THE NEW ZOO REVUE
February 17, 2007 -- TAMPA - Padres GM Kevin Towers flipped on the conference-call button so he and his new manager, Bud Black, could regale the person 3,000 miles away about how much they were looking forward to spring training.
It was the time to get out from behind the desk and see what a new team looked like. Time to stop yakking about business and get down to pitchers and catchers, bats and balls. In the conversation last week, Towers told his pal, Brian Cashman, "This is the exciting time of the year."
Cashman did not meet his friend's enthusiasm. He had been the Yankees GM too long. He knew life would be different in Tampa than in Peoria, Ariz. San Diego might have David Wells again, but the Padres do not have anywhere near as large, insatiable or inquisitive a media group nor anywhere near the stars, storylines and history.
So Cashman told Towers that soon he would be dousing one brushfire after another, responding to controversies and bruised feelings. He sarcastically told his friend to enjoy Peoria.
"He had the foresight to know what he was about to face," Towers said by phone from Arizona.
Indeed, by the end of just the Yankees' second workout yesterday, pinstriped icons had been dissed, the man who would be Boss had been nabbed on suspicion of DUI, and two-fifths of the starting rotation was in need of a Dr. Phil tough-love moment. Amazingly, a wing of "The Bronx Zoo" had re-opened and Alex Rodriguez was still 48 hours from reporting.
Cashman, as is his wont, downplayed it all. Been there, extinguished that. He claimed none of these stories was particularly big, but that the New York market magnified each and, because it was the New York market, the stories became national news.
"What plays out up north is not what is happening down south," Cashman said. "They are perceived juicier than they really are."
