"You could almost visualize the leg irons."

Be still my heart!

The New York Times actually brought in Tyler Kepner to do an analysis piece...on Real Madrid. Kidding, kidding! No, on THE YANKEES!!

(Apparently, Billywitz can't be trusted with anything beyond, "The Case of the Missing Geese.")

Anyway, Kepner felt obliged to ask our Mr. Cashman if he felt "pretty comfortable" with this team. Cash, apparently flashing back to when Old George was still alive, immediately started channeling John Travolta at the end of "Blow Out" ("It's a good scream. It's a good scream."):

"I'm never comfortable. I never said I was comfortable. The best general managers are served well by being uncomfortable at all times. I think these guys all know my job is to find something better than they are. At all times, that's the job: to improve the roster when opportunity exists."

Uh-oh.

Meanwhile, Aaron Boone kinda sorta admitted that he wakes up with nightmares about the forthcoming season.

There's a great description of the employees of the Steinbrenner family shipping company under George's father, Henry, c. 1961:

"Those people looked like something out of Charles Dickens. They didn't have chains to their desks, but those people, you could see it in their eyes, the long faces, not a smile, not a look of pleasure. People were glum, almost cowering. You could almost visualize the leg irons. These people were bitter, frustrated, unhappy, but they needed their jobs."

George would be very pleased to know that he has bested his dear old dad once again. Even eight years after his death, he is still terrorizing his employees.

This makes it Soccer 45, Yankees 25.