If you were expecting a Hal storm, Yankees fans, you're aggravated, frustrated and angry
Hal Steinbrenner, principal owner of the Yankees, talks with reporters during MLB owners meetings on Feb. 5, 2020, in Orlando, Fla. Credit: AP/John Raoux
Forget about whether Hal Steinbrenner is like his father. He isn’t.
But take heart, Yankees fans: Hal is just like you.
He’s "aggravated, frustrated and angry" over how the Yankees have underperformed this season.
"It’s enough," Steinbrenner said during a Zoom news conference on Thursday.
So what’s the owner going to do about it?
Based on his answers . . . nothing.
That’s not like you at all.
Is Steinbrenner going to fire general manager Brian Cashman? No way. Manager Aaron Boone? Not even a consideration. Is he going to threaten the job security of anyone, be it a front-office person, a member of the field staff or perhaps even (gasp!) a player?
Perish the thought.
Steinbrenner’s "stay the course" message was clear and forceful and unequivocal. It also had to be disappointing to Yankees fans who, upon hearing that the owner was going to address the media, were hoping some sort of shake-up was going to be announced — although they probably knew better.
That might have been the Steinbrenner way in the past, but it’s not this Steinbrenner’s way.
That reality probably makes Yankees fans feel "aggravated, frustrated and angry." But Steinbrenner’s message was that the Yankees have good players and those players have to dig themselves out of this mess starting with Friday night’s Subway Series opener against the Mets in the Bronx.
"Make no mistake about it: The majority of the responsibility lies with the players," Steinbrenner said. "They're the ones on the field. They're a group of very talented professional athletes that are playing this game at the highest level in the world. They need to fix this problem, because everyone — including our fan base — has had enough."
Steinbrenner craves order and stability, not the chaos of his father George’s years-ago world.
"Look, he certainly did that a lot," Steinbrenner said. "I think what people forget is that oftentimes it didn't help, didn't work. Quite frankly, he was criticized for it. I'm just a believer in seeing an entire body of work from an employee, regardless of what department they're in. We do that year to year. Doing a knee-jerk reaction to appease this person or that person in the middle of the year when I really don't think there's a problem, that's certainly something I'm not going to do."
But it’s something this Yankees team needs. We don’t necessarily mean a firing of Cashman or Boone or a sacrificial firing of a coach just for the heck of it. Cashman is good at his job. Boone, until this season, has been good at his. And firing coaches is often nothing more than a tough-guy act by the person in charge that means little in the clubhouse.
What is missing from the new Steinbrenner way is any sense that the players themselves are being held accountable other than a few "tsk-tsks."
No benchings after the Yankees’ many baserunning gaffes. No sending a guy to Triple-A when he’s hitting under .200 and giving someone else from the farm a chance. No releasing a guy who isn’t hacking it to send a message to the rest that jobs are on the line.
Apparently, jobs aren’t on the line in the Bronx until after a season ends. MLB by-laws do allow for in-season personnel changes— even drastic ones, even shot-in-the-dark ones — but that’s apparently a taboo concept for this Steinbrenner.
"This team that we put together leaving spring training was a very, very good team," Steinbrenner said. "They just haven't played up to their potential that I believe they still have."
Even the timing of Steinbrenner’s news conference was scripted. It had nothing to do with Wednesday’s soul-crushing, 11-8 loss to the Angels, a game the Yankees led by four runs going into the ninth inning after two long rain delays.
Steinbrenner picked July 1 weeks ago, he said, because he wasn’t able to meet with the local media in person during the recent owners’ meetings because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Considerate. Consistent. That’s the new Steinbrenner way, and it is much appreciated by media members.
By you? Probably not so much. You just want your team to win. You just want "it’s enough" to be followed by a fire-breathing plan of action.
Sorry. Not this Steinbrenner.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
