updated 7:59 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2008

TAMPA, Fla. - Hank Steinbrenner sat behind his desk and looked out at empty Legends Field, where all was quiet and calm.

Over and over again, he emphasized his philosophy — the New York Yankees’ new doctrine — of tolerance, of deliberation, of long-term planning. That, however, only goes so far.

He is, after all, a Steinbrenner.

“I will be patient with the young pitchers and players. There’s no question about that because I know how these players develop,” he said. “But as far as missing the playoffs — if we miss the playoffs by the end of this year, I don’t know how patient I’ll be. But it won’t be against the players. It won’t be a matter of that. It will be a matter of maybe certain people in the organization could have done something else.”

Spring training was three weeks away, and the first warning had been issued.

Meet the new boss. Not exactly the same as the old boss, but still a lot alike.

Since October’s first-round loss to Cleveland, George Steinbrenner has stepped aside and turned management of baseball’s most-storied team over to his two sons — 50-year-old Hank and 39-year-old Hal.

George Steinbrenner, now 77, does show up at the office most days, hungry for World Series title No. 27. His health appeared to deteriorate after he collapsed in December 2003 during a memorial service for football great Otto Graham in Sarasota, Fla., and again in October 2006 while watching his granddaughter perform in a play at Chapel Hill, N.C.

He hardly spoke in public the last two seasons, preferring to issue grandiose statements through his spokesman.

“I got to spend a lot more time with him than the other kids. It’s been tough for all of us, though,” Hank Steinbrenner said. “As a father he was great, as a boss he was ...”

He paused and started to chuckle.

“Everybody knows how he was as a boss.”

The standard for hyperactive, hyperventilating, hyper just about everything. No detail was too small to get involved in. No word was left unsaid.

Fire this guy! Trade that guy! Blast this one in the tabloids!

Steinbrenner grew up watching the show. He even traveled with the team for parts of the 1985 and 1986 seasons, learning under Lou Piniella, Woody Woodward and Clyde King, before getting out of baseball and concentrating on Kinsman Farm, the Steinbrenner thoroughbred stable in Ocala.

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His dad repeatedly tried to lure him back to the Yankees, saying it was time to “let the young elephants into the tent.”

Steinbrenner, like most people, didn’t believe it.

“He just couldn’t do it,” he said. “It didn’t matter to me. I was doing other stuff at the time. This is something that was just a necessity now.

“We’re keepers of the flame, I guess,” he concluded.

Steinbrenner has a spacious office on the third-base side of Legends Field, an autographed 1978 World Series ball next to a family photo on his desk, a poster of Babe Ruth on one wall and an Alex Rodriguez commemorative 500th home run bat mounted behind him. A miniature drag racer — he drives — is on the front of the desk, and a Fender Stratocaster guitar is on the floor near the door. He can walk out to a terrace every once in a while to catch a smoke.

Wearing a light blue polo shirt and navy blazer — not his father’s ever-present white turtleneck — Steinbrenner spoke for two hours Thursday about his plans and goals for a team that figures to be different this year with Joe Girardi replacing Joe Torre as manager after seven seasons without a World Series title.

Steinbrenner has become more the voice of the Yankees than Bob Sheppard, speaking out on possible trades and signings, ruminating each week on the status of talks to acquire Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins.

“I don’t particularly necessarily enjoy it. It was kind of thrust upon me. At some point, if you’re going to be a leader, you’ve got to step up and you can’t hide in the office,” he said. “Unless it can directly affect negotiations, the fans do deserve to know what’s going on. There’s no problem with that. Whether other people have a problem with that, I really don’t give a damn. They don’t buy the tickets, all right?”

Brian Cashman, the general manager since late 1997, prefers not to comment on moves until they are finalized. Steinbrenner realizes that.

“There’s a famous line from the movie ’Patton’ where Patton has gotten himself in trouble again by saying something to the press. And he told his aide, his captain, ’The next time I start to do something like that stop me,”’ Steinbrenner said. “Then the guy says, ’Well, I’ll give you a gentle nudge.’ And he says, ’No, you give me a swift kick in the ass.’ So I told Brian that one time.”

Sure sounds like his father there.

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