Girardi Alienates New York Media

In his first season as Yankees manager Joe Girardi has managed to alienate the media covering the team. This is a dangerous situation for a guy who, depending on how the Bombers start 2008, could quickly find himself on a list of endangered managers.

When media types begin to derisively refer to you as “a clown,” you have problems.

Thursday night, Girardi lied to reporters before Yankees-Blue Jays, saying Mariano Rivera was sent home to take a routine, season-ending physical. The closer actually returned to New York to get an MRI on his right shoulder, a fact GM Brian Cashman confirmed to reporters over the telephone during the game.

Girardi exacerbated the situation during his postgame interview. He served up a coverup. Girardi rehashed his pregame spiel about Rivera telling him “his whole body is cranky.” No one bought what Girardi was selling. The reporters continued to probe. Girardi became indignant, saying: “I don’t care if you believe me.”

This uptight performance did not thrill Cashman. He privately apologized to a few scribes after Girardi bent the truth. On Friday, Girardi, undoubtedly prodded by the GM’s apology, offered a public one of his own (“I have shortcomings, I have things I still have to learn.”).

Maybe that’s a start, but Girardi better start caring more about media relations, and playing it straight, before it’s too late. Next season he enters the second year of a three-year deal. The organization – and to some extent the media – cut him slack along the road to the Yankees’ first dark October since 1993. If things go downhill fast in ‘08, Girardi will be a marked man – a scapegoat for impending failure.

Source: New York Daily News