ZIP-LIP JORGE, ZIP-LIP JORGE

As the Yankees have currently slid down the win column and have been hovering around .500 as a team, I thought I'd "slide" into alternate topic for this article.  A few recent occurrences have brought my mind into my latest thoughts.  Last Sunday, Bernie Williams was inducted into the Yankees' Monument Park, including the retirement of his number.  As I've written in the past, I have not and still am not in support of the Yankees retiring number 51 in his honor.  Similarly, Jorge Posada will also have his number 20 retired (this August 22).  For Jorge, though, I have expressed my borderline point of view on him, while slightly supporting his qualification - mostly based on his Core-4 contributions, his offensive numbers while playing the hardest defensive position, and his battery efforts during David Wells' perfect game.

My mind’s wheels really started turning this month when Jorge released a memoir/book, "The Journey Home: My Life in Pinstripes".  Within that book, like a lot of "authors" are told to do, he included some controversial comments which always seem to help sales – remember Joe Torre's book?  The most unfortunate victim ended up being Joe Girardi, with Cashman also somewhat a backup victim.  Posada basically complained about losing catcher and playing time from 2008-2010 with his main focus on the unfairness to him.  Here's an excerpt the Daily News had issued:

"I’ll put this as plainly as I can.  When you take me out from behind the plate, you’re taking away my heart and my passion . . . I knew that my role with the club was changing, but I don’t think that anyone making those decisions knew how much the things being done hurt me . . . To have even that taken away from me without adequate explanation, hurt me and confused me . . . I felt like I wasn’t being treated right, that people weren’t always being as straightforward with me as I wanted them to be or treating me as I deserved to be treated, and I exploded.”

While we all can admire Jorge's "passion", it's upsetting to see that he's publicly insinuating complaints, mainly against Girardi.  Joe Girardi has never publicly complained or said anything derogatory about Jorge; and there were plenty of times he could have complained about some very awful defense, game calling, and even about some of Jorge’s insubordination!  As far as Cashman is concerned, he was involved in issuing every single one of Jorge's very wealthy contracts (numerous times).  Of course, the Steinbrenners had to ultimately sign the checks, but they typically listen to Cashman’s opinion.  In fact, only on A-Rod’s contract can I ever remember them (actually, Hank Steinbrenner) going against Cashman’s contract opinion.

Jorge and every other professional baseball player, for that matter, have all been given vocal chords.  Those same vocal chords not only function during retirement years, but they have always functioned during all MLB players’ baseball careers!  So, if Joe didn't tell him this and Brian didn't tell him that, then what happened to his own voicing of displeasure or supposed confusion?  Even back in the 2008 season when Jorge was 36 & 37 years old – he qualified as an adult, not a child!!  Communication is a two-way street.

Additionally, one can argue that the manager Jorge fully supports, Joe Torre, was lucky in a way, because he didn't have to manage the Yankees' Core-4 (including Jorge) during their age-dwindling years.  Instead, it was Joe Girardi who had that strenuous distinction.  Jorge proved to have both declining numbers and increasing injuries during his final years.  So, any objective and fair-to-the-team manager would also have rightfully reduced Jorge's catching days and playing time.  We Yankees' fans demand winning year-after-year and, unfortunately, that can sometimes mean seeing less of our so-called heroes.  Some players, such as Mariano, recognize their decreasing contributions to the ultimate goal before it becomes an issue to the team and to themselves.  Perhaps Jeter played one year too many, but at least he recognized it before it got out of hand.  In fact, it can be argued that Jorge was the only Core-4 member that overstayed his abilities.

Again, as I've stated in the past, I believe Jorge's upcoming induction qualifications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame selection are debatable, but I would personally vote for him (if ever I had such an honor) based on the same aforementioned reasons I gave for his retiring-number qualification into Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.  I liked Jorge, but was never overly crazy about him, mostly because of his iffy catcher defense.  There's no question that he always played hard, offered very good offense for most of his career years, and was rightfully a member of the infamous Core-4.  To me, that Core-4 group also carried a distinctive class in leadership during their playing years.  I believe they should take that same approach during their non-playing years.  It would be great if Jorge swallowed some of his selfish pride and acted classy; then, we could traditionally recite his famous "Hip-Hip Jorge" chant that "we" Yankees' fans created instead of the "Zip-Lip Jorge" chant that I created!