Keep Quiet
New York,N.Y. – The New York Yankees are considering whether to ask for confidentiality clauses in future contracts with managers and coaches following Joe Torre’s book on his 12 years with the team.
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No decision has been made, a Yankees official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussion is internal.
The team thinks it has no authority to ask for any confidentiality provisions in player contracts, the official said, because they are governed by Major League Baseball’s collective-bargaining agreement.
“Our view would be that they could not add that to a player contract,” said Michael Weiner, general counsel of the players’ association.
New York’s consideration of the clauses was first reported by Newsday. It already includes some confidentiality provisions for business plans in executive contracts.
In the book, Torre is critical of Alex Rodriguez, David Wells, Randy Johnson, David Wells and Gary Sheffield.
a., Yankees captain Derek Jeter dodged questions about the book, co-written by Torre and Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci.
Jeter did speak about the Yankees’ additions of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, taking his usual low-key approach.
“Do you get rings for that? For being the champions of winter?” Jeter said. “Pretty much, if you think about it, every year we have a good team on paper. We get an opportunity to win. But you don’t win for just having good players on paper. You have to go out there and you have to perform. You have to play well at the right time.”
Former Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer, now a senior adviser with the defending AL champion Tampa Bay Rays, had a similar view.
“Naturally, the more money you got, the better you’re going to be, but you still got to play the game,” Zimmer said. “Our team will play the game, same as the Yankees. What the outcome is going to be, I don’t know. I’m not smart enough to know that.”
Zimmer, recovering from a small stroke, plans to be with the Rays when spring training begins next month. He took the Yankees’ spending in stride.
“I hope they get Manny, too,” he said, a reference to free-agent left fielder Manny Ramirez.
Notes: Rodriguez will be honored Feb. 13 by the University of Miami at a dinner on the infield of Mark Light Field in Coral Gables. Rodriguez donated $3.9 million to the school’s baseball program to refurbish the baseball complex, which is named Alex Rodriguez Park.
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Posted: 1/30/09 12:45AM ET
