Brian Cashman was 19 years old when he took his first job with the Yankees, the organization he rejoined for three years and roughly US$5.5 million on Thursday. That was in 1986, and three years later he started a full-time career that will now take him past his 40th birthday.
In all those years, Cashman said Thursday, he could not remember the Yankees' ever holding the first organizational meeting of the winter in New York. It was always in Tampa, Florida, home to the principal owner George Steinbrenner and his many advisers. Not anymore.
It may be a symbolic gesture, but what it symbolizes means everything to Cashman. Though it is not spelled out in his contract, Cashman said that he received an understanding that he, and only he, would sit atop the chain of command in the Yankees' fractured baseball operations department.
"I'm the general manager, and everybody within the baseball operations department reports to me," he said. "That's not how it has operated recently."
Cashman said that Steinbrenner and the rest of the Yankees' upper management -- including the general partner Steve Swindal, the president Randy Levine and the chief operating officer Lonn Trost -- supported him.
The in-fighting below him made last season miserable, Cashman said.
"There's been some splintering off that's caused a lot of animosity and taken our focus away from our opponents and created opponents among ourselves," he said. "That, obviously, was not a good thing."
Cashman was referring to Steinbrenner's lieutenants in Tampa, whose suggestions often led to roster moves that undermined Cashman's authority. Privately, Cashman longed for the chance to have as much autonomy as his peers, which is why he nearly left the only organization he has known.
"It took as long as it did for a reason," said Cashman, whose current contract would have expired on Monday. "My preference was to stay, but I was prepared to go if I had to."
Cashman had other reasons to stay; his family is happy living in Connecticut, close to his wife's relatives. The Yankees pay him very well, but other teams, he said, could have offered comparable money.
Cashman could have sought another job and probably gotten one. But he said the Yankees now seemed committed to working cohesively.
That was the message he heard in negotiations with Swindal, who is Steinbrenner's son-in-law and has been named as his successor.
"I think there should be more phone calls and more face-to-face meetings, and the guys from Tampa can come to New York and vice versa," Swindal said in a telephone interview.
"Certainly there should be better communication; there's no excuse with modern communications as we have it today. That's where we've fallen short, and I blame all of us for that."
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was