Ethics Breach Surfaces

According to River Ave Blues, among the many accusations surfacing in Joe Torre's new books, one is that the Steinbrenners were informed by team medical personnel about Torre's prostate cancer before Torre himself .

There are three distinct possibilities here:

1) The above is true and results in a distinct breach of medical ethics. Even if doctor-patient confidentiality, for whatever reason I don't know, doesn't exist, there isn't really a question that an adult, conscious patient of sound mind has a right to know about his or her own medical condition before anyone else, including his or her employers.

2) The above is false and results in a little fuzzier but still pretty distinct breach of journalism ethics. It is hard to believe that either Torre or a writer as respected as Verducci would blatantly make something up, so it's possible that Verducci didn't do a very good job checking his sources, which is hard to imagine when it's Torre's book! If Torre willingly and knowingly consented to let a false allegation appear, then Torre pretty much loses whatever credibility he had. If Torre willingly consented to let the allegation appear and believed that it was true, it's a different story, but that said, Torre's not an idiot. It seems hard to believe that he could let himself think such a thing.

3) The best case scenario is that it is unfounded internet rumor. In which case, there is still an ethics breach, though Torre, the team doctors and the Steinbrenners get to keep their name.

Thing that Need to Happen at the Final Game

Things that need to happen at tomorrow's game:

1) Yogi throws out the first pitch (I believe this is actually happening--correct me if I'm mistaken)

2) Andy Pettitte pitches a scoreless first seven innings

2a) Andy picks off a runner at first
2b) Andy induces a 6-4-3 DP
2c) Jose Molina guns out a runner.


3) Joba Chamberlain strikes out the side in the eighth

4) Mo pitches a perfect ninth, end with the last batter--a strike-out of Kevin Millar--to the chants of Mar-i-a-no! Mar-i-a-no!

5) Derek Jeter hits a home run in the bottom of the eighth--the last Yankee hit at the Stadium, ever.

5a) It's caught by a 12 year-old boy leaning eversoslightly over the right-field wall.

6) George Steinbrenner, and George only, not Hank, not Hal, pulls the final lever.

7) Alex has a grand slam somewhere in there.

8) In the middle of the fifth or sixth inning, the fans start chanting Yank-ee Sta-di-um...




There are so many ways for tomorrow to be memorable.

There is only one thing that cannot happen, and I don't believe I need to tell you what that is.