TAMPA, Fla. - It doesn't quite live up to the paparazzi nirvana that is Bald Self-Destructing Britney, but the public breakup this week between Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter is pretty juicy stuff, even by Yankees soap-opera standards.
Who wasn't riveted by A-Rod's plaintive (though typically misguided) revelation that the two "blood brothers" have stopped having slumber parties, and Jeter's somewhat catty reaction that foretold an even deeper freeze ahead?
But really, it's just variations on a Bronx theme. While the names and details change, frantic upheavals are a staple of Yankees camp. Nothing to see here. Move on.
Oh, something is going on with the Yankees, all right. Something big, potentially even profound.
An era is grinding to a close. The Yankees' way of doing business is in flux.
For more than a decade, what a glorious ride it has been - four World Series titles in Joe Torre's first five years, and a core of players that have earned their place in the Yankees' pantheon: Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada.
But the signs of change are everywhere. Partly, it's the cycle of baseball. Players grow old, and they're replaced. It happened with cornerstones of the early dynasty, like Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez and Andy Pettitte (back in pinstripes after three years in Houston), and now it's happening with Williams, who refuses to come to camp as a non-roster player. Posada and Rivera, entering the final year of their contracts, could be next out the door.
As Torre said, while discussing the likelihood that Williams' Yankees career is over, "I remember when Sandy Koufax retired after winning 27 games. Guys like that walk away, the game still goes on."
Furthermore, no one would be surprised if the needy A-Rod exercised his out clause after the season and sought his happiness elsewhere, yet again.
Owners grow old, too. George Steinbrenner, at 77, is a shell of his bombastic self, by all accounts increasingly slowed by age.
Newspaper accounts of Steinbrenner's appearance here at Legends Field on the first day of camp used phrases like "limping gait," "ashen face," "mumbled," "slurred words," and "lurched" to describe him.
He is still the boss, perhaps, but no longer The Boss in all the raging glory that moniker implied. Increasingly, Steinbrenner's son-in-law, Steve Swindal, is handling the daily business operations of the club (when he's not getting busted for DWI, yet another eruption of this spring). The implications of a Yankees team without Steinbrenner's win-at-all-costs imprint could be profound.
Then there's the beloved Torre, who is 66 years old and in the final year of his contract, too. Though Torre has left open the possibility of continuing past this year, most Yankees insiders wouldn't be surprised to see the reins handed next year to bench coach Don Mattingly.
And if the Yankees don't get to the World Series, it probably won't be Torre's choice. Remember, he just barely survived The Boss' wrath last October, when the Yankees were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Detroit. By all accounts, general manager Brian Cashman had to plead for Torre's job. Even in his dotage, Steinbrenner isn't likely to be so charitable if it happens again.
That marked the Yankees' sixth consecutive year of non-championship, a full-blown crisis in these parts. Starting with their epic four-game collapse to Boston in 2004, the Yankees are 3-10 in the playoffs. Since Arizona came from behind in the ninth inning off Rivera to beat them in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, the Yankees have been ousted in the first round three times.
Cashman has set about building a new Yankees core by nurturing the next generation of young players, such as Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, 19-game winner Chien-Ming Wang and 20-year-old pitching phenom Philip Hughes, consistently ranked as one of the top three young arms in the minor leagues.
In a startling transformation this winter, Cashman largely stayed away from the enticing free-agent targets that the Yankees used to jump after - Daisuke Matsuzaka, Barry Zito, J.D. Drew, et al. He traded established players like Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield and Jaret Wright for minor-leaguers, intent on stocking up on young pitching and trimming payroll.
If he has done it right - and don't underestimate the acumen of Cashman - then the Yankees have built the foundation for another long run. If they've done it wrong, they will be forced to do damage control in their time-honored manner - by becoming the Bronx Mercenaries to an even greater extent.
"As of a couple of years ago, we started adding young players to our mix," Torre said. "That hasn't really been a part of what we've done here. Now the players that are helping us are coming not only through the free-agent market, they're coming through the organization, which is something we haven't done in a while."
Make no mistake, the 2007 Yankees still are a formidable team, and still a hugely expensive ($200 million) team of superstars - as always, the team to beat.
It will be fascinating to see if Torre can coax one more title out of the old gang before the next wave of change arrives.
"Unfortunately, things can't last forever," center fielder Johnny Damon said. "But it did last for a long time."
