COOPERSTOWN — For Joe Torre, it’s been a wonderful baseball life.
The managerial turning point came in his first spring training with the Yankees, 1996.
Torre had been fired three times as a manager.
He thought he might have to change his ways and went so far as to get Bill Parcells’ book, “Finding a Way to Win.”
Torre was ready to read how to change his ways.
“I opened the book,” Torre said Saturday, “and came upon a chapter with the heading: ‘If You Believe in Something, Stay With It.’
“I just closed the book and said, the hell with it. If I’m going to get fired I want to be doing what I feel comfortable doing and what I think is the right thing to do.”
Six pennants and four World Series championships later, that proved to be one Hall of Fame decision.
Torre will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday along with fellow managers Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa, slugger Frank Thomas, and pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.
“I’m excited for him,” Derek Jeter told The Post this week. “He deserves it as much as anyone for not only his managerial career, but for his playing career too.”
Torre’s relationship with Jeter has been well chronicled through the years, but consider these powerful words from the Yankees shortstop, who will be joining Torre in the Hall of Fame in 2020.
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” Jeter said. “He had a lot of confidence in me. He trusted me. He let me go out and play. That’s important for a young player. He always respected me. He never treated me like I was young.”
Jeter is convinced he never would have become the player he has become without Torre’s trust in him, and that says it all. This is a game built on trust.
Mariano Rivera will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019 and Jeter the following year. Will they be unanimous selections by the BBWAA members?
“You have to have a hell of a conscious not to vote for those guys, that’s all I can tell you,” Torre said.
Asked about his relationship now with the Yankees after the ugly parting following the 2007 season, Torre said, “It’s fine. What broke the ice was when Donnie [Mattingly] and I flew back from L.A. when they had the memorial for George [Steinbrenner]. After George had passed, I could never not be there. He meant a great deal to me allowing me to manage his club, it wasn’t always easy, but I certainly had some special people.”
“I left the way I did, and I know there was some misunderstanding, thinking it was money,” said Torre, MLB’s executive VP of baseball operations. “They cut my salary and I said I was insulted. The insult part was not with the money they offered me, but the fact that they felt to be motivated to get my pay-cut back. The number had nothing to do with it.”
Torre wanted a two-year contract with a buyout so his situation would not be a distraction.
“There were some comments, I don’t think I said anything, other than that press conference that day, but when I came back it felt good and I’m very comfortable going there now,” Torre said.
He smiled and added, “I’ve got credentials, they can’t keep me out.”
Asked if he should have been able to finish off the era, Torre noted, “It’s a business. I don’t feel anybody owes anything to anybody. What I was trying to do was just finish there and then just go home.”
Torre moved on. So did the Yankees and now he is going into the Hall of Fame.
He will have 300 guests, family and friends, including his two sisters. Cooperstown is Torre Town. Unfortunately, his brother Frank cannot be here because of health reasons.
One of those guests is Bill Parcells.
That is a lot of winning, a lot of rings.