Hank is back on the phone--NY Times, Kepner

• Sez any talks for Santana are over....

NASHVILLE, Dec. 4 — "The Yankees’ pursuit of Johan Santana is over, according to Hank Steinbrenner, the team’s senior vice president, after the Yankees and the Minnesota Twins failed to agree on a deal Tuesday.

• “The deadline is the deadline,” Steinbrenner said in a telephone interview. “I extended it a few hours more, and that was it. So it’s done.”

Steinbrenner, who had imposed a deadline of midnight Monday for a deal to be completed, sounded almost relieved that the Yankees would be keeping starter Phil Hughes and center fielder Melky Cabrera, the key players in the team’s proposal.

• Steinbrenner added that keeping up with the Red Sox was not enough of a reason to strip the Yankees’ farm system.

“Maybe Boston isn’t at that point, because they obviously worry about what we do, and I don’t blame them,” Steinbrenner said. “Of course we’re always concerned about them, but at the same time, I can’t let that affect what we do. I can’t help what Boston does and what Minnesota does.”"

• From NY Times article by Tyler Kepner, "Santana Deal Dead, Say Yankees," 12/4/07

(Maybe Hank means it. Time will tell). sm

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