BIG CANO-NO!
Long shot at Robbie fires up Lloyd
Idon’t even pay attention to that. ... I just want to talk about Seattle.
TAMPA — The dog didn’t bite back, but his new manager barked pretty loudly. Two days after Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long criticized Robinson Cano for never busting it to first base, Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon rushed to the ex-Bomber’s defense, ripping Long and possibly put t ing some juice back into a crosscountry rivalry that has been dormant for more than a decade.
McClendon fired his first shots in comments to ESPN.com Tuesday morning, telling the site: “Last time I checked, I didn’t know that Kevin Long was the spokesman for the New York Yankees. That was a little surprising. I was a little pissed off, and I’m sure Joe (Girardi) feels the same way. He’s concerned with his team and what they’re doing, not what the Seattle Mariners players are doing.
“I wonder if he had any problems with Robbie when he wrote that book (“Cage Rat”) proclaiming himself as the guru of hitting.”
In Monday’s Daily News, Long said Cano never shook his bad habit of jogging to first base. “If somebody told me I was a dog,” Long told News columnist John Harper, “I’d have to fix that. When you choose not to, you leave yourself open to taking heat, and that’s your fault. For whatever reason, Robbie chose not to.”
Long seemed shocked by McClendon’s words Tuesday.
“That’s too bad,” Long said. “No, I don’t consider myself a spokesman for the Yankees. I think if you look at all the good things that were written about Robinson, you’d understand that there was no malicious meaning behind any of it. If he wants to speak publicly and talk like that, that’s fine. That’s up to him. If that’s the way he’s interpreting it and looking at it, so be it. I’m not going to get into a media war with Lloyd McClendon. He’ll probably win that, anyway.”
Cano declined to discuss the situation on Tuesday, choosing to put the focus on his first day of workouts with his new team. “I don’t even pay attention to that,” Cano said. “I just want to talk about Seattle. I’m here now. Whatever they said, I’m not going to pay attention to that.”
Long said late Tuesday afternoon that he and Cano had exchanged text messages in which Cano told him, “We are good.” Still, McClendon’s harsh words for Long will surely make thing things interesting when the Yankee Yankees a nd Ma r ii ners play pla for the first firs time thi this season April Apri 29-May 1 a as Cano make makes his return t to the Bronx. Th The Yankees and Mar Mariners develope developed quite a rivalr rivalry in the mid mid’90s af a fter Ken Griffey Jr.’s Seattle team eliminated the Bombers in the 1995 AL division series. They met again five years later in the ALCS, the first of two straight years the Yankees bumped off the Mariners to reach the World Series. Seattle hasn’t been in the postseason since, becoming a non-factor in the AL over the 12-year October drought. McClendon made it clear that the Mariners aren’t going to allow anyone to knock them without repercussions. “One of the messages I’m trying to send to my players is, we don’t have to take a back seat to anybody,” McClendon said. “That includes the New York Yankees or anyone else. We’re the Seattle Mariners. And my concern is my players, and the family atmosphere that we build here. And any time anybody attacks one of my players, then I’m going to defend him, and if you don’t like it, tough s---.”
Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik had a more measured reaction to Long’s comments than his manager. “The only reaction I had was that I wouldn’t have made the comment about a player on another ballclub,” Zduriencik told The News. “I just wouldn’t have done it. But that’s OK, Kevin has been with him for a long time, and that’s his decision to make a statement. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. He also said a lot of wonderful things about Robinson.”
Long, who inked a new two-year deal to remain as the Yankees’ hitting coach this winter, noted that nearly every comment he made in the column was positive, including the fact that he “was probably closer to Robbie than any player I’ve worked with.”
“There were so many good things,” Long said Tuesday. “Basically, it was, ‘If anybody looks at it, they’re going to see that Robinson doesn’t sprint down to first.’ Anybody who puts a clock on him would realize that. That’s it. Other than that, this guy is a tremendous human being, a tremendous character guy.
“I’ve seen him mature and I’ve seen him grow into the player that he is today. Really, if you look at the nine million good things that were said about him and you just want to harp on one thing, then that’s what you do.”
Brian Cashman admitted to being “surprised” when he read Long’s comments Sunday, but McClendon’s remarks didn’t have the same effect. “I know for anybody that has addressed it with me, the answer is the same today as it was then: it’s not an issue,” Cashman said of Cano’s hustle. “I was surprised by what Kevin said. It surprised me.
“I would expect Lloyd McClendon to step up for his player. That doesn’t surprise me.”
As for Long, he has some advice for anybody who thinks he was out of line with his comments about Cano.
“Go to the Daily News and read the whole article,” Long said. “It’s actually a pretty good article.”
— With Andy Martino in Peoria, Ariz.