Time For Yankees Brass To Heed Advice Of The Iron Horse

Well hello there everybody! Welcome to This Week In Yankees Baseball. The farewell words of Yankees icon Lou Gehrig roll off the tongues of baseball fans young and old. But it was actually May 2, 1939 that the Iron Horse began his final ride.

That was the day that Gehrig took himself out of the Yankees lineup for what he characterized as poor performance. Though he did not know the root cause of the decline in his play at the time, he stepped aside and thus ended his 2,130 consecutive games played streak.

During the streak, Gehrig had notched so many accomplishments. He was the American League RBI champion five times. Thirteen years consecutively he batted in 100 runs or more. He also had the most home runs in the American League three times. Most significant to Yankees fans, was that Gehrig won the world series with The Bombers six times.

As we look back on Gehrig’s decision, it is time for some Yankees’ notables to take note and consider stepping aside themselves. This group includes Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi. Hal has not shown the same level of leadership as his father. Brian has assembled a group of players that is not producing as a whole. And Joe has seldom shown the fire to win that Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner displayed.

“In the beginning I used to make one terrible play a game. Then I got so I’d make one a week and finally I’d pull a bad one about once a month. Now, I’m trying to keep it down to one a season,” Gehrig said according to Baseball Almanac.

Yes it is early in the season. But the anemia has stretched back to last season and before. The Yankees have had more than enough”bad plays” for such a short period of time. Lou Gehrig refused to accept sub-standard results. It is time for a shakeup. Hal, Brian and Joe need to recognize that they’re not doing the job and get on their horses and ride into the sunset.

How about that?