Sorry for the hiatus from blogging I've been kind of busy but really there hasn't been a whole lot going recently, that is until the associated press dropped this bombshell about one Joe Torre's new book written with SI's Tom Verducci about his tenure with the yankees.
Tentatively titled "The Yankee Years" Torre and Verducci seem to give a great deal of parting shots at the yankee organization, perticularly Brian Cashman, Alex Rodriguez and a host of others he throws under the proverbial bus. Torre goes into great detail about the Jeter-ARod fights, teammates calling him openly "A-Fraud" and just generally degrading the yankee third baseman and I find it in poor tatste. Now I haven't read the book obviously but from these early reports I find this name calling very unbecoming of a man of Torre's ilk. Joe has always seemed to make it his business to seem professional, gentlemanly, and a generally classy person. Joe never aired the grievences of the team out to the public while the manager, he preferred to do things in house and even after the worst of Steinbrenner's tirades Joe always put a good face on it.
Of course Torre had every right to be mad to be angered by his ungracious owner and management but he never showed a crack in his armor, he always exuded a belief that it was beneath him, and he carried that belief in all aspects of his professional life. Whether it be refusing to retaliate for hit batsmen or spiteful writers Joe wouldn't even grace it with a response. And yet now he seems to have decided to get his hands dirty, to throw muck around now that he's out the door and I don't get it. Still worse, he's still an active manager in LA, are we do believe he won't do the same after he leaves LA?
Time will tell on that but I think I can speak for most yankee fans that it leaves a bad taste in our mouths about the revered manager who gave us four titles. Sure he was a superb manager who resided over a time of great success for the yankees, but he seems to have turned his back on it because he wants everyone to know how mad he is about how it ended. Sure it did not end well and could have been handled better by yankee managment, but in truth when do these sort of long tenures of managers do end well? Take Casey Stengel, arugably the most successful manager in history, residing over the most succesful time in yankee history, who after Bill Mazeroski's game seven home run in 1960 was unceremoniously fired. Did he deserve it? Probably not, but management felt a change was needed and they did. Casey moved on managing the mets across town, but did you see him writing a book bashing mantle or yogi or anyone else who he felt deserved his wrath? No. My point is that professional men of class don't air our their dirty laundry because they feel like they got a raw deal, they don't make a mockery of what happened in the past because it was beneath them. Torre has masqueraded as this kind of man for a long time, but now he seems to be showing his true colors, removed from the situation so now he can throw mud without anyone around to throw back, shame on you Joe.
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