Joe Girardi chewed out Yankees’ players before Derek Jeter’s final home game
By Hayden Kane
The New York Yankees enjoyed a spectacular moment in an otherwise dismal season on Thursday night. They won Derek Jeter‘s final home game as a Yankee with a walk-off hit from the Captain himself. Such as these moments go, you couldn’t have scripted it any better. Before there was ever a chance for the moment of glory, however, manager Joe Girardi ripped into his players during a pregame team meeting.
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It appears that everything was on the table for Girardi, as his criticisms reportedly ranged from quality of play to a lack of heart to the fact that some players were out of shape. Wallace Matthews and Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York report the following about the rant:
"According to clubhouse sources who were present for the critique, and backed up by interviews with more than a half-dozen players, most of whom spoke to ESPNNewYork.com off the record for fear of angering their manager, Girardi chided some players for being overweight and others for not being “hungry” enough.One source described Girardi as “angry,” and said he even took a brief timeout to allow the players, led by CC Sabathia, to present Jeter with the original painting of The New Yorker’s Sept. 8 cover depicting the shortstop waving goodbye, and an expensive watch, before returning to Part Two of his tirade."
Yeesh. Can you say awkward? That had to throw some ice water on the gift ceremony. It does seem reasonable to wonder if Girardi’s apparent rage stemmed from the fact that the team failed to reach the postseason in Jeter’s final season. Maybe the reminder that came in the form of the final home game set him off.
Whatever it is, Girardi wasn’t happy. Then he wasn’t happy that reporters found out about it. Let’s just say that he’s not a happy guy right now.
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