True Yankee Alert!

Scott Miler of Sportsline has this to say in his blog:

What must manager Joe Torre have been thinking in the fifth inning of Saturday's game when second baseman Robinson Cano made a lazy, half-hearted throw to first base after fielding Shawn Green's grounder -- and was stunned when Green beat it out? Hint: Whatever it was Torre was thinking, we'll never know. You want to debate whether Alex Rodriguez is a True Yankee? As great as Cano has been, that's not the nonsense True Yankees ever pulled.

For a moment, Scott had me confused. Capitalizing True Yankee made me think that he was parodying the term after the mention of A-Rod... but the the last sentence convinces me otherwise.

For comparison's sake, let's look at a famous True Yankee, who played his balls off and became so good at Playing the Right Way that he even got to manage the Yankees. Conveniently, he plays the same position as Mr. Cano. Meet Billy Martin. Upon looking up his numbers, I was astounded at how below-average they are. His career OPS+ is 81, and he never had a season over 93. Robinson Cano, in only two seasons, has already managed a season at 132.

Yet if you ask any Lallis on the street, I'm sure Martin is a True Yankee and Cano is not. Apparently, becoming a True Yankee doesn't require greatness. It requires two things: 1. the ability to throw the ball hard from second to first, and 2. a Napoleonic complex.