"I had a lot of good teachers whether they know it or not," Hank says now. "All those dinners on the road with Clyde and Woody and Lou - I learned a lot."

"What was the most important thing you learned?" I asked him.

"The mistake of trading young pitching," he answered quickly. "It killed me seeing all those young pitchers we traded back then - (Scott) McGregor, (Jose) Rijo, (Doug) Drabek - who went on to have great careers because we just didn't have the patience. If there's one thing that's going to be different between me and my dad it's patience."

"Maybe," I said, "but it sounds like you're about to do the same thing - trading young pitchers - for (Johan) Santana."

"There's a big difference," Hank countered. "Santana's only 28 and just coming into his prime. I remember consoling Woody when my dad insisted we trade Drabek for (Rick) Rhoden. Rhoden was 32 or 33, but back then that's the way we did things.