Hank Offers a Retraction

Hank Steinbrenner definitely separated himself from his father with his statements to Anthony Riebber of Newsday about prior statements concerning Mike Mussina ("just needs to learn how to pitch like Jamie Moyer."). When asked if he served as motivation for Mussina's turn around, Boss Jr. not only denied it, but, in essence, apologized for his earlier comments.

"I'm not going to take credit for that," Steinbrenner said in a telephone interview Sunday morning. "He's smart enough to figure that stuff out himself. He's been playing baseball a long time."

"I don't think it was necessary for me to say anything, truthfully, at that point," he said. "He was going to figure it out himself. He's the ultimate pro veteran and a very smart guy. He made the changes he thought he had to make. He's still him, though. It's still his pitches. He's throwing them differently, different speeds. He's approaching it different, but he figured out what he had to do and he did it. He's done it."

Steinbrenner did take exception at remarks deriding him for not knowing that one pitcher was left-handed and one was right-handed.

Said Steinbrenner: "Everybody was talking about, 'Well, he didn't realize he was a righty and Moyer's a lefty.' I realized. I've been watching both of them for freaking 15-20 years. The fact is that I was talking about a style of pitching and it doesn't matter what hand you throw with."

Now if would only learn to be quiet in the first place.

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