I do think you get baseball now. For all of those who expressed the opinion that they are tired of the soap-opera atmosphere around the Yankees so far this spring training, I believe you will now get â at least for a while â a spring training camp more familiar to most teams.
Now, I write those words cautiously. It is 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. I am staring out from the press box at an empty field, the pitchers mound covered with a large blue tarp with the interlocking NY insignia in the middle. The only person on the field is a grounds crewmember watering the grass.
In other words, these are the Yankees and there is a lot of day left, which means a new soap opera can break out at any time.
But, for now, it feels like the Yankees have gotten through some issues early in this camp, and that might be good for them.
Bernie Williams is not here, and the Yanks seem to be moving on. His name is going to be mentioned less and less often now.
Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada are total pros. They have said their stuff about expiring contracts and I now I fully expect them to get on with the business of baseball and not be distracted by the issue.
Derek Jeter and, especially, Alex Rodriguez had their say on their relationship, and A-Rodâs honesty about the status of that bond kind of put a lid on those stories. A lot of folks have written me both on this blog and in e-mails saying enough on the Rodriguez-Jeter relationship, and now â unless some new quirk arises â I think you will get what you want.
Mike Mussina called out Carl Pavano, put the teamâs dismay about Pavanoâs inability to get on the field both on the record and directly to Pavano, and, therefore, put a skid, to some degree, on that storyline. Well, again, it is 8:30 a.m. It might be that in the next few hours Pavano finds another body part that aches too much.
But, for now, it feels like play ball. It feels like time to go examine the major on-field issues and interesting players around the team. So let me go. I am off to the clubhouse, trying to remember it is now 8:45 a.m. and these are the Yankees and goodness knows what might derail my initial plans.
