JAMES Gandolfini sat recently with George Steinbrenner in the Yankee Stadium owners box, just two guys who play impatient Bosses for pubic consumption.
Of course, when Tony Soprano’s patience expires, so often does the person who tried his tolerance. Steinbrenner’s punishments, while cruel, tend to be less, well, permanent.
However, like the role Gandolfini plays, there is a fictitious nature to some of Steinbrenner’s notorious impatience. Don’t misunderstand. He still makes life miserable for his executives should any Yankee losing streak reach one game, and it reached two last night when Baltimore won 4-3. It is just those executives are better at finessing Steinbrenner’s knee-jerk persona.
The current example of that is Nick Johnson’s continuing presence on the 25-man roster and in the lineup. Not long ago, Johnson would even now be playing across the diamond from Drew Henson at Triple-A after his early struggles rather than being around last night to launch a ball 12 rows into the upper deck in right.
The Yanks have actually shown far more patience with Johnson than other organizations have with their pre-season Rookie of the Year front-runners. Texas’ Hank Blalock, Oakland’s Carlos Pena and Houston’s Morgan Ensberg all have been demoted already, and San Diego’s Sean Burroughs was going to be before landing on the DL instead.
The option the Yanks chose to use on Johnson was to have Joe Torre speak to him three weeks ago in the Metrodome when media reports began flooding that the lefty swinger had an imminent seat on the Columbus shuttle. Torre informed Johnson the organization “was not planning to do anything” as far as demoting him. Johnson has responded with the disciplined, successful at-bats the team had envisioned.
From the closing game in Minnesota through last night, Johnson was hitting .429 (24-for-56) with five homers and 18 RBIs in 21 games, lifting his overall average from .196 to .246.
Johnson, who is to insightful conversation what the Devil Rays are to quality major-league play, said, “No,” and giggled when asked if he had noticed the fate of those other rookies. Yankee GM Brian Cashman was a tad more perceptive, noting the team’s patience with Alfonso Soriano and Ted Lilly as rookies last season has provided two important second-year players in 2002. He hopes for the same with Johnson; solid production this season followed by blossoming afterward.
“It is a delicate tightrope,” Cashman said. “We are trying to give players time to develop as they adjust to the next level while not affecting the bottom line for us, which is winning.”
Johnson’s at-bat in the fifth with two out and none on last night exemplified his growth. He fell behind 1-2. Earlier this year, when pitchers were getting ahead with hard stuff in before getting Johnson to chase out of the strike zone away, this would have likely been a wasted at-bat. But here Johnson took a pitch just off the plate for ball two, worked the count full and then unloaded for his ninth homer, tying the score 1-1.
In the eighth, with the Yanks behind 3-1, Johnson again fell behind Sidney Ponson 1-2, got the count even, then served a single to left to trigger a two-run rally that tied the score before Mariano Rivera permitted the go-ahead run in the ninth.
These days, Johnson is walking more, striking out less and adapting better to being the DH, although Torre has used him more routinely at first, where he is superior to Jason Giambi.
Even with the steady improvement, Johnson is no certainty to remain a Yankee. Inexpensive and with a high ceiling, Johnson will be in demand if the Yanks go fishing for a Bartolo Colon or Cliff Floyd in July. And there is always Steinbrenner lurking, ready to play the part of the impatient Boss.
