It was his 2,692nd game as a Yankee, and before Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 in Friday night’s 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays in The Bronx, the captain shared one of the secrets to his longevity with The Post.
OK, so maybe it’s not much of a secret.
“Joe Torre is one of the biggest reasons I’m here right now,” Jeter said. “I’ve always said he was like a second father to me.”
OK, so it’s not a secret at all.
While the Yankees are home for an important weekend series against a Toronto team that turns to mush in New York, Torre, the manager who personifies the identity of the recent pinstriped dynasty as much as any individual member of the Core Four, is safe at home in Cooperstown, awaiting Sunday’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
That’s Mr. Torre to you … and more to the point, “Mr. Torre” even now to Jeter, who at the age of 40 is only this generation’s Mr. Baseball.
“I just had — and have — so much respect for him, that calling him, ‘Mr. Torre’ has always seemed the right thing to do,” Jeter said before his team rode third-inning home runs by Carlos Beltran and Ichiro Suzuki to take sole possession of the AL’s second wild-card spot with 60 games to go. “There was mutual respect between us, but he doesn’t call me, ‘Mr. Jeter.’ ”
But Torre called Jeter’s number day after day after day when the shortstop was a rookie in 1996. And that, Jeter said, was instrumental in his development into who and what he has become over the ensuing two decades.
“He trusted me. He had confidence in me when I was a young player coming up and that meant everything to me,” said Jeter, who has started at shortstop in 85 of his team’s 102 games this season. “He made me feel very comfortable when I was playing and trusted me with a lot of responsibility.
“He let me play. He let me be myself.”
From Opening Day in Cleveland in 1996 through the Game 6 World Series clincher against the Braves, Torre let Jeter play (and start) 172 of the Yankees’ 177 overall games. There has been no looking back. Maybe because there was no looking over Jeter’s shoulder.
“That was the big thing: I never had to look over my shoulder,” Jeter said. “I didn’t have to worry every single day about whether I’d be playing.
“This game is too difficult to play if you have to worry about daily results in order to stay in the lineup. I never had to go through that, and the biggest reason I didn’t is because of the confidence he had in me … not that there weren’t times when he didn’t need to correct me, because there were … and he did.”
Torre’s career record as a manager is 2,236-1,997. He was 1,173-767 with the Yankees and 1,153-1,230 everywhere else, which means as the manager of the Mets, Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers. It’s not that he was necessarily smarter in The Bronx than he was in Queens, Atlanta, St. Louis and Los Angeles, but he sure was smart enough not to break the eggs he had been presented by George Steinbrenner while preparing the omelet.
Because while nobody can win without the players, not everyone is smart or facile enough to successfully manage the tapestry of talent, charisma and ego that comprised the last dynasty in The Bronx. Four World Series championships and Torre never even changed the uniform No. 6 on his back that will be retired by the Yankees on Aug. 23.
“You couldn’t have just put anybody in here and have won the way we did,” Jeter said. “There’s no way. He managed people as much as he managed games.
“A large part of our success is due to who our manager was.”
Jeter, serendipitously, has played for three managers throughout his career — Buck Showalter for 15 games in 1995; Torre for 1,820 games; and Joe Girardi, who succeeded Torre in 2008, for 857 games. Three in 20 major league seasons, which is as many managers as Willie Randolph had in 1982 playing for Bob Lemon, Gene Michael and Clyde King with the Yankees.
“Buck, I didn’t play too much more than a minute or two for him, so he didn’t talk to me so much,” Jeter said. “And when Girardi took over, I wasn’t 20 anymore. I don’t cause problems, man. But of course there’s a difference. It’s a different manager.
“To have basically two managers for 19 years, I understand I’m fortunate. I recognize what that means.”
And on Sunday, Cooperstown will recognize what Mr. Torre has meant to baseball.
Jeter recognizes what Torre meant.