SURPRISE, Ariz. - This year's All-Star Game will be more a celebration of Yankee Stadium than a salute to the game's best players. Major League Baseball needs to take every possible step to acknowledge the ballpark's storied history, right down to the selection of coaches, if necessary.
The two National League managers on Clint Hurdle's coaching staff should be former Yankees Lou Piniella and Willie Randolph — assuming, of course, that Randolph is still the Mets manager in July. And while the Dodgers' Joe Torre already has indicated that he probably would not be a coach, he could still make an electrifying return to the stadium in another capacity.
Tommy Lasorda coached third base as Bobby Valentine's honorary manager in 2001. Al Kaline was a special guest of Jim Leyland at last year's festivities. Torre could be honorary manager, grand poohbah — whatever the NL wants to call him. Just so long as the crowd gets to salute him in pre-game introductions.
Torre might prefer to avoid the hoopla and media crush. He certainly wouldn't want to upstage new Yankees manager Joe Girardi, one of his former coaches, particularly if the Yankees were playing poorly. But c'mon, this is about history. And the history of Yankee Stadium can't be told without Torre.
Rosenthal is absolutely right, "the history of Yankee Stadium can't be told without Torre," and Joe Torre has to be a Yankee Stadium on that night.
Honestly, how great would it be to have Joe Torre, Lou Piniella, and Willie Randolph, all coaching at the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium?
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