Jeter: Sudden Girardi firing is ‘unfortunate’
Derek Jeter had a front-row seat to almost all of Joe Girardi’s Yankee tenure — one that included stints as a player, coach and manager — a stretch that started in 1996 when Girardi and Jeter were teammates on the Bombers’ first World Series championship team of the Joe Torre era.
Girardi, who won three rings as a Yankees player (’96, ’98-’99), was later a bench coach on Torre’s 2005 Yankee coaching staff before succeeding Torre as Yankee manager after the 2007 season ended. He held the pinstriped managing reins from 2008 until Thursday, when the club decided not to bring Girardi back for an 11th season managing in the Bronx.
“I’ve played with Joe. He was a coach, he was a manager. He’s probably one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. That’s unfortunate,” Jeter said Thursday at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, where he was a guest speaker at the Fast Company Innovation Festival.
But Jeter, the new Miami Marlins co-owner, also gave a blunt assessment of Girardi’s new status following the Yankees’ decision to part ways.
“This is a business. You learn that,” Jeter told a packed Y audience, where the former Yankee shortstop was joined by Jeff Levick, the CEO of Jeter’s Players’ Tribune website. “There’s some things that are at times unpopular, but part of the business.”
Jeter was one of several former and current Yankee players who commented on the Girardi news Thursday. Girardi managed the Yankees to one World Series title — in 2009 — when Jeter and Johnny Damon were players on Girardi’s Yankee roster. The Bombers toppled the Phillies in six games. He was also manager during Jeter’s last season in pinstripes, 2014.
“You’ve got to be f---ing kidding me,” Damon texted the Daily News Thursday when told about the Girardi news. “Hopefully it was a mutual decision. He’s the best manager in baseball. The fact he’s made the playoffs a number of times (with) teams that weren’t given a chance... He’s a big factor on how the team prepares to play day in and day out.”
David Robertson, also a member of that 2009 title team and who returned to the Bombers’ roster this past summer in a deadline trade between the Yanks and the White Sox, tweeted his appreciation of Girardi Thursday.
“Thank you, Joe. My career wouldn’t have been the same without you,” said Robertson. “It was a privilege.”
One of the current Baby Bombers, catcher Gary Sanchez, also tweeted his gratitude for Girardi.
“Thank you Joe. For all your help and support. Will always be grateful to you,” tweeted Sanchez, who repeated the praise in Spanish. One of Girardi’s brothers, older sibling George, who is a Colorado physician, told The News Wednesday that Girardi was excited about the young core of talented players on the Yankees, including Sanchez and Aaron Judge, and that Joe Girardi had told his brother how he felt the current crop of Yankees could possibly contend for multiple World Series titles down the road. Now it will be another manager who gets the opportunity to try and win the franchise’s 28th World Series title.
Todd Frazier, another part of that Yankees’ deadline deal with the White Sox, played for Girardi for only two months, including in the team’s playoff run that ended with Game 7 of the ALCS against Houston. But Frazier gushed to The News about the now former skipper’s impact.
“He was a great manager,” said Frazier. “I enjoyed playing for him. He’ll be missed. I hope the best for him.”