I’m back from the UConn Baseball Banquet and had a wonderful time with Randy Sabia and his crew. We had great seats, as you can see from this picture of Ben Cherington (my phone does not have a great camera).

Walt Dropo and Charles Nagy were both honored with distinguished alumni awards. Dropo’s family accepted on his behalf, and Nagy flew in from California with his family. You could tell Nagy was very moved by the recognition.
Brian Cashman and Ben Cherington each made a short speech, Brian on the state of the Yankees, Ben more on playing college ball. Cherington refered to Theo as “The Gorilla” during his comments. He also said that the Red Sox front office has a lot of respect for the Yankees front office and that the competition between the two “makes us better.”
The two then sat together on stage and took questions from the audience. I was impressed by the intelligence of both men. Cashman was very forthcoming in answering all questions, whether it was about working with Steinbrenner or how the lack of a farm system limited their moves this off season.
The two were asked about big versus small markets. Cashman pointed out that have resources allows a team to have many more choices in putting a team together, but it also gives you more chances to make a mistake. Cherington added that it’s nice working for a team with resources, but sometimes he thinks working in the cocoon of a small market would have benefits also.
Cashman was asked about how he manages to work with Steinbrenner, and he gave what I thought was a very interesting answer. The people who came before him all had resumes. Each one came into the job with the idea that things would be different for them. Cashman never worked for another organization. He has not point of comparison with Steinbrenner, so he didn’t have expectations that things would be different.
He told a story about Woody Woodward. Steinbrenner forced Woody to trade Joe Niekro to the Twins, and the next week Niekro shut out the Yankees for seven innings. Cashman was sitting with Woodward, listening to Steinbrenner say that Woody had to take responsibility for the deal. Cashman said he thought to himself, “I never want to be GM of the Yankees.”
Cashman praised the Red Sox management team for the job they did rebuilding the farm system. Cashman couldn’t go the trade route to fix the Yankees because he doesn’t have the depth of talent in the minors the Red Sox do. He went with free agency because that was the one avenue open to him. He wants to get the Yankees to the point where they are continually producing young talent.
Cherington was asked why the Red Sox didn’t re-sign Pedro Martinez last season. I loved his answer. The organization never wants to fall in love with a group of players. He pointed out that the Red Sox made Pedro a good offer, but due to circumstances the Met valued Pedro more than Boston. Management is looking four or five years down the road when they decide how much to offer a free agent.
All in all, an enjoyable evening. Good food, good friends, good conversation and good information.