto Plan B: signing big time players again.

And then there’s a new home, across the street from “The Stadium”. This was probably the hardest thing for most Yankees fans. Yankee Stadium has too much tradition, reps too many good memories, and has housed too many legends to be parted with. But it’s gonna happen and we can’t stop it. So I’ve come to terms with it, and I am following it’s progress weekly. http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=51384&page=58

Btw, 25 days until Pitchers&Catchers report for the first time under manager Joe Girardi.

Go Yankees!

~*~ babybombers27