Growing Pains for the manager too - Girardi lets Jorge make the call

UPDATE (4/24 8:00 AM): According to the post game show last night, there was a miscommunication between Mussina/Posada and Girardi. Girardi thought that Jorge was saying Moose had nothing left, but he was telling him there was nothing wrong with him. I know this much - no manager likes to do what Girardi did in the video below and it was embarrassing. Girardi will know to make sure before making the pitching change next time.

Very awkward moment on YES tonight. Moose gave up his second HR of the game in the 7th inning with 2 outs and Girardi came out of the dugout, met everyone at the mound and began to signal for the righty in the pen. As he was touching his arm to make the call, Jorge said something and stopped him from doing so. Girardi bowed to his former dynasty-mate and kept Moose in.

This is already the second time this year that Girardi has deferred to one of his former teammates when making a pitching decision. A couple of starts ago, he came out to the mound with first base open and Manny coming up in a game against the Red Sox. He let Mussina convince him that he could pitch to Manny that day - a game-winning double ensued. Tonight's incident was way lower leverage and had a considerably smaller downside, but it still shows Girardi's inexperience. This incident was a bit embarrassing, and the YES cameras caught it in all of its glory.

I don't pine for old sleepy Joe one little bit, but can anyone imagine this sort of thing happening with Torre at the helm? Nope, neither can I... You know what though? I'm happy about this - Girardi will learn, the players will learn and it will be a nice learning experience for everyone.

(UPDATE 4/24/ 7:45 AM): Lisa over at Subway Squawkers has pointed out the instance a couple of years back when Moose was set to pitch a complete game, but started struggling in the 9th. Torre came out of the dugout and Moose immediately pointed for him to go back to the dugout. Obviously, Torre had plenty of experience, but STILL deferred to Mike Mussina. Yes, this example was different, with the culprit being Girardi's former backup (haha) Jorge Posada, but remembering back to Torre's days, maybe I was a bit quick to assume something like this would not have taken place then.

Don't believe any of this happened? Check it out (be sure to watch all the way to the end to see Girardi and Jorge's exchange as YES went to commercial):



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