Before we criticize George Steinbrenner, take a moment to view it from his standpoint:
He’s spent over a billion dollars on player salaries since the last World Series, with no trophy to show for it. This puts his spending the last 7 years just under the GDP of Belize, and higher than 22 countries on the IMF list of GDP. This is not pocket change by any stretch of the imagination.
He’s signed the best players in MLB to come to the Yankees, yet they persistently under-perform in the postseason.
The manager is the one who motivates players and puts them into position to be successful and win postseason games.
His manager is the highest-paid manager in the game.
Ergo, his manager is not performing his role adequately and should be fired.
If you were given charge of a billion-dollar, seven-year project, received the highest salary of any project manager in the world, and then botched it, wouldn’t you expect to get fired? I sure would.
I’m sure Torre expects the same.
So save me your tears about how irrational Steinbrenner is. It’s clear that Torre’s not getting it done, won’t get it done, and needs replaced.
If the team isn’t motivated to save him, they won’t be motivated by him, either.
