Torre Tell-All Trashes Yanks

According to this article, a tell-all book, ghost-written by Tom Verducci, has Joe Torre revealing a bitter rift with the New York Yankees.

It would have been foolish, of course, to suggest that Torre's entire 1996-2007 tenure with the New York Yankees was without fault on either side, but such a work can only harm Torre's relationship with the team that employed him for twelve years.

My brother linked me to the story, and his opinion on the situation isn't that much different than my own:

...My biggest gripe about it is that it isn't only a rip on the players, but consequently it's a rip on the fans saying like "lol you follow a scummy team." Keep some of that shit in the clubhouse Joe, you just lost a lot of my respect...and the respect from most New Yorkers who think you are a class act guy. It obviously sounds astounding to have a grudge against someone who helped brought your favorite team ... four World Series...but there was no reason to trash a former team.

A Yankees fan would have to be an idiot not to be grateful for Torre for the four World Series, but at the same time, my brother has a point--a slight on the team like this is also a slight on the fans.

Perhaps more importantly, and more unfortunately, it's a bit harder to go around calling Torre a class act right now.

I don't know about you, but for all of Jeter's faults (ie, his lack of range and tendency to GIDP), I can't see the Captain ever doing something like this...

A Preview A Day Keeps the Winter Away, #10

For the month of March I will be doing a season preview, with a new team each day, going in alphabetical order by team so I can save the Yankees for last, because I am, in fact, that devious.

As this is a Yankees' blog, the previews for AL East teams will be more detailed than those of AL Central and AL West teams, and any AL team previews will be more detailed than NL team previews, save maybe for the Mets. Each preview will involve consideration of how much 'threat' a team is to the Yankees, for fairly obvious reasons.

Up today: The LA Dodgers

I won't lie: the fortunes of the Dodgers this year will be on the mind of many Yankees fans, and for one reason: Joe Torre.

Yankees fans are, of course, lucky that the managing job Torre got was in LA, meaning that the Dodgers' fortunes are unlikely to impact our own, and thus, Torre fans need not feel bad rooting for him, and Torre haters may not feel bad rooting against him.

Anyway, as for the Dodgers themselves...last year, there was a large issue with the veterans and the youngsters being, shall we say, not the best of friends. They've got a great starter in Brad Penny, and some solid bullpen arms (well, at least until Torre has his way with them), but their line up has some serious question marks--they were the team that bit on Andruw Jones after an awful year with Atlanta last year, as well as with Jeff Kent and Rafael Furcal.

Threat to the Yankees: Green, Proceed Normally

If the Dodgers can figure out a way to work out all the kinks, they might have a chance at a Wild Card spot, but given the other competition, especially in their own division from Arizona, Colorado and San Diego, it's not likely.

The biggest threat the Yankees will have is when Torre comes to town to play the Mets, and steals a back page or two.

Just Some Notes

The charity auction I mentioned here is beginning to wrap up, so if you want to put some bids in, you might want to think about doing it soon, here.


Over the past week or so I've added a few blogs onto the side-bar; all of them, including the non-Yankee ones, are worth a look.


My cousin is a big Dodgers fan, so I felt obligated to send him an email telling him to hide the Dodger's bullpen at all costs. Especially Scott Proctor.


I've been spending most of tonight working on The Season; it's been so much fun to write so far, and hopefully it will continue. The best part today, however, wasn't the writing, but rather when I realized that certain things I have planned plot-wise actually fit together very, very well. I won't get into any more detail than that, but suffice it to say I am extremely excited about this!

I love the weekend.

The Sun Also Rises

(Thank you, Mr. Hemingway)

The darkest hour is just before dawn.

I’m not always one for overdone clichés, but this one seems to hold a particular resonance with me right now.

When you consider that on Sunday night Yankee fans were hit with the double whammy of archival Boston winning the World Series AND Alex Rodriguez not only opting out of his contract, but insulting the team by refusing to meet with them as well, it’s quite amazing that today seems, all and all, to be such a good day.

Joe Girardi was named manager; while all three managerial candidates were good, most people I’ve talked to (including Brent over at The Bronx Block and Andrea at Joblog Chamberlain ) agreed that Girardi was the best choice. He’s got a very different style than Joe Torre, did wonders for the Marlins in 2006, winning Manager of the Year, and has both played and media-ed for the Yankees.

While Mattingly will not remain with the Yankees, which was the proper option (and if you listen to Mattingly’s press conference, the guy is NOTHING but class), Tony Peña will, and by many accounts, including Pete Abraham, Peña is a class guy that is very close with the kids, and, well, if you saw the picture from the interview, Peña’s got some great fashion sense as well!

Joe Torre landed a gig with the Dodgers, which is great for two reasons: 1) Torre was a Dodger fan growing up, and 2) as an NL West team, the Yankees are unlikely to be concerned with them, except in the event of the World Series. Torre fans can still root for Torre and not feel bad about it.

Oh, and case you didn’t know, it’s been mentioned that Paul O’Neill, a guy whose name is more or less synonymous with drive and winning, could come back as a coach.

Yes, the Yankees need a third baseman, an entirely new bullpen (save Mo), and there are questions about right field (though Abreu’s option is likely to be picked up), 1st base and starting pitching, but one can’t help feeling that we’ve left the era of 2004-2007 (excepting June-September 07) when the Yankees were more a collection of stars than an actual team.

Because A-Rod opted out when he did, and the Yankees, once Torre announced he wasn’t coming back, did not take forever to name a new manager, the Yankees will likely be able to negotiate with Mo, Posada and Pettitte all that much sooner. In fact, Mo was in Tampa today (yesterday?), with his agent. Obviously there’s no reason to rush to a conclusion, but it’s a distinct possibility that whatever Mo wants, he’ll get (unless it’s 10 years and $250 million, of course). Same for Posada.

Are the Yankees a lock for the playoffs in ’08? Of course not, but ask yourself if the Yankees were a lock for the playoffs in ’07 anytime before they went 19-9 in July, and Seattle had the adolescent teenager of all collapses (the mother belongs to the ’04 Yanks and the father the ’07 Mets). Ask yourself if the Yanks were a lock for the playoffs in ’07 in April and May, as even while A-Rod was the Yankees, the team was only 21-29.

2008 is a year where the Yankees have the All-Star Game and that is also the last year of the old Yankee Stadium, a year where we’ve got three pitchers under 24, a year where Derek Jeter can not just be the captain in name.

Is it likely that 2008 will pass without at least some sort of memorable, classic, history-making moment?

Didn’t think so.


Every journey, even one to twenty-seven World Championships, starts somewhere. Sunday, yesterday and today we took the first steps.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, or Lack Thereof

Be warned. Eternal optimist is angry.

Now that I’ve had time to think about it…

What is there to say?

Part of me wants to play the perennial optimist. Part of me wants to collect a book of everyone’s favorite Torre moments, put ‘em in a binder and mail ‘em to wherever it is that Joe lives.

Part of me wants to walk right on up to Randy Levine and shake him silly. Part of me wants to yell in his face that Joe Torre was the best thing that ever happened to his Yankees, and that he will never, ever, ever have as much class as Joe. Not after the front office pulled that stunt.

It’s not an issue of whether or not Joe should have been brought back, but the issue in which the entire thing was handled, trying to make the Brass look good and Torre a lame duck.

Torre’s a stronger person than that, a classier person than that and a better person than that.

Look, I know that bad front offices are part and parcel, but there’s no reason to be silent. I know New York is New York and if you can’t handle the media you need to get out, but this isn’t about handling the media.

It is, quite simply, about treating people with the respect they deserve.

Could you imagine Atlanta doing this to Bobby Cox? Could you imagine the Patriots doing this to Bill Belichick? Could you imagine the Spurs or the Red Wings doing this to their coaches?

New York coaches might always seem to get the short end of the stick, but, and I’m thinking of Coughlin and Thomas right now, when you consider the recent on-field records and off-field shenanigans of the two, I can’t say it’s not deserved.

You can’t say the same about Torre. He was as much a father to the Yankees as it’s possible to be. No matter what happened in April or May, the team was there, playing in October. Forget about winning or losing for a second, and think about this: no team other than the Detroit Red Wings and the New York Yankees has an active playoff streak of longer than ten seasons.

That includes the Spurs, the Devils, the Patriots…

Yes, Yankee fans are used to winning, but perhaps more importantly, they’re used to rooting for a team that’s always been considered an example of class.

If this is how the Front Office treats a guy that will soon get a plaque in Monument Park, I’m not sure I want to see how they treat Don Mattingly (the odds-on favorite, right now, to take the job) if the team starts 21-29 again.

I love Mo. I love Posada. I love Andy. I would sell body parts, corporeal and otherwise, to keep them on the Yankees….but if, after this, any or all of them decide to walk, I can’t say I’d blame them.

Most of us have put up with Steinbrenner for a long time, and, well, with thirteen straight postseasons, he’s obviously done something right…but Hank and Hal are not King George.


Right now, though, Yankees fans need to do something.

Yankee fans—oy, I’m talking to you, blogger!—need to make it clear that we won’t stand for this.

You want to talk about groundswell, internet, mass communication, whatever, now is the perfect time to put it to use.

The greatest American sports franchise needs to know that the outrage isn’t because Torre isn’t coming back, but because cowardice, hiding behind a contract veil so thin that even the blind can see through it, is not something that will win you any medals.

Or Rings.

Plot Twists Are Like Second Nature to the Yanks...

(Source is ESPN2 and Pete Abraham)

In a move that, uh, certainly surprised me, Joe Torre has turned down a one year $5 million offer with an $8 million option.

OK.

Joe: I wish you would have been back, but if you're gonna go out it's best to do it on your own terms. Thank you for twelve amazing years, and best of luck in whatever you choose next.

However, dude, Yankees, incredible-no-freakin'-way plot twists are best left to telenovelas and Star Wars: Episode V.

Seriously. I mean, I was texting G-d knows how many people that Torre was back, and now I got to go through all of these and say "Oh. Nevermind."

You know something is up when the biggest story of the night is not college football or even the potential clinching game of the ALCS...

An Open Letter to Joe Torre

This is long, rambly, and, well, I probably really shouldn't be that attached to the Yankees, but I had to do it.

I know, in all likelihood Joe Torre will never see it, but if there's any chance at all, (psst: pass it on?!) here goes:

Dear Mr. Torre—

This is going to sound a bit odd, but right now, if I could, I’d run up and hug you.

I know, I know, it’s odd, slightly inappropriate and liable to get me arrested, but it’s the truth.

See, I am too young to have known any other Yankees’ manager.

I’ve watched coaches for the Devils, Nets and Jets come and go, year in and year out, and half the time I’m not even sure who’s behind the bench, but for the past twelve years I’ve known that if I peer into a Yankee dugout, you’d be there.

I don’t even really know what to say. I’m sitting a few hundred miles away from Yankee Stadium in Syracuse, New York, where the air hangs heavy like a funeral shroud, and there are tears on my face.

My parents told me time and again that I shouldn’t get so attached to the Yankees, but I was never really any good at following instructions.

I’ve watched, wished, hoped, dreamed, cried, shouted, cursed, threatened violence, gotten violent, cheered and seen the improbable and the impossible.

The games I remember best are ones like the Aaron Boone game and Bernie’s catch of Piazza’s long fly ball to beat the Mets and Jeter’s flip to Posada to nab Giambi…but also ones that you may have forgotten:

I remember being down 6-1 to Toronto in the eighth in a pretty meaningless game, and listening to John Sterling call it as Bernie and Posada each went yard, with Grand Slams.

I remember coming back from a 9-0 deficit and winning the game against Texas…don’t even remember what year, just that we did it.

I remember beating Texas in a 21-6 game, and thinking I’d never see anything like that again (I was wrong).

I remember seeing Alfonso Soriano’s first major league at bat and thinking he was a guy that was going to be around for a while.

I remember back in the days when I still had to be in bed by ten, listening to the end of Yankee games on the clock radio I had in my bedroom, as John Sterling magically called “Yankees win! Theeeee Yankees win!”, soothing me to sleep.

I remember that the morning after I’d have to get my brother up for school and I’d try to come up with as creative a way as possible to tell him how the Yankees won or lost a game…I remember telling him once that the ‘fire put out the rain’, a reference to Bernie hitting a game winning HR in extra innings, as rain was coming down in buckets.

I remember watching game one of the 1998 World Series with my parents, having to tell my dad that Tino’s batting .125 in the playoffs was actually really bad, then seeing the count go full…and then…well, you know what happened.

I remember the very first Yankee game I went to—May 1999. I remember walking into Yankee Stadium and thinking I’d stepped into Heaven. I remember I had a strong dislike of Manny Ramirez then (as he played for Cleveland)…it’s good to know some things never change!

I remember Don Zimmer and Mel the pitching coach. I remember Jeff Nelson and Mike Stanton. I remember Chili Davis and Miguel Cairo and, hell, I even remember a random game in 1998 or 1999 where Mariano Rivera got the start.

I remember being in summer camp, and getting an email from my dad on 18 July 1999, with the Yankee score. I remember thinking first that the reporter was using ‘perfect’ in the metaphorical sense, then realizing he wasn’t, and then shouting it aloud to everyone, whether or not they cared.

I remember you, Joe Torre, being the constant. I remember what people said—that you were lucky, that the Yankees were a Porsche but any other manager would have driven the car off of a cliff.


I don’t know how else to put into words how much you managing the Yankees has been a part of my life.

I’m just a fan. I can’t speak for anyone on the team, or even any other Yankee fan.

Yes, there were decisions I didn’t agree with, things that might not have sat right, but I would tell myself that I’m not the Yankees manager. You don’t stay manager for long if you’re not any good, and well, if you pass the decade mark, you’re pretty damned good.

God, I know it’s corny, but I can’t imagine the Yankees without you there. I thought it would be hard to imagine the Yankees without Paul and Scotty B and Tino, and it was, but imagining the Yankees without you there is just damned near impossible.

I wish I could have been at the Stadium tonight, chanting your name, with the rest. I don’t care about what anyone says, but you were not good for the Yankees, you were amazing.

You gave us all something amazing these past twelve years. I was proud to be a Yankee fan in 1996; more than ever I am proud to be a Yankee fan in 2007.

So, I guess what I’m really trying to say is, Thank You.


I can thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee fan, but I’m thanking you for never, ever making me doubt it.

Thank you,

Rebecca.