If you had an incredibly stressful job, wouldn't you at least want to be really successful at what you did?
The answer to that question across the board is yes, but for some reason, rumors about Yankees manager Joe Girardi leaving New York at the end of the season to take the vacant Chicago Cubs managerial job will not subside.
In fact, MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds went on the Dan Patrick Radio Show recently said and declared that he is fairly certain Girardi will leave the Bronx to become the Cubs' manager, a position that will be vacant after this season after the retirement of Lou Piniella.
It's also been speculated that since the Cubs didn't internally promote Ryne Sandberg, they have their eyes on someone else for the job and will make their move this offseason. Much of that speculation points towards Girardi as their guy.
"He wanted that Cubs job before, then the Yankees came to the table," Reynolds said of Girardi. "I think if he went to the Cubs and they turned it around, won like he's capable of — shoot — he'd be a hero."
One thing about what Reynolds said is certain. If the Cubs were to win under Girardi, he would be a hero. But, there is no single bigger "if" in all of sports than one that starts with "If the Cubs win the World Series…"
There's a chance that Girardi won't have his contract extended by the Yankees after this season. That chance will become a whole lot smaller if Girardi can secure a second ring on the job this season, and even if it doesn't, you'd have to think the Yankees would still welcome Girardi back.
There's also a chance that Girardi wouldn't want to come back to New York. The reasoning behind that, one would have to assume, is to avoid some of the pressures that come with managing the New York Yankees, one of the drawbacks of such a high-profile job.
The only problem with that logic is that the Cubs job is another high-profile one and the pressure of managing a team that hasn't one a World Series since Theodore Roosevelt was president rivals the pressure of managing in New York.
It doesn't make sense for a manager to want to go from somewhere you're expected to win to somewhere you're expected to lose and Girardi would be doing just that.
Girardi has said all of the right things publicly thus far. He's made it clear that all he's focused on right now is helping the Yankees repeat as World Series champions.
If he wants to continue to be successful he'll spend this offseason focusing on ways to stay in New York instead of jumping ship and boarding the sinking ship that is the Chicago Cubs.
