To be entirely honest, I waffled quite a bit on the whole Nick Swisher – Xavier Nady question in spring training. While Swisher had better career numbers and was more likely to be a fit in the Yankee lineup, He was coming off a career worst season. Conversely, Nady was coming off his best year, and was seemingly just hitting his stride. Joe Girardi picked Nady, and I found it difficult to quibble with the decision, as Girardi assured us that both players would see plenty of time. However, Nady got injured in the first week, and the rest is history. Swisher started out red hot, and excepting one prolonged slump in May, has put forth an excellent season. However, as the Anthony McCarron’s article from this morning’s Daily News displays, his impact in the clubhouse has been just as important:
“Nick’s got a different personality, I would say, than we’ve seen on this club,” Andy Pettitte says. “Nick loves to talk, that’s for sure. He’s been fun to be around and very respectful, still. It’s just been a good situation.”
“He’s had an impact on the clubhouse,” adds Johnny Damon, whose locker is next to Swisher’s. “When I came over, I mean, this place was kinda dead, you know? I almost had to watch everything I said. I didn’t want to upset anyone. But having characters in here has helped everyone. It’s kind of like how Kevin Millar helped me in Boston – we changed the way things were in Boston, but it took another guy to put it full throttle.
“It’s completely different in here now. It’s great, we’re in this new stadium and there’s a lot of room to have fun.”
[snip]
Swisher is regularly the most-fined player at the Yankees’ new Kangaroo Court, an every-so-often player meeting that metes out “justice” for infractions for such things as not wearing a shirt for television interviews. Swisher relishes his outlaw status – in a recent series in Baltimore, a shirtless Swisher asked reporters to wait a moment before starting an interview and turned to do a set of push-ups against his locker to “pump up” for the occasion.
[snip]
Swisher draws praise from the Yankees for his charity involvement – some in the organization say he is by far the most active player in good-will missions. He has his own foundation and regularly entertains kids from the Make-A-Wish Foundation who visit the Yankee dugout during batting practice.He went without a haircut for 11 months in 2007 so he could donate his hair to a charity that makes wigs for women who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments. His grandmother who raised him, Betty Swisher, a woman the Yankee calls the love of his life and inspiration, died of brain cancer in 2005.
Swisher treasures a picture that hangs in his locker of him sitting with Polly Tompkins, a 38-year-old first-grade teacher with melanoma who was the Yankees’ honorary bat girl during a charity drive this year. “She’s an inspiration,” Swisher says.
“Through life, the big man upstairs has given me so many things,” Swisher adds. “Whatever I can do to give people an opportunity or put a smile on their face, I really enjoy that.”
I strongly recommend that you read the entire article. It is a great profile of Swisher, and really shows how well he has fit into the clubhouse and changed the culture on a team that he become a bit too businesslike. As I said in the title, after reading this article, you gotta love Swish.
From Jack Curry:
“There’s a different fire about those guys,” Hunter said. “I’ve been playing a long time. I know they hit homers, they do different things, but it’s the smaller things I see that’s different.”
While Hunter said there was a difference about the Yankees, he could not pinpoint exactly what it was. Hunter said the Yankees routinely had the largest payroll so “you can’t say it’s that.” He wondered if C.C. Sabathia’s arrival was the reason for the difference. He also mentioned the jolly Nick Swisher as a positive addition.
“It’s something different over there about those guys, like they’re having a lot more fun instead of walking on eggshells,” Hunter said.
The additions of Swisher, Sabathia, and Burnett have helped radically alter the culture in the Yankees clubhouse, with the team clearly more relaxed and having more fun than in years past. It is also important to note that Joe Girardi has been working extremely hard to cultivate this attitude since the very beginning of spring training, as Bill Madden noted back in May:
Togetherness was what Girardi made a point of in spring training when he arranged that surprise “Day at the Pool Parlor.” Say this for Girardi, he recognized what guys like Damon are only now willing to talk openly about: The Yankee clubhouse was a joyless place in the latter years of the Joe Torre regime. Part of it was the personnel – how could anyone find any fun being around Kevin Brown? – but a big part of it was the generation gap that existed between Torre and his players. Aside from his small coterie of veterans from the championship years, Torre kept his distance from his players and when each new high profile free agent came over from another organization, like Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui or Damon, they were never able to blend in with the championship core as it gradually diminished. It was apparently the consummate “25 players, 25 taxi cabs” team.
“Rarely in the last three years I’ve been here would there be four-five guys hanging out playing video games in the hotel room,” Brian Bruney said. “Now, guys are having fun and they want to hang out together. The shaving cream, the music, people need to realize you can do those things and still win. You can’t win with just All-Stars all around. We’ve done that the past three years and we haven’t done anything.”
The manager has allowed music in the clubhouse, the awarding of the championship belt to the player of the game, and the pie throwing exploits of AJ Burnett. To Girardi’s credit, he has allowed a certain lightheartedness to enter the clubhouse at appropriate times, deftly managing the mood so that the team has not gotten too high in triumph nor too low when facing defeat. This is a pretty dramatic change from the admittedly tense demeanor that Joe brought to the 2008 version of the Yankees, as well as the buttoned-up feel that the Torre teams exhibited. Hopefully, the improved chemistry does in fact translate into a “different fire” and better results once October rolls around.
Peter Abraham chimes in with news that some Yankees are going to hear an awful band:
So Johnny rented a bus and he, Brian Bruney, Eric Hinske, Dave Robertson, Phil Coke and Kevin Long will travel from Boston to the [Creed] show. Johnny arranged for everything.
“It worked out well with us having that night off,” Johnny said. “Good way to relax.”
This sort of thing has gone on all season. CC Sabathia hooked up NBA games, A-Rod picked up several dinners for the players in Tampa when he was rehabbing, etc. The Yankees are a solid bunch of guys.
Will that translate into the World Series? I have no idea. It has been my experience as a sportswriter that superior talent and good heath trumps good chemistry almost every time. But this is my fourth season around the Yankees and this bunch seems to get along better than previous editions.
CC, Nick Swisher, and Damon have been huge in changing the culture of the Yankees clubhouse, but the leader of that group is AJ Burnett. Newsday has a great piece on AJ:
Having introduced a team award system that includes everything from a pie in the face to the bestowing of a wrestling championship belt to the hero of each game, Burnett has worked hard on the mound and played hard off it. He has interjected a much-needed level of goofy fun to a clubhouse that had been notoriously uptight and corporate.
“A.J. is a leader. He is a major reason the club is the way it is this year,” said Ray Negron, whose duties as a special assistant to George Steinbrenner include getting players to participate in community events. “Forget about the tattoos and all that. He’s someone who cares. If you ask him to help, he helps. To me, that’s the greatest kind of Yankee. His heart and soul are into being a Yankee on and off the field.”
Burnett has made a seamless transition to being a Yankee. That comes as a big surprise to some observers who feared that the Yankees were getting themselves into another Carl Pavano situation when they signed Burnett to a five-year, $82.5-million contract last offseason.
There are some great quotes from AJ in the article, and I encourage you to read it. One thing I have been shocked by is how likable AJ is. He is upfront with the media after he pitches poorly, cares deeply about winning, and seems to be one of the emotional leaders of the team. Many Yankees fans expected him to be the sort of player who tries your patience and makes you root for the laundry rather than the individual. He has turned out to be the antithesis of that type of player, a development that is of the most pleasant surprises in a season filled with them.
After his second awful start against the Red Sox this season, AJ Burnett vowed to improve:
“Terrible,” Burnett said when asked how he would characterize his season. “There have been glimpses of greatness, but I’m not very consistent right now. I’m not a negative guy, so I’m not going to beat myself up over it. When I do get on that run, it’s going to be impressive. I promise you that.”
In the 8 starts following that one, Burnett is 6-1 with a 1.68 ERA. He has pitched deep into each game, and last night saved a bullpen that was extremely shorthanded. However, when asked about his turnaround, he was anything but satisfied:
Still, asked if this was what he envisioned when he signed there, Burnett let it be known that while stats are nice, his ultimate vision can’t be fulfilled for three more months.
“It’s not over, so it’s not what I had in mind,” Burnett said. “When we get to October, that’s what I had in mind.”
This reiterates what AJ said back in spring training:
For years, Jeter has preached that the season is a failure if you’re not the last team standing.
“I agree with him 100%; that’s why we’re here and why we play this game,” Burnett said.
But is a World Series-or-bust edict more pressure than players need over a 162-game season? Burnett doesn’t think so.
“I think it’s a good mind-set to take to the field with you every day,” he said. “I’ll start thinking that in my preparation now, because I think it’s true. There are 25 guys in here, but we’re not just playing for ourselves. We’re playing for the fans, we’re playing for the city and we’re playing for the world of pinstripes.”
Burnett has really embraced the Yankee mentality while adding a fun stamp of his own to the clubhouse. When he signed, there were doubts about his makeup and ability to handle New York raised by many a writer. However, he has surprisingly taken a leadership position, mentoring Joba and CMW while making himself available to the media on a regular basis. AJ constantly talks about how much he has matured over the last few seasons, and this season has confirmed that notion. He has been a perfect fit for this team, and only his health can prevent him from being a major cog on the Yankees for the duration of his contract.
Chemistry is an issue that seems to stir up a lot of discord among sports fans, particularly those that are inclined to focus on statistics and objective data to reach conclusions about sports. Personally, I believe that as fans, it is very hard for us to make judgements on this kind of stuff, one way or another. If everybody who plays the game seems to think that closing takes a special skill and chemistry does matter to teams, who am I to dispute that when we are really talking about the psychology of the game? Meaning, if people in the game believe things that fly in the face of objective fact, I can argue with that and call them stupid all I want. But when talking about the psychology of the game and the clubhouse, I think that fans come to the debate with a distinct disadvantage of not being in the clubhouse and not having the relevant information. All we can do is look in from the outside, with our noses pressed against the glass, and try to guess at the psychological aspects of the game.
That being said, it seems clear, from the words of the players, that this year’s Yankee team has excellent chemistry. from Mark Feinsand:
Shaving cream pies. Loud music in the clubhouse. Championship wresting belts. The New York Yankees may not be quite the Idiots that resided in Boston five years ago, but they’ve certainly become a looser, more fun team to be around. Especially after winning seven straight.
Wednesday, the entire roster will assemble in the bowels of Yankee Stadium for a Kangaroo Court, a long-standing tradition in baseball that allows teammates to put each other on trial for a variety of reasons. Court will be in session at 3:15 p.m. sharp (late arrivals will be fined $100, no exceptions), with Judge Mariano Rivera presiding over the hearings.
CC Sabathia said he’s had a Kangaroo Court on every team he’s ever been on, but in my nine years covering the Yankees, I can’t remember hearing of one taking place. That’s not to say it hasn’t, but it certainly hasn’t been quite as public as this one, which was advertised by a sign hanging on the front door of the clubhouse.
Such is life for these Yankees, who have shed their businesslike image for that of an actual major-league team, complete with pranks, practical jokes and – dare we say it – camaraderie.
Of course, winning breeds good chemistry, but Pete Abraham said on multiple occasions prior to this streak that this was a closer knit group of Yankees than he had ever seen. This team is having fun and coming together. Which means someone has to complain about it. Enter Michael Kay.
I missed his show, but the accounts that I have been getting say that he was complaining about the pies that AJ Burnett has been throwing in the faces of the players notching walk-off hits. Apparently fun is not “The Yankee Way,” and the Yankees need to act “like they have been there before.” Let me begin by pointing out, as I have on many occasions, that this idea of respect and honor as “The Yankee Way” is a crock. The professional atmosphere has never been about class and always been about money. Prior to the advent of free agency, players signed with the Yankees counting on their playoff checks. In fact, some took lower initial offers, knowing that they would usually be bringing home a World Series share as well. The veterans, very protective of their bonuses, did not condone any behavior that would cost them their money. The focus on professionalism was always about the bottom line. The Yankee Way, if we must use the term, is about winning. Period.
In regard to Michael Kay’s no fun rule, is it really so bad to see the players coming together in celebration of a regular season win? For some sanity on the issue, I shockingly turn to Suzyn Waldman:
I’ve been either covering or broadcasting Yankees games for 23 years…and until this weekend, I’ve never seen a Yankees player get hit in the face with a whipped cream pie. Now, 4 of them in a few days…Brett Gardner, Melky Cabrera , Alex Rodriguez and yesterday Johnny Damon. They are the brain child of AJ Burnett, who keeps his supply in the video room right off the Yankees dugout steps.
I think a few of the “core” players in that Yankees clubhouse were a little stunned when the first pie went into Brett Gardner’s face, but it was Mariano Rivera, an ultimate “core” player who told a dejected AJ Burnett yesterday, who was sitting in the clubhouse after being taken out of the game to “get out there….get that pie ready, man, you can’t change karma!”
To those of you who say “Act like you’ve been there before” or “That’s not the Yankee way!”….I say to you…, well, most of these guys have NOT been there before, and how’s that “Yankee Way” worked for the past 7 years? A little life is needed in there…if a pie in the face on a walkoff win is what does it…so what? Add to that the gold WWB (or WWF…whatever it is now) belt being passed around to the star of the day. It belongs to Johnny Damon and the belt was a gift from AJ Burnett’s two little sons…
Hey, if it is alright for Mariano Rivera, it is fine by me, and it should certainly be fine for Michael Kay. Sometimes I think people forget that this is a game. Over the weekend, the Yankees reminded some of us of the fact.
Don tells the Post that Manny was “a joy to work with,” and presented no chemistry issues. Don has probably never heard the words “contract year.”
