Yesterday, Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner reminded many of his father when he complained his players were complacent last season (you know, because they lost in the AL Championship Series), "Sometimes you celebrate too much, players concentrating on building mansions and not concentrating on winning." And since captain Derek Jeter is building a 30,000 square foot home in Tampa, Steinbrenner had to be referring to him, right? Well, Jeter doesn't think so!
Jeter, the $51 million man, laughed during an interview today, "I don't think my name came out of his mouth. So it was not directed at me. Plural, I think it was. This was a plural thing." And Steinbrenner was apologetic, too, "It was a generalization, a euphemism. A bad choice of a euphemism. That's all it was.. Sometimes teams get a little complacent, they celebrate for too long. It certainly isn't Derek. Derek's got five rings. You don't win five rings by being complacent. So, it was definitely not Derek I was talking about, and it wasn't, obviously, a few other players, either. But in the end we've got to win."
Maybe Steinbrenner meant some players were spending too much time apartment-hunting.
