On Saturday Yankees DH Jorge Posada pulled himself out of the lineup after being dropped to ninth in the batting order. We shared a report saying he “threw a hissy fit,” and we learned the Yankees were looking into docking his pay if he continued to refuse to play. Posada had planned to address the media after the game, sparking speculation he might people announce an impromptu retirement. I said that was highly unlikely and that Posada probably planned to apologize. I figured Jorge was probably royally ticked off about being dropped in the order, acted poorly, and once he came to his senses he would act accordingly. That’s exactly what he did.
Posada apologized to manager Joe Girardi Sunday, planned to apologize to GM Brian Cashman, and made the rounds doing damage control. He even had an extremely contrite interview with ESPN’s Buster Olney prior to the Sunday night game. With red-colored eyes full of mist from obvious tears he was fighting, Posada asked for the forgiveness from fans, attributing his actions to a bad day.
“Just had a bad day, very frustrating season so far, just want to apologize especially to Girardi and Cashman,” Posada said with cheers of “Hip Hip Jorge” in the background. “Just one of these things you regret your actions. I want to apologize to the fans because they’ve been so supportive of my career.”
He acknowledged he let down his teammates and the fans, and he said he addressed his teammates one-on-one. He needed time to cool off from the anger the previous day, but 24 hours later, Posada attempted to remedy the situation.
What Posada did Saturday was wrong. You should never refuse to play and you should always put the team first. That’s how things go in an ideal world, but in the real world, people are fueled by emotions. They’re swayed by anger, disgust, frustration, and perceived insults. Posada’s reaction to being dropped to ninth was not a good one, but it’s an understandable one. If you’re used to being a big producer in the Yankees’ lineup, having success at the plate year-after-year, and then you were dropped to ninth, you’d probably be upset. Also, consider that Posada probably felt he needed confidence from his manager and he received the opposite.
Posada’s behavior was poor but understandable. He handled the aftermath like the classy player he’s always been. Hopefully you can forgive him for having one bad day like he said and understand where he’s coming from — it’s never easy facing difficult situations in what already is an extremely tough sport.
