Under estimate Brian Cashman at your own risk. His presence in Atlanta today leant a sense of urgency to the Yankees' mid-June swoon -- it was time to straighten out priorities, time to focus on the big picture before frustration mushroomed into something worse.
So, Cashman alerted ownership, postponed his Scranton trip to see Sergio Mitre, and met with his manager and sat in on a hitters' meeting (where he didn't exactly sit on his hands). Cash didn't do any yelling, Mark Teixeira said, but he got his point across.
"You have to realize, 162 games, sometimes you need a kick in the butt, '' Tex said after tonight's win, where eight runs were scored after Girardi's (intentional) ejection, and after the club's first 15 hitters were set aside.
Tex described Cashman as "a little fired up,'' and the GM had already said his point was that his hitters were better than they'd shown, and it was time to show it. Plus, it's not as if Cashman's viewpoint was restricted to the GM's box; he did hit .348 at Catholic University in 1988.
"I've never run a company before,'' Texeira said. "But if my employees weren't getting the job done, I might come in and (tell them).''
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