Two Former Yankees: Joe And George
Oh, to have been in that conference room yesterday in Tampa!
Joe Torre, the Yankee manager who guided the ship to twelve consecutive postseason appearances (more consecutive appearances than Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy or Casey Stengel), stood tall yesterday. He turned down the Yankee offer of a one-year contract with incentives. It was beneath him. Joe Torre shook hands with his now former employers and walked out of the office with his dignity.
It is more than we could say for anyone else in that room.
While I stand firmly in the camp that Joe Torre deserves to be Yankee manager, that no one in baseball could have done better with the wasted salary money that was the roster this year, I would have had more respect for the Yankee management team if they just fired him. Instead, they cowered behind a contract that would serve to humiliate him. This way they could say they offered him something and if he turned it down, it was on him and not them.
How wrong they were.
Back when George Steinbrenner ran the Yankees -- oh, he may still be there in body but his spirit has long since checked out -- Torre would have been fired in April or May when the Yankees were well below .500. Truth be told, at that point it would have been difficult to blame him.
But new Steinbrenners run the show now. It is obvious from their first big crisis that they are not in the same mold as their father.
George Steinbrenner was a demanding owner. He made more mistakes than he made good decisions. But he was decisive and he was willing to put it all out on the line. He would never have showed the corporate cowardice that was that contract.
Two Yankees became former Yankees. Joe and George.
Joe has walked out with his dignity. He has a 100% success rate at getting his Yankee teams to the postseason. He did it this year with a team of bad contracts, pitchers beyond their prime and a career season by the game's best (and most expensive) player. One can argue that in theory he should have done more with the Yankees' obscene payroll. But he is not responsible for all of those bad contracts. No, that responsibility belonged to George and Brian Cashman. He is the gentleman in all this.
George had left the Yankees to his sons and to the new management team. In one year's time they have hurt the team with several bad contracts, are on the verge of losing three key players to free agency and a opened gaping hole where Joe Torre once stood.
Joe and George are gone.
I miss them both.
Joe Torre, the Yankee manager who guided the ship to twelve consecutive postseason appearances (more consecutive appearances than Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy or Casey Stengel), stood tall yesterday. He turned down the Yankee offer of a one-year contract with incentives. It was beneath him. Joe Torre shook hands with his now former employers and walked out of the office with his dignity.
It is more than we could say for anyone else in that room.
While I stand firmly in the camp that Joe Torre deserves to be Yankee manager, that no one in baseball could have done better with the wasted salary money that was the roster this year, I would have had more respect for the Yankee management team if they just fired him. Instead, they cowered behind a contract that would serve to humiliate him. This way they could say they offered him something and if he turned it down, it was on him and not them.
How wrong they were.
Back when George Steinbrenner ran the Yankees -- oh, he may still be there in body but his spirit has long since checked out -- Torre would have been fired in April or May when the Yankees were well below .500. Truth be told, at that point it would have been difficult to blame him.
But new Steinbrenners run the show now. It is obvious from their first big crisis that they are not in the same mold as their father.
George Steinbrenner was a demanding owner. He made more mistakes than he made good decisions. But he was decisive and he was willing to put it all out on the line. He would never have showed the corporate cowardice that was that contract.
Two Yankees became former Yankees. Joe and George.
Joe has walked out with his dignity. He has a 100% success rate at getting his Yankee teams to the postseason. He did it this year with a team of bad contracts, pitchers beyond their prime and a career season by the game's best (and most expensive) player. One can argue that in theory he should have done more with the Yankees' obscene payroll. But he is not responsible for all of those bad contracts. No, that responsibility belonged to George and Brian Cashman. He is the gentleman in all this.
George had left the Yankees to his sons and to the new management team. In one year's time they have hurt the team with several bad contracts, are on the verge of losing three key players to free agency and a opened gaping hole where Joe Torre once stood.
Joe and George are gone.
I miss them both.
posted by E-Luv at 12:51 PM
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