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Aubrey?
Aubrey and Baubi?
And just because Bill Madden couldn't help himself
Brian Sabean, architect of San Francisco Giants, started under George Steinbrenner with Yankees
SAN FRANCISCO - Somehow, I have to believe George Steinbrenner wouldn't be quite his usual spoil sport about this World Series in which his Yankees are not participants. Rather, I could see him even taking credit for it - or at least the San Francisco Giants' half of it.
Look around these Giants, and the Steinbrenner Yankee influence is everywhere, beginning at the top where GM Brian Sabean cut his teeth, first as scouting director for the Yankees in the early '80s and then as VP of player development when he presided over, among other things, the drafting of Derek Jeter out of high school in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1992.
Since becoming Giants general manager in 1996, Sabean has gradually surrounded himself with Steinbrenner U. grads. Three of the Giants coaches - Dave Righetti, who handles the pitchers, Hensley Meulens, who's in charge of the hitters, and Roberto Kelly at first base - were all Yankees when Sabean was running the minor league department. Sabean's top assistant, Dick Tidrow, was a principal set-up reliever on the '77-'78 Yankee world championship teams, and his two advance scouts, Joe Lefebvre and Steve Balboni, were college pals in New Hampshire who both came up through the Yankee system as players.
So would Steinbrenner be feeling a sense of pride about all his "boys" having made good this October?
"I'm sure he would," Sabean was saying yesterday as we watched this patchwork Giants team of his working out. "Obviously, I owe a lot to George. He treated me and my family extremely well. It's the family tree here. We all learned to do it there. I've found it's always a safe bet when you hire someone who's been through the Yankees."
There was a time, back in the early '90s when Sabean might have been GM of the Yankees. Steinbrenner was grooming him for the job, although only after Sabean was being pursued by his former Yankee boss Bob Quinn, who, after being replaced as Yankee GM, wound up being hired by the Giants as their GM. Sabean remembered having flown from Tampa to San Francisco to accept the job as Quinn's assistant when he got a call from Steinbrenner's son-in-law, Joe Molloy, who was acting general partner of the Yankees while Steinbrenner was on suspension from baseball, telling him he had to come back.
"Joe told me that the Giants didn't have permission to talk to me," Sabean said, "and he went on to say that George was ballistic and was threatening tampering charges. So I went back to Tampa and that's when Joe told me that George was going to make it all right for me."
There was a tacit promise that Sabean would be the successor to Gene Michael as Yankee GM. Unfortunately, around that same time, Steinbrenner and Michael were constantly sniping at each other, and it was clear that when the Boss came back from suspension, Michael wouldn't be long for the GM job. And then word began leaking out about Sabean becoming GM.
"I felt terrible about all that," Sabean said. "Stick had exposed me to so much as my boss. That's when I decided I had to get out of there."
Sabean went back to Tampa and wrote a letter of resignation. This time, however, The Boss gave him his blessings.
Since Sabean has been their GM, the Giants have won two National League pennants, three NL West division titles and have been the wild card once.
It wasn't all so wonderful, however, as he had to navigate around meddlesome ownership - specifically former Giants' managing general partner Peter Magowan - the man who originally signed Barry Bonds and ordered him re-signed in the midst of the steroids scandal surrounding the slugger so the Giants could capitalize on his pursuit of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record. It was also Magowan who ordered the $126million, seven-year contract for Barry Zito, an idiotic signing that remains an albatross on the Giants payroll for three more years.
Nevertheless, this present Giants team is without doubt Sabean's greatest accomplishment, if only because it was put together on such a shoestring.
Aubrey Huff, the Giants' home run and RBI leader, center fielder Andres Torres, left fielder Pat Burrell and shortstop Juan Uribe were all signed as "leftover/bargain basement" free agents. Cody Ross, the hitting star of this postseason, was a waiver-wire claim from the Florida Marlins, and lefty Javier Lopez and righty Ramon Ramirez, who have formed the makeshift set-up relief for closer Brian Wilson, were last-minute trading-deadline pickups. If nothing else, if Sabean isn't Executive of the Year he is certainly Scavenger of the Year.
"So what did he think Steinbrenner would say about all this?
"I think," said Sabean, "he'd probably say 'I raised that kid. He learned from us.' And if he did, he'd be right."
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