MLB

Torre has number retired, plaque in Monument Park

After his No. 6 joined 16 other retired Yankees uniform numbers, Joe Torre remarked on the short distance from the old Yankee Stadium to the new ballpark. But that expanse pales compared to the difficulty in making the journey out to Monument Park.

“It’s a short distance from the old stadium to here but it’s a long, long way from the field to Monument Park,” Torre said to a sellout crowd in The Bronx on Saturday. “However, I was blessed to make that journey on the shoulders of some very special players.”

And what those players were able to accomplish — four World Series championships in five years — will be extraordinarily hard to duplicate, Torre said.

“I was mentioning how much tougher it is to do what Joe Girardi is doing [as] the Yankee manager than I had,” said Torre, inducted into Baseball‘s Hall of Fame last month. “I’ve always been one that always felt it was a team sport.

“But there’s so much individual accomplishment that’s trumpeted — not that in a lot of situations that shouldn’t be the case — but this group I had, nobody really cared who went to the All-Star Game, nobody really cared who got the headline in the newspaper. It was all about just rolling up their sleeves and pretty much letting me decide on the direction we were going.”

That direction usually was to a highly successful season. In his 12 seasons with the Yankees, Torre, now the executive vice president of baseball operations for MLB, won six pennants along with four championships.

That’s how you get your No. 6 retired. That’s how you get Mayor Bill de Blasio to proclaim Saturday “Joe Torre Day” in the city. That’s how you get a slew of your former players and coaches to come out in your honor. Torre rode in from the outfield on a golf cart with his wife, Ali, and fellow Yankees Hall of Famer and friend Yogi Berra.

But all that was accomplished would be so hard now, Torre said.

“I had a unique group. They just left their egos at the door,” Torre said. “It’s tougher now.”

The festivities around home plate and the infield saw Torre receive a diamond-studded ring (the jewels forming a “6”) and framed replicas of his Monument Park and retired No. 6 plaques.

Torre was joined by members of his immediate family, including daughter Andrea, who sang the national anthem. Jean Zimmer, the widow of good friend Don Zimmer, was escorted out by Derek Jeter. Among those honoring Torre were his former coaches Lee Mazzilli, Jose Cardinal, Ron Guidry and Willie Randolph, along with team advisor Reggie Jackson and former trainer Gene Monahan.

Players who helped make that now seemingly near-impossible journey a reality honored Torre: David Cone, Hideki Matsui, Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte. Mariano Rivera, on vacation, was the lone member of the “Core Four” not present.

A filmed tribute from ailing former pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre was shown on the scoreboard. Torre thanked them all, along with current and past Yankees brass — and didn’t make the same mistake twice as he gave tribute and thanks to George Steinbrenner, who hired him to replace Buck Showalter. Torre felt he did not give Steinbrenner his proper due in his Hall of Fame speech.