PASSION-BASED BASEBALL: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

With the Core Four down to one, I ask you all to think long and hard about what you would like to see in your 2014 team. Leadership? Absolutely! Innovation? For sure! How about passion? How about that? Who is the heart and soul of the new Yankees? And with this heart and soul, who will lead the Yankees to a championship? The only two guys that have the heart for it are on the auction-block with another outfielder added to the roster! Ichiro Suzuki and Brett Gardner are our quiet champions; they play hard, give it everything they have and if we give them up, then who has the heart to lead and strengthen this team?

The Cano debacle is still haunting me. Money flaunting, only doing what's necessary with no additional effort- Robbie Cano! Don't ya know we were counting on you? You break my heart Robbie! Would your name-sake do the same? What would Jackie say?

OK, back to passion: Brett Gardner, the young, spry, center field bleeds Yankee blue and we have him hanging on a limb like bait on a hook. And Ichiro who always wanted to be a Yankee, the ultimate professional, let's throw him out to the trash too! Really? Did we really need Carlos Beltran if that means we need to give up Gardy and Ichiro?

Dick Vitale, who I admire for his passionate calls and undying enthusiasm for college basketball, tweeted this today:

Yes, if we give up another young player, we could make that B.S. statement a reality. "Or are the Yankees of this decade just going to be a better and far more expensive version of the Yankees of the 1980s, another time when they wandered aimlessly from plan to plan and brought in Jack Clark and Ed Whitson and Dave Collins and Ken Griffey and, well, Yankee fans know that’s the short list," according to the Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News on Sunday.

Did we overpay for Jacoby Ellsbury at the expense of Gardy? I think so. Remember Jacoby started in the Red Sox organization just like Gardy. And he doesn't have even a quarter of the passion that Gardy does! And Beltran was always whining and crying in New York while he was with the Mets. Have you heard even a peep from Ichiro?

To say I'm disgusted would be an understatement. I suggest you read Lupica's column in The Daily News today and re-read our posts on passion and teamwork because that's what's missing and taking out Gardy and Ichiro is going to kill our chemistry completely. I expect more vision in our front office and less cherry-picking. The secret of success is in the makeup of your team, which includes passion-based ball playing. Let's hold onto what's left of that and seek out those that fit that profile for the sake of our future.

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof





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