By Bob Klapisch
The Record (Hackensack N.J.)

TAMPA, Fla. -- Yankee fans of this generation have grown up with controversy -- most of it generated by George Steinbrenner, but the owner-gone-wild wasn't the only culprit. From Reggie to A-Rod, from Billy Martin to Joe Torre, from the old dynasty to the new one, the Bombers have always had us by the throat.

Someone's always on the hot seat (Torre in 2007) or in trouble (A-Rod in 2009).

Someone's always being run out of town (Kevin Brown in 2005, Randy Johnson in 2006) or else arriving as royalty, pocketing another hundred million of the Steinbrenners' dollars.

Naturally, that's why the Yankees are irresistible. The unrest makes it fun to root for (or to hate on) them, because, let's face it -- the Bombers are the perfect news-making machine. Depending on how you feel about them, the Yankees are either beyond the reach of mortals or else plunging headfirst toward the inferno.

For the first time in a decade, however, the Yankees are living in a surreal, almost eerie state of calm. There are no controversies waiting for Joe Girardi this spring: his team is defending a world championship, the A-Rod steroids bombshell is almost a year old, and no one's got a beef with the front office.

It took 28 minutes for someone to ask Girardi about A-Rod on Wednesday. That alone tells you how quiet this camp will be at the outset. Instead of last year's crisis management, Girardi says he's only worried about the lineup today.

"It's nice to finally talk about just baseball," the manager said with a smile. He knows it won't last, of course. Soon enough, Derek Jeter will be fielding questions about his contract extension; the same goes for Mariano Rivera. And Girardi himself is working without job security after 2010, so it's no stretch to think he's got next year on his mind, too.

But these are back-burner issues, none of which is about to seep into the clubhouse. You want to talk about issues? Think of the Cardinals trying to absorb Mark McGwire into their camp this week, or the Mets' front office, which somehow became estranged from their best player, Carlos Beltran, while he was in the hospital.

Talk about an alternate universe: no Yankee is angry at the world, no one's being investigated, no one has any significant new baggage. One member of the organization flatly said, "this is too good to be true."

If the path to the World Series isn't wide open, it's at least missing the obstacles of, say, last February. Not only was A-Rod forced to admit that he'd been juicing as a Ranger, but went on the disabled list for two months after hip surgery. CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira filed in, and who knew if the out-of-towners would flip out at the sound and fury of the first Stadium sellout?

Girardi was equally distressed, having failed to get to the playoffs in his first year as Torre's replacement. The manager was tense, rigid, unpleasant -- all understandable, considering his best player was missing and that a second year of failure by the Yankees would've cost him his job.

The Bombers had gone out on a limb for Girardi, plunking down $435 million for the Sabathia-Burnett-Teixeira stimulus package. If that didn't work, the fallout for the entire hierarchy, including Brian Cashman, would've been unquantifiable.

That angst is so obviously missing in 2010, and the stability at the top makes life easier for Girardi. He doesn't have to worry about one of the owners going off in the newspapers or getting a threatening phone call from Cashman. Instead, the manager is focusing on two, much simpler entries on his to-do list.

The first is to decide who gets the No. 5 spot in the rotation. The other is deciding who plays left field. There's no great science behind either of these choices, as the organization has privately designated Phil Hughes as a starter and Joba Chamberlain as the eighth inning setup man.

As for the Curtis Granderson-Brett Gardner audition, Girardi is already dropping hints that Granderson is better suited to be the leftfielder. Girardi tried hard not to minimize these choices, but he knows that, on the scale of one to A-Rod, his camp's controversy quotient is about zero.

For the next six weeks, Girardi's only chore will be to convince the Yankees that complacency has ruined too many champions to count, and that getting back to the World Series is so much harder today than it was in the late '90s under Torre.

Girardi is counting on his veterans, noting, "complacency is a matter of character." The manager didn't need to explain any further. With Jeter, Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte in the room, the Yankees are hardly about to turn into the '86 Mets.

For now, it's a matter of reintegrating Javier Vazquez and Nick Johnson, nurturing Rivera's arm in February and March, taking it easy on CC Sabathia, who's thrown almost 750 innings in the last three seasons.

None of that constitutes heavy lifting for a franchise that's lived on the edge for years, decades. It feels like forever.

The long and winding road has deposited the Yankees into that alternate reality. Here, sanity rules. Peace is at hand. The Bronx Zoo is closed.

At least for now.