Joe Torre talked in detail last night about why he was so “hurt and insulted” by the Yankees’ one-year contract offer that guaranteed him $5 million plus $3 million more in incentives, a contract he rejected last week.
Speaking to Bob Costas on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Torre shot back at Hank Steinbrenner’s comments that appeared in Sunday’s Post, in which Hank criticized Torre by saying, “Where was Joe’s career in ’95 when my dad hired him? My dad was crucified for hiring him. Let’s not forget what my dad did in giving him that opportunity and the great team he was handed.”
Responded Torre, “Well, I’d like to think I worked together with people to do things. I certainly have never bypassed the fact that George Steinbrenner gave me this opportunity. … For some reason … he [Hank] thought I was disrespectful because I said I was insulted. But the insult, the insult came from the incentive-based situation. Unless you understand what sport is all about and how important winning is to you, I don’t think you understand the insult part of this thing.”
Torre said the Yankees’ new leadership does not really understand how much winning means to him.
“I said I’ve been here a long time and I’ve never needed to be motivated,” Torre said. “Plus, in my contract that I get a million-dollar bonus if we do win the World Series. So that’s always been there. And, you know, as far as needing incentive to go ahead and win a ballgame, that, that I thought I used the term ‘insulting.’ And, and that’s the way I felt.”
Torre repeated that the real deal-killer was the fact it was only a one-year contract.
He said he probably could have “worked” with that incentive-based contract if it were a two-year deal, but that he did not think it was fair to have the uncertainty of a one-year deal hanging over the team.
“The five million wasn’t that absurd to me as the fact that they felt I needed incentives to do my job,” Torre said. “They felt that if, if this carrot worth a million dollars was out there in a division series, I’d make some decision that was different than, than if it didn’t matter. And to me that’s what bothered me.
“Yeah, at times I was hurt,” he added.
“I thought, because of how we worked together for 12 years trying to do the same things, that, you know, what are we going to do next? Let’s sit down and talk about it. You know, we, you know, ‘We’d like maybe to change managers here. What are your thoughts?’ You’d like to be a part of the process instead of being dictated to.”
Torre wanted the face-to-face meeting in the hopes of working out the differences with the Steinbrenners and Randy Levine. He said there may have been resentment over his popularity among Yankee bosses.
“Every year, it was disappointment, disappointment, disappointment,” Torre told Costas. “And I just didn’t think that was the right thing. I let them know how I felt. When I was speaking, there was nothing coming back. When I finished talking it was just quiet. It was a little eerie for me.”
Asked how he would assess George Steinbrenner’s “state of mind,” Torre answered: “Well, he has sort of calmed down. Even during my tenure there, I’ve noticed it. You know, he still has that, ‘I’m the Boss,’ the hand-banging on the table type attitude.
“I think at times you find him probably more interested than at other times. But as far as the awareness of what’s going on, I still believe that’s there.”