Davidoff: Girardi will be in eye of October storm

BOSTON

The Yankees were so devastated by their wild-card weekend that . . . they dressed their rookies in disco gear and made them strut to the Bee Gees Sunday afternoon.

They were so upset about their second straight loss to the Red Sox, 8-4, at Fenway Park, that . . . they calmly ate steak before showering, changing and flying back to New York.

So let's not overstate the task Joe Girardi has in front of him to guide these wobbly defending world champions back to the Canyon of Heroes. The players will recover mentally, and if you've looked around the American League this past month, no dominant power seems ready to gobble up the Yankees.

Having written that, however, we also can assert this: Girardi will be in the eye of this October storm. More so than he was last year. The baseball world at large will be eyeing this postseason through the prisms of Girardi's past, his present and his future.

"The goal is not to win the division, in a sense," Girardi said. "The goal is to win the whole thing. Yes, you want to win the division and have homefield advantage, but the goal is to win the whole thing. I think our guys understand that."

They do, of course. It's just that Girardi had spent the last few weeks, including earlier yesterday, reiterating, "We're trying to win the division."

He's a pretty good manager. He demonstrated that last year when he seamlessly executed big endeavors such as flip-flopping Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter in the lineup, switching Phil Hughes to the bullpen and going to the three-man starting rotation in the postseason.

Yet this Joe generates strong negativity from a vocal fan base and doesn't get along great with the media. And although his players don't necessarily dislike him, he doesn't promote the same familial atmosphere that predecessor Joe Torre did.

That all comes into focus now, headlined by the Yankees' 9-17 finish. He made sure not to push his players too much, which helped Brett Gardner, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira get healthy, and he straightened out the bullpen. The tradeoff, however, came in finishing second to Tampa Bay.

His liberal use of relievers in games drew him much criticism during the 2009 playoff run and figures to do so again. Especially if the Yankees advance to the second round and decide they have no choice but to start A.J. Burnett.

That covers his past and his present. His future? Perhaps you heard that Girardi's contract runs out when the season ends, and that his childhood favorite Cubs are looking for a new manager. It's not Girardi's fault that he's an impending free agent - Yankees policy calls for all deals to finish before extensions - but he showed three years ago that he'll do what he must to get paid. The Yankees paid him more because Girardi also was negotiating with the Dodgers.

Girardi stepped on the gas these last two days here, pushing his players in Saturday's marathon doubleheader and yesterday's season finale, but the Red Sox wouldn't let them celebrate. So the players get Monday off, the staff reports to Yankee Stadium for a noon meeting and everyone tries to quickly get over this.

"Of course you're disappointed. You want to win," Derek Jeter said. "But that's over with now. It didn't happen. The disappointment shouldn't last long."

"In New York, it's not enough just to make the playoffs," Girardi said. He probably won't sleep much this month. And if Yankees fans have sleepless nights, too, he'll probably be their top source of complaint.