JOE Torre is so good at putting out fires, even ones he started. That’s what he’s doing on his book tour for “The Yankee Years,” and that’s fine. That’s exactly what I would expect from Torre.
Those fans who love Torre and disagree with me will continue to love him and e-mail me their sometimes obscenity-laced comments.
MORE: COMPLETE YANKEES COVERAGE
Joe said yesterday the book is just an honest look at his years as Yankee manager. I can relate to that comment. That’s kind of what I try to do here in The Post.
His call, his book.
Just like it was his call to put what he put in the book, insisting he did not violate any clubhouse code for the good of his book. If Torre had made some of the comments he made in the book during his tenure as Yankee manager, that would have been even more honest, though, don’t you think?
Imagine if players had talked openly about Torre’s meetings or one-on-one conversations they had with the manager, or criticized teammates or Torre to the media during his tenure. How would Torre react to those comments?
Might everyone be David Wells? Torre won four World Series championships with the Yankees and made the right calls in those years, and if you read the book, you will see he had the right players those years.
Later on Joe makes it clear the Yankees did not always have the right players. He also made it clear in the end that he was agreeing with his buddy Don Zimmer that Brian Cashman, who stood by Torre for 12 years, could not be trusted.
Wonder if Torre made that point to Joe Girardi, too. Girardi might want to read page 476. Old Joe has made life a little more difficult for Young Joe.
No matter how Torre tries to spin this, and he is the all-time best manager spin-master, he did break the clubhouse code. That’s the honest call.
I’ve talked to many players, front-office executives and scouts inside and outside the Yankee organization, and all agreed that a trust factor has been lost with Torre. Torre said he was just trying to give readers an inside look.
On his terms, of course. There was no inside look last night at a signing at the Yogi Berra Museum. Reporters were not allowed past the lobby and anywhere near Torre the entire night, except the Los Angeles Times, which was granted full access to Torre.
Now I really know how Wells feels.
Torre’s book is a good read. He even makes the point the Yankees stuck it to him by only offering a one-year contract worth $5 million, plus $3 million in incentives, pushing him out the door. Geez, imagine if they really disliked him.
Noted one George Steinbrenner aide who just finished reading the book, “It’s very disappointing that after all the Boss did for him, and where Joe was in 1995, that he would thank him and Cashman this way. If the job was so bad at $7 million a year, why didn’t he leave a long time ago?”
It is ironic that the book tour was going on all day and last night, the same night that the Thurman Munson Dinner was taking place in New York. Wonder what the former Yankee captain would think of all this.
Having dealt with Munson a bit, something tells me he would not be totally pleased. If Torre doesn’t like this column or the one I did last week, I have the same advice for him that Mr. T gave Randy Johnson on page 328 of his book.
When Johnson was complaining to Torre about pictures of his apartment building being in the newspaper, Torre didn’t show much compassion.
“Randy,” Torre said, “Why do you even look at the f- – – – – -g newspaper?”
Big Unit, like the rest of us, should have just waited for the book.