http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2011/03/31/2011-03-31_alex_rodriguez_and_derek_jeter_may_not_admit_it_but_hank_steinbrenners_bluster_d.html
Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter may not admit it, but Hank Steinbrenner's bluster drives Yankees
TAMPA - From all corners of the Yankee clubhouse this spring training came the vows, in one form or another, of players seeking redemption.
Whether it was A.J. Burnett saying it was up to him to silence his critics, a slimmed-down Alex Rodriguez calling his recent 30-home run seasons "unacceptable," or Mark Teixeira reprogramming his famously robotic regimen in an effort to end his annual April miseries, the Yankees have never had as much to prove as they do this season.
Suddenly you couldn't help thinking that maybe Hank Steinbrenner wasn't so wrong, after all.
Everybody laughed when Hank kicked off spring training by accusing the Yankees of not being hungry enough last season,accused them of caring a little too much about "building mansions."
It had to be a silly notion, right? Joe Girardi's club reached the ALCS last year, so it wasn't as if it mailed in the 2010 season.
Either way, you didn't hear this type of talk last spring because, well, why else? The Yankees were coming off a championship season and, sure, they wanted to repeat, but maybe it's true that they didn't have quite the same edge.
Who is to say that they weren't talented enough to reach the postseason on auto-pilot? In August and September, remember, they couldn't seem to decide which was more important, winning the race for the AL East with the Rays or getting to October healthy and rested.
In retrospect, that mentality may have caught up with them in the ALCS.
Last week, A-Rod was talking about the sense he got throughout spring training that this team is driven by "the bad taste in our mouths" from 2010. When I asked him if that meant Hank Steinbrenner had a point in saying last year's team wasn't hungry enough, A-Rod smiled.
"I don't know about that," he said. "I just feel this year there's a sense of urgency here. Just in case he's right we've gotta make sure we come out with a lot of fire this year."
That sounded more like a yes than a no, but in any case, what all of this sets up is a season that should define the state of the Yankees, and just how significant the issue of age is for this team.
Much of that comes down to A-Rod and Derek Jeter, and whether the Yankees can win with an aging left side of the infield. It didn't look that way down the stretch of a pennant race last season, as Jeter couldn't get the ball out of the infield, A-Rod couldn't get the ball out of the ballpark and both looked old in the field.
Both looked revived and refreshed this spring.
With a leaner Rodriguez's hip apparently no longer inhibiting either his workout regimen or the explosiveness in his swing, he had a spectacular Grapefruit League season, flashing the type of eye-popping power that had been missing since his hip surgery two years ago.
Jeter, meanwhile, made a concession to age for the first time, adopting a no-stride approach at the plate that gives him more time to react to pitches, and as he got comfortable with it this spring, he, too, looked like his old self, slashing line drives to all fields.
In addition to redeeming himself for his .270 season, the Yankees captain, who loves proving people wrong, has the added motivation of wanting to stick it to GM Brian Cashman for daring him to leave as a free agent during those surprisingly contentious contract negotiations this past winter.
It remains to be seen if their spring-training performance is meaningful, but at least for now the promise of A-Rod and Jeter turning back the clock makes a championship season seem realistic for the Yankees.
As a group, the Yankees are motivated, all right. In addition to falling short last year, they have been hearing for weeks, even from their own GM, that they don't match up with theRed Sox in the AL East. And don't think such talk isn't annoying them.
"Why does everybody think their pitching is so much better than ours?" one player asked privately. "I'll put it this way: I think people are looking at the names and assuming way too much. Everybody's worried about our four and five guys, but we're OK there. I don't think (the Red Sox) have an advantage at all."
That was the player's way of saying Josh Beckett, John Lackey, and Daisuke Matsuzakahaven't pitched up to their reputations the last couple of years. He may be right about that, but the Yankees still have much to prove in their own starting rotation.
Still, you have to figure that Cashman will make a deal for a proven pitcher along the way, and so what this season could really come down to for the Yankees is an attitude.
If they are as driven to prove themselves again as it appeared in spring training, they might just render the questions about age irrelevant for at least one more year. And they might wind up proving that Hank Steinbrenner had a point all along.
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