MLB

Torre reflects on ‘enormous loss’

No one lasted longer or had more success on the hot seat managing George Steinbrenner’s Yankees than Joe Torre, who called his former employer’s death yesterday “an enormous loss.”

Torre managed the Yankees from 1996-2007, winning six pennants and four World Series titles.

“The only thing I wanted is for him to be proud of what we did,” Torre said at a press conference. “When all the bubbles cleared away, it was about doing it again next time. . . . He was demanding.”

The key, said Torre, now with the Dodgers, was to understand Steinbrenner’s intense competitiveness and not let it come between them.

“He wanted to win so badly,” he said. “We obviously had a great run. It never bothered me that he was the boss. Some [managers] don’t want to be told what to do, but I always treated him with respect, and he did, too.

“There was only a time or two when we miscommunicated in 12 years. When I was able to sit there and go one-on-one with him, we were fine.”

Torre related an anecdote from just after he accepted the job as Yankees manager late in 1995. He told Steinbrenner he wanted to return to Cincinnati to be with his then-pregnant wife.

Steinbrenner told him, “I’ll let you go this time, but after the baby is born, your [butt] is mine.”

“He had no regard for anyone else’s life,” Torre said. “But those were the ground rules.”

The relationship between Steinbrenner and Torre frayed in recent years. Torre received a just one-year contract offer following the Yankees’ early playoff exit in 2007, and he declined. Then he aired some of that dirty laundry in his book “The Yankee Years.” But Torre said yesterday he parted with Steinbrenner on good terms.

“He was there in that final meeting — I thanked him,” Torre said. “He was emotional. So was I. I shook his hand and left.”

jlehman@nypost.com