Mike Lupica: The most important changes the Yankees can make start with Hal Steinbrenner himself

No one is sure what Hal Steinbrenner is actually going to do to fix the Yankees, which means fix all the things that brought them to where they are right now, which means fourth place in the American League East. But what is abundantly clear for now after the way Steinbrenner describes the organizational meetings that he recently conducted in Florida, is this:

We all need a boss like Hal, whose idea of accountability still appears to be never holding anyone very accountable, unless you throw in the hitting coach that Brian Cashman, Hal’s general manager, threw over the side last summer.

Oh, and we know this: Even when Hal is right about something, he ends up being wrong. It was Hal who once said that you shouldn’t have to spend $300 million to win in baseball. He really was right about that. Only now he is probably going to have to spend that kind of money, or something close, if his team is going to think about being on top anytime soon.

By the way? This isn’t about whether or not Hal Steinbrenner is a good person, because he clearly is a good person, one who has proven himself to be loyal, and loyal to a fault. He has never embarrassed himself or his family. And this isn’t another part of the endless chorus around here about how he’s not his father. He’s not. We get it. We do. Every time it’s pointed out again, you start to think it should be the trigger for a drinking game.

Hal’s not George. Everybody drink.

But this is a time in Hal’s ownership when he actually needs to act like a real owner, not someone who sounds as if he thinks he can solve the problems facing the Yankees going forward with his top managers airing things out in meetings before they turn around and hug it out. It means acting like a real boss. Lower case b.

What the Yankees’ owner needs to do is take a good look around at the competition right now, especially two teams in particular. One is the Phillies, who are being run by Dave Dombrowski, one of the two great front office men of the past quarter-century along with Theo Epstein. Dombrowski’s Phillies are back in baseball’s Final Four, might be on their way back to the World Series. It would be his sixth trip to the Series with four different teams. Good teams do just continue to follow Dave Dombrowski around even though the last owner he had before he ended up with the Phillies — John Henry in Boston — didn’t seem to grasp that. Henry fired Dombrowski within a year after the Red Sox not only won the 2018 World Series, they ended up winning 119 games and being called the greatest Red Sox team of them all.

Then Hal needs to look at the Astros, who are now in their seventh consecutive American League Championship Series, and might be on their way to their fourth World Series since 2017. Somehow the Astros, who are never afraid of change under owner Jim Crane, have been able to accomplish that with three different general managers starting with the Series they won in ‘17. This is in the same century when the Red Sox have won four World Series with three general managers of their own, Dombrowski being one of them.

John Henry clearly made a mistake with Dombrowski, especially since he’s once again looking around for a new general manager. But give Henry this: He has never been afraid of looking at baseball ops with the Red Sox and turning things upside down. Hal Steinbrenner never does.

And this isn’t just about Cashman, even at this time in Yankees history when Steinbrenner has looked for all the world to be working for his general manager and not the other way around. This isn’t about the way Cashman and his people in baseball ops have managed to keep all the plates spinning (at least until they started crashing last summer) while the Yankees made three trips to the league championship series themselves started in ‘17.

No. This is about Steinbrenner asking himself why, even with one winning season after another, he’s spent $4 billion on players since the last time the Yankees were in the Series. This is about him asking why it’s so rare that the Yankees acquire somebody and watch them get better; asking why jumping at Giancarlo Stanton somehow made better baseball sense than waiting for Bryce Harper, who was practically begging to put on pinstripes; asking about how someone like Aaron Hicks became the darling of the analytics department.

And maybe, before they hug things out again, Hal might ask whatever happened to those six outfielders that his general manager talked about four years ago as a reason for not going after Harper. All those who say that an 82-80 season is not an embarrassment are right about that. But if Steinbrenner can’t see that the Yankees have lost their way and that this is the time to start making things right before the Yankees have gone 20 years without making the Series, then he isn’t the right caretaker for this particular public trust. In the end this really isn’t about firing people as much as showing some actual fire himself

Here, incidentally, is just some of what Hal Steinbrenner said this past week at Sportico’s “Invest in Sports” conference:

“There wasn’t one stone we left unturned, from health of the team to what we’re doing in the clubhouse, to clubhouse culture, to what we do in the weight room to analytics to pro scouting (and) biomechanics. Is there enough communication between everybody? So, it was a great three days. It was a very honest conversation. Many more to come in the months to come, but we’re going to be making some changes. Some may be more subtle than others. I think we’ve uncovered certain things we can do better.”

“It could be practices. It could be the way people communicate when we bring a young minor leaguer up to the major league level, are the major league coaches talking enough to player development and vice versa. Are the major league coaches really getting into reading a lot of research, because we do notes as these kids go from one level to the next, what’s being worked on, what the weaknesses are, what their strengths are.”

He even talked about a better dining area for the players in the clubhouse and a sleep room. Certainly, those were just sidebars. The headline from the time he made these statements was that change was coming to the Yankees. The owner of the team just didn’t know when. He said it could involve personnel. Or not. Beautiful, as Mr. Breslin used to say in this paper.

You know where the most important change needs to start? With him. He’s not running a focus group here. He’s running the New York Yankees.

SOME BIG LEAGUE HYPOCRISY, DON’T BLAME THE PLAYOFF FORMAT & BELICHICK-KRAFT HEADING FOR A DIVORCE …

Let’s see if I have this straight:

The Braves and their fans got good and offended this past June when Pete Alonso, standing in his own dugout, said “Throw it again” after he’d tagged Bryce Elder for a home run, and that comment got picked up on a hot mic.

But now it’s supposed to be some sort of baseball felony that the Braves’ Orlando Arcia shouted “Ha-ha, attaboy Harper” in the Braves clubhouse after the Braves had doubled up Harper to end Game 2 of the Braves-Phillies division series, and it got reported.

You can’t have it both ways.

And for the record?

Baseball clubhouses are locker rooms, not church.

It wasn’t the format that sunk all those first-place teams in this postseason, it was lousy pitching, particularly from the Dodgers and the Orioles.

I frankly think the Dodgers never recovered from Clayton Kershaw giving up all those runs in the top of the first of Game 1 against the Diamondbacks, even if it was only Game 1.

Sometimes the knockout punch really can come in Game 1.

It happened with Kirk Gibson’s home run in the ’88 World Series.

And it happened in Game 1 of the ’90 World Series, Sweet Lou Piniella’s underdog Reds against the heavily favored A’s, when Eric Davis tagged the A’s ace, Dave Stewart, for a dead-center, 2-run homer.

I keep waiting to hear that Rick Pitino has poached a couple of Knicks for St. John’s.

It really is stunning what’s happened to the Giants in just five games, three of which have come and gone without them scoring an offensive touchdown.

And please step forward, give your name, and explain why you think the sides looked remotely even last Sunday in Giants vs. Dolphins?

What is even more stunning is what has happened to the New England Patriots since Touchdown Tom Brady left town.

First it was Belichick and Brady who ended up in divorce court.

Next, it’s going to be Belichick and Robert Kraft.

When you look at when the Phillies really started to turn things around this season, look at what happened with them once they ran that kid, Johan Rojas, out to center field.

Because ask yourself how Game 4 would have turned out if he hadn’t made that running catch on Ronald Acuna Jr. with the bases loaded.

Incidentally?

How could you not love Rob Thomson, baseball man, flipping his bullpen in Game 4, using his late-inning guys early and then bringing in the set-up after that.

The analytics people — the ones who hover above the action like drones — probably went into a dead faint.

Look out for Nick Saban’s team if they get into November with a chance.

Does Rob Manfred get any credit for the way baseball’s product improved on the field this season?

Somebody explain to Dr. Aaron Rodgers that the only way you team up with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on anything is if you lost a bet.