Via Newsday -

On April 20, Hank Steinbrenner was quoted as saying Mike Mussina “just needs to learn how to pitch like Jamie Moyer.”

So, Hank, what do you think of Mussina’s turnaround? Do we score one for the Baby Boss’ motivational skills?

“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.”

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.”

I’m surprised that Newsday got through to Hank. I figured that, after the injury to Wang yesterday, David Wells could be calling Hank every other five minutes to remind him that he’d love to return to New York. Then again, sure, there’s always call waiting…