Girardi inheriting different Yankees

Joe Girardi is on the verge of taking over the hottest seat in baseball just as the New York Yankees are reprising their Bronx Zoo days of the 1980s and early 1990s.Joe Torre is gone. Alex Rodriguez is gone. Don Mattingly is gone. There’s no guarantee Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte will return, and Ron Guidry appears likely to exit.

It brings back memories of the years Reggie, Billy and Thurman ruled the back pages of the tabloids.

Or, perhaps worse for Yankees’ fans, when Dave Winfield, Steve Sax and Dave Collins were the stars of the show.

“This is going to be a dramatically different look both in terms of substance and perception of the Yankees’ dynasty,” agent Tom Reich said Monday, after Girardi was offered the job as Torre’s replacement. “Icons have left, and there is going to be a very potent team, but it’s going to have to regroup, not as a favorite.”

A-Rod could have had a place in Monument Park. Instead, he appears more concerned about getting an even more monumental amount of money.

And what timing! – far better than any Rodriguez showed at the plate in the postseason. Agent Scott Boras made the announcement smack in the middle of Game 4 of the World Series. Not since Pete Rose’s admission that he bet on baseball coincided with the Hall of Fame election of Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor in 2004 has there been such a clash of controversy and celebration.

“We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement,” Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, said Monday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game.”

Boras issued an apology later Monday, saying the distraction was “not my intent, but is solely my fault.”

“I could have handled this situation better, and for that I am truly sorry,” he said.

If Girardi takes the job, he’ll have to figure out who will replace the 54 homers and 156 RBIs that A-Rod supplied last season. If Rodriguez winds up with the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees could pounce on Mike Lowell, the World Series MVP.

They still have to figure out what to do with Johnny Damon, who lost the center-field job to Melky Cabrera during the season. And how to solidify a pitching staff that will tilt more to young players, including Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, and perhaps Alan Horne, Jason Jones, Jeffrey Marquez and Brett Smith.

Girardi, a tough and straightforward player, earned a drill instructor reputation when he led the Florida Marlins in 2006, keeping a young team in contention until late in the season and earning NL Manager of the Year. Will that attitude work with veterans who were allowed to police themselves under Torre?

A Torre favorite as both a catcher and a coach, Girardi clashed with his Marlins’ bosses and was fired at the end of his only season. He still won’t say exactly why.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman repeatedly has said the Yankees need to get younger, and the choice of Girardi is a sign the youth movement will increase.

But will Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, who appear to have taken over day-to-day control of the team from their father, give him time if the team starts slowly? Before Torre, George Steinbrenner was known for dropping baseball’s quickest guillotine.

As Reich said: “Joe Torre is gone, but never forgotten.”

Girardi will have to live with that, too.

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