Steve Nesius / AP

New York Yankees general partner Hank Steinbrenner, 50, has taken over running the team with his brother Hal.

On Cashman’s recommendation, the team hired Girardi over fan favorite Don Mattingly, captain of those 1980s teams that always fell short.

Girardi’s Yankees will be different than Torre’s. Steinbrenner specifically mentions he will be excellent with his handling of young pitchers such as Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy.

“I think he’s got a little bit of fire to him,” Steinbrenner said. “Hopefully a good cross between Billy Martin and Joe Torre, like right in the middle there somewhere.”

It’s clear Steinbrenner is a great admirer of Martin, the manager his father hired and got rid of five times from 1975-88. He wishes he would have had more time to speak with Martin, who died in a Christmas car crash in 1989.

He was impressed with Martin’s knowledge of rules and strategy, and with his love of the pinstripes, calling him “the Bobby Knight of baseball.”

“Billy, he could have had an ’NY’ branded on his forehead and he wouldn’t have minded. There was nobody that loved the Yankees more than Billy did or as much.”

He’s also a great admirer of A-Rod, saying he will be a leader of the Yankees in the next few years along with team captain Derek Jeter.

Still, if he had one player to send to the plate with the season on the line, it wouldn’t be Jeter. It wouldn’t be A-Rod. It wouldn’t even be Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson.

Steinbrenner would send up Mattingly.

“I’m no super scout or super expert, but he’s the greatest clutch hitter I’ve ever seen since we’ve owned the team, anywhere in baseball,” Steinbrenner said. “Reggie was more just strictly home runs, though. A lot of strikeouts as well. I’m not so sure seventh game of the World Series, bottom of the ninth, if I wouldn’t want Mattingly up there ahead of anybody else. The only other two would be Reggie and Brett, George Brett. But as far as getting any kind of hit necessary, Mattingly would be your guy.”

Steinbrenner plans to be in New York a lot during the regular season. He’ll stay at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, just like his father. He’ll use his dad’s office at Yankee Stadium.

And George Steinbrenner remains involved. Hank Steinbrenner said the job of consigliere suits him well.

“He’s here every day usually. He’ll take his time coming in, but he’s here every day. He’ll read his mail. He’ll read the clippings. Then I’ll go in, and we’ll talk quite a bit about certain things,” Hank said. “I don’t want to get into what. Obviously, Santana is one.”

He’s uncertain how far to go for Santana. But he’s content to head into the 2008 season going with the kids. Chamberlain might start the season as a setup man before moving into the rotation, but that’s up to Girardi.

“There’s no pressure from me. I don’t care if Chamberlain or Hughes or Kennedy have four bad starts in a row,” Steinbrenner said. “A lot of the fans seem to want to keep all our young pitchers, and that’s great. I think that’s fantastic. But they’ve got to remember that later on if these guys go through growing pains, don’t turn against them all of a sudden.”

Wait though. Even with that, there is the bottom line.

“You’ve got to win,” he said. “Otherwise, there’s no reason being in it.”

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