Joe Girardi Made A Tough Call the Right Way

I'll admit I'm a little disappointed that Joe Girardi decided to re-sign with the Yankees. As a Cubs fan, I had high hopes that he might go to Chicago. I even wrote a post last week outlining, in a baseball-only sense, the reasons that he should consider leaving. Whether he made the right call will only become evident over time. But as his press conference showed, he went about making this decision the right way. From ESPN:

"After talking with my family, we decided that this was where we wanted to come back," Girardi said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. "It's a special place to manage because of the opportunity that you have every year and the tools that they give you. The history of this organization is unbelievable. There are special things that happen here every year."

But in the end, it came down to the values Girardi said he has always held most dear: His family, and his love of competition.

"We talked [about] the possibility about a lot of things basically that I could possibly do if I decided not to manage," Girardi said. "We brought up everything, and we did it as a group. My kids love coming to the ballpark. Sometimes you feel like you're missing things that they're doing, but they love the tradeoff, and that allows me to do what I love to do, and that's to manage."

The fact that he discussed the decision with his family first says a lot about where his priorities lie. Many men would consider a job change without even considering the effect that such a decision will have on his family.

It's hard to predict how the next few years will go for Girardi and the Yankees. But this much is certain: Girardi has his priorities in order. That means considering what's best for this family even if that mean giving up a better job opportunity.