Guiding his team to its 27th World Series championship tells us little about the character of manager Joe Girardi.
Especially when the feat is compared to what Girardi did after the party at Yankee Stadium ended.
Police say Girardi stopped in the wee hours Thursday to help a motorist who crashed her car into a wall after losing control on the Cross Country Parkway in suburban Westchester County.
The crash happened at a particularly dangerous section of roadway, so it not only surprised police to see Girardi on the scene jumping up and down and waving his arms to flag them down, but it also worried them.
The area is notorious for its blind spots and Girardi, who parked his car along the right side of the parkway, and then ran across the traffic to get to the injured motorist, put his life at risk, police said.
"He could have gotten killed," county Sgt. Thomas McGurn said, adding that responding police units take extra precaution in that area because of the blind curve and speeding cars. "Traffic goes by at 80 mph."
The driver was stunned from the accident and otherwise unhurt, but Girardi probably didn't know that as he became a human Frogger, rushing into traffic to reach the accident scene. The motorist didn't realize who was helping until police told her afterward.
Shortly after the cops arrived, Girardi said he "had to get going." And then he darted across traffic again, got into his car, and presumably drove home.
"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help," said Westchester County police officer Kathleen Cristiano, who was among the first to arrive at the accident scene. "It was totally surreal."
And revealing about what kind of person Girardi is. Baseball fans can forever debate about Girardi's managerial decisions — and sometimes, he makes rather curious ones.
But when it comes to real life, he's going to do the right thing.
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