Still, his value was overlooked. In 2000, as Mussina was going 11-15 for a listless and low-scoring Orioles team, owner Peter Angelos dithered about re-signing him until the self-declared small-town boy agreed to listen to an offer from the Yankees, becoming one of the few players ever to look to George Steinbrenner as a more congenial boss. Arriving in the Bronx, Mussina defied the Yankees' sense of being special by being the same pitcher he'd been before, steadily racking up wins, adjusting to his own aging arm and the even more sharply aging defense behind him. "Certain skills start going away," he told the reporters, talking about himself, "you have to find other ways to do your job and be good at it."