Brian Cashman won the popular vote last night in what he joked beforehand was the equivalent of a Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama debate.
The Yankee GM actually was a guest lecturer, joined onstage by his Red Sox counterpart Theo Epstein, at William Patterson University in Wayne, N.J. And the mostly partisan Yankee crowd – about 1,000 fans who paid $37 apiece and packed an auditorium to hear the rivals talk baseball – was most invigorated by Cashman’s take on the possibility of pursuing Twin ace Johan Santana in a trade.
“My strong recommendation is we stick with our young pitching staff and keep it in-house,” Cashman said to rousing applause. “That’s my recommendation, and we’ve fought hard to take one step back to take two giant steps forward.”
Epstein nodded in agreement, but it’s not quite clear if the Red Sox GM was sharing Cashman’s view or just happy to hear his division rival wants to pass on acquiring Santana.
While Cashman and Epstein may be fierce management rivals, last night underscored their friendship away from the ballpark. Earlier this month Cashman appeared at a fundraiser for Epstein’s “Foundation to be Named Later” in Boston, and Epstein returned the favor with his visit here last night.
At times, the two were remarkably candid, from Cashman admitting Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu were not in shape last spring to Epstein saying he regretted the rash trade he made two years ago, when he sent promising reliever Cla Meredith to the Padres to reacquire backup catcher Doug Mirabelli, after Mirabelli’s replacement Josh Bard had a rough game handling Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball.
On Bernie Williams’ final years in pinstripes, Cashman’s assessment was the former center fielder, “Got into music, and I thought it took a lot away from his play.”
Cashman said one of the reasons Williams wasn’t back with the Yankees last year was the GM feared having to release the popular player during the season, and that wouldn’t have been a proper sendoff. Cashman indicated Williams got the proper farewell two years ago, after a having a “terrible” 2005 season.
There was good byplay between Cashman and Epstein, with the latter joking he was responsible for importing the bugs into Cleveland that distracted Joba Chamberlain during Game 2 of the AL Division Series.
During a question-and-answer session, a fan asked each GM whom he would take from the other’s team if given the chance. Cashman picked Jason Varitek, noting he’d like to take the catcher and “put him [on] another planet,” to cripple the Red Sox.
Who would Epstein pluck from the Yankees?
“I’d take the gentleman on my left,” Epstein said, motioning to Cashman, “and make him [our] scouting director.”
Cashman wasn’t afraid to put the Yankees in that underdog category, saying the Red Sox are the team to beat in the AL East.
“There’s no doubt about it, they are the [defending] World Series champs,” Cashman said. “When they take the field in spring training with relatively the same team, they’ll know what they can do, and we’re still building toward that.”
mpuma@nypost.com