Striking a balance in the 09 clubhouse

In today’s Daily News (TYU fave) Mark Feinsand discusses the adjustment period Nick Swisher went through last April as a Yankee, and how he and a member of the ‘old guard’ learned how to coexist and move forward. He writes:

Swisher, who had rolled the ball into the dugout to preserve his first career K, was doing what he always does – trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

“I had fun with it,” Swisher said that night. “When am I ever going to have the chance to do that again? Probably never.”

Some of his teammates were irritated by the yuks coming from across the room, none more than Jorge Posada, who told reporters, “Nobody was laughing.”

Instead of letting things fester, Swisher approached the catcher the next day to discuss the situation.

“I think the majority of the guys thought it was a little funny, but more than anything, that loss made us think, ‘We don’t like that feeling,’” Swisher, 29, said. “I know Jorge was upset about it, but he’s an intense competitor, and no one wants to take that intensity away from him. We got thumped 15-5, but why would you want to look at it in a negative light?”

The two players talked it out, and by the time they were finished, the incident was a thing of the past. Crisis averted.

“I told him, ‘Don’t lose respect for yourself and for everybody else. I know you were having fun – and we were having fun with you – but when the game is over, you’ve got to knock it off,’” Posada said. “We got our butts handed to us. He understood. He came over, we talked and that was it. I have no problems with the way he handles everything. I love the guy.”

Both players have a point here. You need to have some fun to get through a 162 game season, but at the same time you don’t want to have guys who don’t care if the team wins or loses, the party rolls on. In the latter Torre years, the Yanks had a reputation for being too buttoned up, too serious, and it was one of the reasons CC Sabathia had hesitation in signing here.  Yankee GM Brian Cashman was well aware of this perception, and at the WFAN Breakfast he stated that it was one of the things he set out to change with the acquisitions of Swisher, Sabathia and Burnett. Nice to see these two were able to works things out, in private.