Alabama Football: Ex-Yankees manager Girardi gets Saban’s praise

Alabama football head coach Nick Saban congratulated his friend, former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi and said he will attend the LSU-Alabama game.

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Scott Gleeson of USA Today reported Saban’s comments about Girardi coming to Tuscaloosa. “‘I think he’s coming to the LSU game, and I hope he’s bringing his whole family,’ Saban said Thursday night on his weekly radio show,The Nick Saban Show. ‘It’ll be good to see him again.'”

Chip Patterson of CBS Sports reported that “Girardi confirmed Thursday that he would not return as manager of the Yankees — a club decision — and Saban was informed of this development during his radio show on Thursday night.”

Saban weighed in on Girardi’s accomplishments with the Yankees, this season:

Saban was informed on his radio show of Girardi’s departure

“This was a rebuilding year. I think they exceeded expectations in every way”
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 27, 2017

Whether one loves or hates the ‘Evil Empire’ known as the Yankees, one cannot deny the excellent job that Girardi did with the team. From 2008 to 2017, Girardi was the staple of the organization. In just his second year, he guided the Bronx Bombers to a World Series championship, their first since 2000.

However, the Yankees’ high payroll for aging veterans continuously plagued Girardi’s tenure as manager, constantly having to deal with big-name players being out of the lineup for extended periods of time. It cost him and the Yankees faithful only three seasons of missing the playoffs in his time with the club.

The success required excellent leadership to put other veterans in positions, in the batting order and on the field, where they were not used to playing while having to guide rookies into playing bigger roles earlier than was expected of them. The farm system had to be replenished, so Girardi had to make due with the players he had, making them competitive enough so that upper management would not make any rash decisions and trade even more prospects away for veteran quick-fixes.

Sounds a lot like how Saban brought Alabama football back to former glory: establishing a culture, instead of bowing down to older players’ wishes. The Yankees and the Crimson Tide became places where players wanted to play again. Solid veterans were coming to the Yankees because they started seeing the youngsters, under Girardi’s guidance, making an impact.

Especially rookie catcher Gary Sanchez in 2016, hitting .299 with 20 home runs and 42 RBIs in just 53 games. It was only topped by rookie left fielder Aaron Judge, hitting .284 with an astonishing 52 homers and 114 RBIs in 2017.

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These Yankees were one game away from making it to the World Series, this season. Losing Game 7 of the American League Championship Series was actually a moral victory, because absolutely nobody in the baseball world gave the Yankees a chance to even make the playoffs. Girardi’s absence is an incredible risk by New York, considering how much that Girardi has done for the team.

Girardi’s friendship to Saban makes sense. Both men ran their respective teams the same way. The fact that they have even spoken to each other’s team has been publicized for years. They both preach team-first mentality. When the Yankees had problems with highly-paid veterans costing the team on the field, in multiple ways, Girardi did the best he could with the players he had and always made them competitive. Even in the three seasons that they did not make the playoffs, the Girardi Yankees were a team nobody wanted to face.

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That competitive consistency and tenacity are what Saban and Girardi share. The Yankees wanting to go in another direction, at this point, is like Alabama saying that they have grown tired of winning with Saban. If Saban does not win a national championship this season, making it two years in a row, does that mean his time at Tuscaloosa goes the way of Girardi?

Sometimes, management needs to wake up and realize that letting a coach go may be just a cliche, and that maybe the team is a great deal better with him than without him. Girardi, like Saban, brought a winning culture to an organization used to winning but had not done so in a very long time. The Yankees and the Crimson Tide, no matter a season’s outcome, are much better with Girardi and Saban at the helm than without them.