Hank Gives Yankees a Pass

With with the way the Yankees have been playing, everyone was waiting for a missive from Mt. Steinbrenner. It finally arrived yesterday, but was nothing like what anyone would have expected. Hank Steinbrenner spoke up, defending his team, and blaming injuries for the Yankees struggles. He even went on to guarantee the Yankees would win it all next season. "Wait'll next year" kind of rings hollow with us, though.

"It's not making excuses. It's reality. That's part of the game. That's clearly our problem," Steinbrenner said of the injuries. "We're going to win it next year. If we need to add a top veteran pitcher, we'll do that. We'll do whatever we need to do. Next year we'll be extremely dangerous."

"I'm not writing off this season. They're trying hard to win. There's only so much you can do. They're not supermen," Steinbrenner said. "No team I've ever seen in baseball has been decimated like this. It would kill any team.

"Imagine the Red Sox without (Josh) Beckett and (Jon) Lester. Pitching is 70 percent of the game. Wang won 19 games two straight years. Chamberlain became the most dominating pitcher in baseball. You can't lose two guys like that."

Joe Girardi didn't disagree with his boss, but still feels the Yankees can win this year.

"I know we have had a lot of injuries to deal with," said Girardi, who lost Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui for extended time. "But I still believe this team can win."

In the good ol' days, or bad ol' days, Kevin Long, and possibly Dave Eiland, would have definitely lost his job by now.