Hank Steinbrenner Strikes Back at Derek Jeter and St. Jetersburg

Oh, snap. Hank Steinbrenner is at it again. He seemed to take a direct shot at Derek Jeter, who is building a Florida mansion the size of a Best Buy, in saying that some Yankees were "too busy building mansions" to concentrate on winning it all last year.

Here's the full Hank quote:

"I think, maybe, they celebrated too much last year," Steinbrenner said Monday. "Some of the players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning. I have no problem saying that."

I think Yammering Hank can forget an invite to St. Jeterburg's housewarming party!

Now, do I think the building of Jeter's new home was a distraction for him? Absolutely not -- it's not like he was at the property with a hardhat hammering nails or something.

However, I do think that the 2010 Yankees were a little complacent, especially evidenced by Joe Giradi lah-de-dahing the last few months into a Wild Card, when they should have won the division. You keep the pedal off the metal for too long, sometimes it's hard to get the engine going again.

And I do think Jeter should have asked for help from Kevin Long months before. Instead, he spent literally half the season in the hitting doldrums before finally approaching the hitting coach in mid-September. Was that complacency or pride? Maybe a little of both. But I have been predicting a big 2011 for Jeter, with the Angry Jeter taking over.

That wasn't all Hank said today -- he compared revenue sharing and luxury tax money to socialism and communism!

"We've got to do a little something about that, and I know Bud wants to correct it in some way," Steinbrenner said. "Obviously, we're very much allies with the Red Sox and the Mets, the Dodgers, the Cubs, whoever in that area."

"At some point, if you don't want to worry about teams in minor markets, don't put teams in minor markets, or don't leave teams in minor markets if they're truly minor," Steinbrenner said. "Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer."

The funniest part of this wasn't him getting all Milton Friedman here. No, the thing that made me chortle was comparing the Yanks as being the same boat as the Mets! Heh.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Yankees finally lose a game, but Jeter sets record

Bummer. The Yankees finally have a West Coast game in the afternoon we can all get to watch, and they lose. But at least Derek Jeter set the all-time hits record for a shortstop.  

That was one of those records I thought Cal Ripken Jr. was the owner of or something. Congrats to Jeter on the record. He is having a very good year this season, and has looked better defensively than he has in a while.

In other news, I missed real dollar bills getting thrown at A-Rod Saturday. I'm surprised there wasn't a  riot in Seattle trying to grab the money!

Check out my piece for The Faster Times about Johnny Macchione, the knuckleheaded Cubs fan who dumped a beer on Shane Victorino's head.

I'll have more to say tomorrow, including about Squawker Jon  and I meeting some real-life celebrities this weekend. But you'll have to come back and read it.

What do you think? Leave us  a comment!

Thoughts on two Yankee captains: Thurman Munson and Derek Jeter

Birthday wishes go out to Derek Jeter, who turns 35 today. Jeter' B-day got me to thinking about another Yankee captain, Thurman Munson.

Marty Appel has a new book coming out about the catcher - Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain. I have an advance copy of it - it looks to be a compelling read.

I still get sad thinking about Thurman, and how he was dead at such a young age. He was just 32 when he was killed in that plane crash. To put that in perspective, Jeter is 35 today. Alex Rodriguez will be 34 next month. Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada are 37. Mariano Rivera is 39.

Although August 2, 1979 still seems to be just like it happened yesterday, a whole generation of Yankee players were born after Thurman's death, like Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and of course, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera.

And an entire generation of Yankee fans only knows of Munson after his death. Maybe this year, the 30th anniversary of his passing, they'll know a little more about his life.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

I have a new nickname for the Yankees' free agent pitchers

A few thoughts while we wait for this afternoon's big press conference (I'm assuming this is a carving board sort of day at the Stadium, with prime rib. Yum!) Alas, I have other plans this afternoon, and will have to record the presser and watch it later. Bummer.

But I do have a suggestion. Nicknames are vitally important in baseball, and I think the Bombers' new Yankee pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett need one. My suggestion? Alphabet Soup for CC and A.J. Hey, it's better than calling them, say, 243 (for the combined millions the Bombers will be paying them) or 570 (their estimated combined weight.)

Readers, if you have a better suggestion for nicknames, please post a comment here, or email us at subwaysquawkers@gmail.com.

* Squawker Jon, I see that your Mets did their own wingding for "Krancisco" Rodriguez, as I like to call him. (He shouldn't be K-Rod if his name begins with an F!) And he will be taking the unusual uniform number of 75. Is that for how many wins the Mets will get next year?

* Derek Jeter was on XM Radio the other day, and he had this to say about Red Sox MVP Dustin Pedroia (oh, how I hate to put those words together!) Peter Abraham's blog has the words from the transcript. Here's a snippet:

“He’s a great player. More importantly, he’s a good person. He was fun to be around (at the All-Star Game). The thing about Dustin that I like is every game he’s playing all out. I mean, he’s a player that you really enjoy to watch play. I mean, I really don’t enjoy it because we see enough of him but you really appreciate the way he goes about playing the game everyday.

While I am positively cringing hearing Jeter say all that praise, I am also jealous that the Yanks really don't have a kid like Pedroia right now. I guess Joba counts as far as pitching excitement (and getting other opposing fans' skin the way Pedroia does), but there is not hot young position player on the Yanks who is an equivalent to Dustin. And I wish they did.

Once upon a time, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera appeared to be up-and-coming stars. But Melky's star faded so much he first was demoted to the minors, and then was supposed to be traded for Mike Cameron. However, it looks like that trade is dead. It would be nice if in 2009, Cano and Cabrera could be the exciting young players they projected to be. Dare to dream!

* One other note - Subway Squawkers is now part of Facebook's blog network. If you belong to Facebook, click here to join the fun with us.

What do you think about the state of the Yankees? Leave us a comment!