Pinstripe politicos Mayor Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani today made a last-ditch one-two pitch to Yankees boss George Steinbrenner to keep on old pal Joe Torre as manager.
“If I owned the teams, that’s what I would do,” Bloomberg told reporters, as Steinbrenner appeared poised to ax Torre after the Yankees’ botched playoff bid Monday.
“You know, sometimes the ball just doesn’t go out of the park, sometimes the pitch doesn’t go over the plate. And you can have great people and great coaching and it’s just not meant to be,” he said.
Giuliani hailed Torre as the best manager in modern Yankee history.
Asked by interviewer Chris Matthews if Torre should stay on, the former mayor and now presidential candidate replied, “God willing.”
The pair’s loyalty to Torre comes as no surprise.
Giuliani and Torre became best buds during Rudy’s eight years as mayor, and Bloomberg and the manager have followed suit, shoring up their friendship by supporting each other’s charities.
Torre and his wife co-chaired an event to benefit Bloomberg’s Mayor’s Fund at the start of the summer, and Hizzoner returned the favor by hitting the links with Torre during his Safe at Home Foundation golf tournament in August.
For the record, the mayor also has thrown his support behind Mets manager Willie Randolph, whose team blew it big-time and didn’t even make it to the playoffs. “I would love to see” him back, Bloomberg said.
With Post Wire Services