Finally Some Chemistry That Won't Trouble Yankees

For any kid or anyone who remembers what it was like to be a kid, the words, "Field Trip," will always conjure up positive feelings. That's certainly what Joe Girardi must have been looking for when he took an unusual step today by closing down his training facility and taking his players and coaches on an outing to a local pool hall.

After a troublesome period with A-Rod and other issues, the Yankees decided to take a little detour on the road to playing shape by putting everyone on a bus and having a team building exercise. The Fan spent many years managing a customer service center for a software company and always found team building exercises to be beneficial.

Let's face it, work is work and the need to succeed is very powerful and stressful. We weren't playing for millions, but we were competing with other companies for our customer's dollars and it was always good once in a while to break up that stress with something that is fun and unexpected. While this happens often in the corporate world, the linked article mentioned that the players all said they had never experienced anything like it.

That speaks highly of Girardi and his creativity in building a team out of high end superstars bought by free agency and young players making major league minimum. While team unity is probably overrated in sports, it certainly does make it easier to pull hard for one another and work together for a common goal. That's something that has been missing over the past several years.

In fact, it was one of the sub-themes in Torre's book, "The Yankee Years." The World Series run featured players who worked hard toward a common goal of winning and the difference between that and the odd collection of older free agents the team collected after the World Series years affected that common goal.

You have to commend Girardi for taking this unusual step for his team. It won't make it any easier to beat Boston or Tampa Bay, but it will make it easier for the team to have fun together and work together along the way.

Heck, if Girardi wants to give the Fan a call, there are several tricks up this old manager's sleeve he can borrow. There is pajama day, funky hat day, mismatched clothes day, balloons filled with prizes, breakfast cereal day and many more. You go, Joe. Good job.