Paul O’Neill does not expect anything out of the ordinary when the Yankees see Joe Torre in Dodgers blue tonight.
“I think that Joe is a friend of guys more than anything else,” said O’Neill, the YES analyst who played for Torre for six seasons. “I still talk to Joe and I’m sure some of these players do too. Joe Girardi still talks to Joe. He had a big place in our lives for years. I think the respect is there on both sides. It’s always good to see guys that were part of a good time of your life.”
The happy reunion would be much more interesting if it were occurring in The Bronx. Then we could see how the Yankees fans responded to the man who led their team to four World Series titles and six American League pennants.
Torre is not the first legendary ex-manager or coach to face his former players. Joe McCarthy led the Yankees to seven World Series titles, then faced them as the manager of the Red Sox in the 1948 home opener.
Pat Riley’s Knicks were embarrassed in his first game against the Lakers, scoring a then-franchise low 68 points in 1992. After that game at the Great Western Forum, Riley admitted how much the game meant to him after his four championship teams in L.A.
“I’d been thinking about this ever since the season started,” he said.
Bill Parcells did not face the Giants as Patriots coach until 1996. Paul Brown had been gone from the Browns for eight years when he led the Bengals against them.
Perhaps the most interesting meeting in New York history between a team and its former coach came in 1948 when Leo Durocher brought the Giants to Ebbets Field on July 26, 1948. It was 10 days after a deal between Branch Rickey, Horace Stoneham and Durocher allowed him to leave the Dodgers for the rival Giants. Fans lined up 10 hours before the game to boo Durocher.
brian.costello@nypost.com