Like father, like daughter.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman didn’t overreact when the team missed out on the 2023 MLB playoffs — their 82–80 record was the team’s worst since 1992 — for the first time in seven seasons.
Gracie Cashman, his 26-year-old daughter, told The Post it was an “I told you so” moment now that the Yankees are headed back to the World Series for the first time since 2009.
Game 1 against the Dodgers is set for Friday at Dodger Stadium.
“Totally,” Gracie said when asked whether she feels vindicated for Brian, who took heat when the Yankees missed the postseason. “It’s not an underdog mentality. It’s an ‘I told you so’ mentality.”
“I made a TikTok and people were commenting on it saying like, ‘The Yankees are so bad’ and ‘Have an underdog mentality.’… It’s a ‘We were right’ [mentality] … I mean, it was a really awesome learning experience,” said Gracie, who hosts “The Story of My Number” — a sports interview series that aired on the YES Network and is currently in production on its second season.
“But I think my dad stood by his people, stood by his team and said, ‘We’re doing everything right.’ These people are working hard and they’re really good at their jobs.’
“You’re going to take heat no matter what happens. But I believe in us. I believe in our team. I believe in our employees at this organization. I think that this team is built to go all the way. And here they are going all the way [to the World Series].”
Brian took a hard look at the club, including evaluating himself, after injuries, among other issues, caused their 2023 campaign to crumble.
He made a number of offseason moves, highlighted by landing four-time MLB All-Star Juan Soto in a franchise-shifting trade with the Padres in December 2023.
Brian has also shown his defiant side over the past year.
He staunchly defended the roster during an animated interview session with reporters at the GM Meetings in November, stating the team was “pretty f–king good.”
The run to the World Series has not taken the edge off.
While being interviewed by Chris “Mad Dog” Russo this week, he disputed the notion that the Yankees are in a 15-year World Series drought since the Astros “cheated” against them in the ALCS.
Brian referenced the 2017 Yankees team as the one he felt the Astros’ cheating tactics cost a potential title.
Gracie said, though, that there is a different side to the Yankees’ boss.
“He’s a goofy, silly guy,” Gracie said, smiling. “I’ve had an interesting window with my dad, specifically of his public persona … I have friends that meet him that are Yankee fans and they’re really like, ‘That’s not how I expected him to be at all. He’s very different than what I thought.’
“He’s got two kids, so he’s funny with us. He’s not as stoic. He’s not as reserved.”
This will be the fifth World Series Gracie gets to experience with her father as GM of Yankees.
Gracie was pulled out of school to celebrate with her family when the Bronx Bombers won the World Series 2009, and she joined them when the club won it all in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000.
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“When I was a kid, it felt like we were at sleep-away camp when we went to Philly [for the 2009 World Series]. I knew all the kids [and] we were all kind of the same age … We were all hanging out and going trick or treating together when we were in Philadelphia,” she said.
“This [World Series] to me feels a little more family oriented. There’s a little more going on with our dad and me and [brother] Teddy figuring out stuff like that and less like the world of the Yankees, because I’m not a baby in the Yankee organization anymore.”
Gracie said she was nearly asleep while on vacation when the Yankees beat Cleveland, 5-2, in Game 5 of the ALCS on Saturday.
A text from Teddy, a freshman at Lafayette College and an outfielder for the Leopards, alerted her of the thrilling news.
“I was excited,” she said. “I didn’t really want to have a matchup against the Mets. I thought it would be fun for New York to have a New York Subway series … but my grandma died the last time that the Mets and the Yankees matched up in the World Series. So, I have like bad juju with that matchup. And I figured that it’d be way more fun to beat the Dodgers in L.A. … a coast-to-coast World Series is pretty wild.”
Gracie said she won’t be attending Game 1 and Game 2, taking place on the West Coast, as she has prior obligations.
“I’m off work right now… but I have other commitments,” she said. “I’m an adult. I have other things going on in my life. I wish the Yankees were paying my bills, but they’re not. So I can’t I can’t just pick up and go to L.A. with them like that on short notice. And I wish I could. So, it’s kind of a bummer… But I put a contingency plan in place. So, if they play Games 6 and 7 in L.A, I can go to those.”
Gracie emphasized how much she’s evolved in her career as the host of “The Story of My Number,” which featured in-depth conversations with Yankees greats — including Aaron Boone, Don Mattingly, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, Tino Martinez and Nick Swisher — in its first season.
“Before doing the show, I felt this kind of dichotomy that I was struggling with, where in a theater setting, I felt pressure to kind of be all theater and fit this archetype of a theater kid, and especially when I did musical theater through college,” she said.
“And then in the sports world, I felt this pressure to kind of prove that I knew what I was talking about, that I had spent enough time around it to be educated. It’s a male dominated industry for sure … So there is a line to walk of being respectful and understanding, but also strong enough to say, ‘I’m educated, I know what I’m talking about … I feel much more confident in who I am as a person now after the show.”
Filming for Season 2 is underway, and Gracie said she’ll be sitting down for more in-depth interviews with stars outside the sport, including entertainers, celebrities and more.
Game 1 of the World Series is set for Friday at Dodger Stadium at 8:08 p.m. ET and will air on Fox.
The series shifts back to New York starting Monday, Oct. 28.
