That first year, there was no way of knowing just how powerful the Zen of Joe would be, and it would have been laughable to suggest the thrice-fired man in the dugout would one day have both a retired number hanging between Joe DiMaggio’s 5 and Mickey Mantle’s 7, and a plaque to stand sentry alongside Lou Gehrig’s and Babe Ruth’s and Miller Huggins’.
That first year, Joe Torre recalled not long ago, was about a simple quest.
“Trust,” Torre said. “Those guys had to know they could trust me.”
That confidence would manifest itself in many ways, but at its base the message Torre carried was this: Baseball is a simple game that becomes a much harder game the more you try to complicate it. It was a mantra that found its medium in, of all places, a T-shirt.
Mariano Duncan, the journeyman second baseman who in that first year, 1996, somehow hit .340 — 36 points higher than he ever had in his life, 73 points higher than his career average — was the one who translated the Zen of Joe to words: “We Play Today, We Win Today. That’s It.” Soon, that message was tucked under every uniform.
The Yankees officially have reached that station of the 2014 season where “We play today, we win today,” is the only message that matters. The hole they’ve dug for themselves is the hole they’ve dug for themselves. There is no use scoreboard watching because for every nugget of good news available (the Twins creaming the Tigers the way Sonny clobbered Carlo in “The Godfather,” for instance) brings corresponding frustration (the Mariners refusing to lose in Fenway Park, regardless of stretch or circumstance).
There are 35 games left, starting Sunday. Thirty-five opportunities to play, 35 chances to win. Forget what’s happening in Kansas City (except Monday, when they play there) or Detroit (except Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) or Baltimore (except for the eight games left of those final 35 where it’s a relevant concern).
Play today.
Win today.
That’s it.
“Joe meant a lot to a lot of people,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Saturday, after his club won a third straight game to honor Torre the most sensible way they could. “You saw that today.”
And if there is a Torre legacy to be emulated, this is it: Keep it simple. Keep it basic. It wasn’t just ’96 either. There is a false perception Torre’s 12 years were an unfettered joyride, talented players and gritty players and forever players coming together and passing around the pixie dust like a fine bottle of Cabernet. It is easy to forget the 11-19 start in 2005, the 21-29 start in ’07, the 3-15 finish in 2000.
Always, the plan was the same: Don’t try to win 10 games today. Just win once.
This will be especially helpful now, with the user-friendly portion of the Yankees’ schedule officially behind them. They do get one more game against the playing-out-the-string White Sox, but Chicago will throw Chris Sale at them, and Sale allowed only one hit in six innings against the Yankees in May, fanning 10.
Then: James Shields, in K.C., Monday.
Then: Detroit. Rick Porcello, followed by David Price.
And that is how the Yankees enter the home stretch, a month of games against teams they are either chasing — Baltimore (8), Kansas City (4), Detroit (3) — or trying to hold off — Toronto (7), Tampa Bay (6) — or with whom they have a century-long blood feud (Boston, which probably would consider it a satisfying consolation prize to steal as many of the six games remaining between the teams as possible).
Not a gimme among them.
But gimmes are overrated, anyway. How did the three gimmes against the Astros work out earlier in the week? Starting Sunday, the game gets simple again, boiled down to its basic form: Are you good enough to win today, and keep it going tomorrow? Are you patient enough to ignore what’s happening at Camden Yards or Safeco Field or Kaufman Stadium, unless you’re what’s happening there on any given night?
Play today, win today.
That’s it.