Yankees’ manager far from an average Joe
The best test of a person’s character is what he does when no one is watching.
Joe Girardi passed with a perfect score in the early hours Thursday morning.
After consistently and subtly pulling the right strings during the World Series, Girardi made his most impressive move following the Yankees’ Game 6 victory.
With his players having scattered from the soaked clubhouse and the empty champagne bottles tossed into trash bags, Girardi was driving to his home in the New York suburbs when he came upon a sport utility vehicle that had crashed into a wall along the highway.
Without a second thought, Girardi pulled over, sprinted across the busy Cross County Parkway and ensured the driver, Marie Henry of Stratford, Conn., had been able to call police. He even went an extra step, staying with Henry and flagging down officers responding to her 911 call.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of joy in what we do, but we can’t forget to be human beings where we help others out,” Girardi said. “I think that’s the most important thing we can do in life.”
This is the measure of Girardi’s character.
Only hours before, he had been floating in a champagne river in the Yankees’ clubhouse as his team exulted in the franchise’s return, at long last, to the pinnacle of major league baseball.
Riding that emotional high, Girardi easily could have kept his foot on the accelerator when he saw the SUV by the side of the road. A lot of people would have. You know, the bystander effect — “Not my problem. Someone else will do something about it.” And it was 2:30 in the morning, and he had just won the World Series. But even though he was the manager of the New York Yankees, even though he was on the top of the world, Girardi put his own situation aside and gave of himself.
“She had no idea who I was,” Girardi said, though it didn’t matter to him either way.
Then he drove off quietly into the night, a winner when everyone was watching, and a winner when no one was, too.
She said what?
“This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player that I am.”
— New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert, who was suspended indefinitely for rough play in a game Thursday, including yanking an opponent to the ground by her ponytail
Please read our comment policy before commenting.