The New York Yankees Baseball Club has a long tradition of winning that spans nine decades. There have been some tough times over the years, from Lou Gehrig’s early retirement to the 1955 World Series to the CBS ownership years to Derek Jeter dislocating his shoulder on Opening Day 2003. Through it all, the Yankees have defined what it means to win through a combination of patience, determination, and perserverence.

The difference between clubs that win and ones that don’t is the way they respond to the unexpected. In 2003, we lost the heart and soul of our team, Derek Jeter, for two months due to injury. We still made it to the World Series. Last year, injuries to Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano could have crippled us. Lesser teams would have rolled over and watched the Red Sox romp to the pennant. Instead, we brought in Shawn Chacon, Aaron Small, and Chien-Ming Wang and won our division for the ninth straight year. Winning clubs know how to deal with unexpected hardships. New players enter the mix, become infected with the winning air that we are all blessed to breathe in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse every day, and the team keeps on winning. Everybody steps up their game in response to the tough times. Meanwhile, look at the Chicago Cubs. They were contenders in April, then Derrek Lee broke his arm and now they’re challenging the Pirates for last place in their division. The Cubs don’t know how to win — they’ve been proving it since 1908. We know how to compensate for injured players and keep racking up the wins. The Cubs don’t. That’s why we win every year, and they haven’t won a World Series since the last century.

This year, we’ve had to deal with injuries to Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Bubba Crosby, among many others. Many teams would give up, but the Yankees never give up. Injuries are a way of life, we look at them as a challenge that needs overcoming. It’s no different than overcoming a 9-0 deficit against the Texas Rangers. We’ve won with Sheffield and Matsui and we can win without them. No matter who we have, we can find a way to keep on winning.

The next piece of the winning puzzle is Scott Erickson. He’s won games for every team he’s pitched for, in both leagues, for more than fifteen years. He’s won 142 games over the course of his career, which makes him the third winningest pitcher on our team behind Mussina and Johnson. And unlike Mussina, he’s a former 20 game winner. When you have the chance to bring in someone who becomes the third-most successful pitcher on your club before he’s thrown a single pitch, you have to jump at the opportunity. Still, I wanted a second opinion so I IM’ed Paul DePodesta to see if he still rated Erickson as high as he once did. Unfortunately, he didn’t answer my question directly, but he did offer some fascinating insights into the complexity of the adiabatic Orton-Peters-Shuter economic predictive theories he’s working on these days. We also reminisced about those classic Nagy vs Erickson pitching matchups of yesteryear. After thirty minutes, I strongly felt that we were on the same page with the Scott Erickson issue.

Some fans have complained that Erickson’s skills have eroded and that he’s not the pitcher he once was. As the General Manager of the Yankees, I care about what our fans think, even if they are wrong. A lot of people said the same kinds of things about Bernie Williams last year and during the offseason. We brought him back in 2006, he’s been playing almost every day, and the team has been winning with him in the lineup. Knowing how to win is like knowing how to ride a bike. You never forget how, and Bernie Williams has one of the best memories on our team. Winning is also contagious. It’s no accident that younger guys like Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano have stepped onto the field in Yankee Stadium and become so good so quickly. Nobody is claiming that they’re not great players, but they still had to be taught how to win by the Derek Jeters and Bernie Williamses. Erickson’s fifteen year record of winning on five different ballclubs is the type of expertise that our club needs, and we’re confident that he can give the rub to the less experienced guys on our staff who haven’t taken part in the winning traditions that Erickson has. It’s going to be a fun summer in the Bronx!

Brian Cashman is the General Manager of the New York Yankees Baseball Club.