From Andy Martino:
Did Joe Torre's book violate the sanctity of the Yankee clubhouse, particularly with his criticism of Alex Rodriguez? The man who pioneered the candid sports memoir is amused by the question.
"What's the big deal? It isn't as if Joe Torre is revealing things that people didn't know," former Yankee Jim Bouton told the Daily News Friday. "There was no doubt that A-Rod wasn't a team guy; that's been known for a while."
"It is almost 40 years later," he said. "Why in the world anyone is still talking about the sanctity of the clubhouse is beyond me. Baseball and the Yankees should feel lucky that this book is generating so much attention in January... there is no job hitting a ball with a stick unless a lot of people are convinced it's important."I feel the same way that Bouton does which is why I'm not pissed at Torre. Yes, he looks like a hypocrite with this book, but by no means do I think they should cancel 'Joe Torre Day' because of this. Besides the fact that this stuff is coming from Torre, there's nothing too surprising in this book, at least from the excerpts we've seen so far.Bouton was also amused that any player would feel violated by the book. "These guys have voluntarily gone into a business where people know that everything that they do or say is subject to being written about. They act as if they're surprised when somebody tells what they do. Roger Maris always wanted to be a private person. Well, get into the shoe business if that's what you want."
And to anyone offended that unflattering accounts of his behavior landed in a book, Bouton offered simple advice: "Books are going to be written. Therefore, don't act like a jerk."
But when it comes to players trusting him, my opinion, or Bouton's, isn't going to change anything. If his current and former players believe he broke some unwritten clubhouse rule, then that's all that matters.
8 Comments:
Greg, I gotta disagree with you and Bouton. His whole post-baseball career was built on tell-all books, so it's not exactly a suprise he would support Joe.
It's not simply a matter of "don't be a jerk." Chuck Knoblauch was troubled with the yips, but he wasn't really a jerk. But Roger Clemens is definitely a jerk. Yet who's the one who's protected in the book? The one who is Joe's Guy.
If The Giants were in The Super Bowl nobody would be talking about this book.
How was Knoblauch hurt by the book? Saying he had throwing problems isn't exactly breaking news. Torre himself mentioned it many times when it was happening, so its not the first time he's said it either..
As for Clemens I'm not sure how happy he is about that the story about trainers rubbing hot ointment on his testicles.
...Before every start.
It looked to me like Torre basically insinuated Knoblauch had a substance abuse problem - and I don't mean steroids:
“I think New York got the best of him,” Torre said. “He found more things to do, more trouble.”
What right did Joe have to say that?
As for Clemens, the linament story, while disgusting, is mild compared to what he could have written. Heck, even there, there was no tut-tutting about Clemens having the trainer do such a horrible task, the way there was about Alex having the clubhouse guy get him a cup of coffee. I mean really, what is more demeaning?
ok first of all everyone that has bad things to say about this book is retarted. #1 joe torre was right about all of these comments, he was the manager for christ sakes, he saw everything that was going on and knew the day to day activities of the new york yankees. besides maybe steriod use and what not. but this talk about how torre was being harsh on certain players and whatever is nonsense. when you get paid millions of dollars to play a sport and you act like a total retard such as kevin brown, randy johnson, jason giambi, gary sheffield, and carl pavano then you deserve the criticism by ur manager especially. torre says this book is not just about the bad yankee years but mostly the dynasty years. so grow up all you soar losers. read the book, enjoy it for what it is and move on. joe giradi is the yankees manager now its time to shutup and move on, plus we should all be excited about our team in 09' and years to come with the new stadium as well.
ok first of all everyone that has bad things to say about this book is retarted. #1 joe torre was right about all of these comments, he was the manager for christ sakes, he saw everything that was going on and knew the day to day activities of the new york yankees. besides maybe steriod use and what not. but this talk about how torre was being harsh on certain players and whatever is nonsense. when you get paid millions of dollars to play a sport and you act like a total retard such as kevin brown, randy johnson, jason giambi, gary sheffield, and carl pavano then you deserve the criticism by ur manager especially. torre says this book is not just about the bad yankee years but mostly the dynasty years. so grow up all you soar losers. read the book, enjoy it for what it is and move on. joe giradi is the yankees manager now its time to shutup and move on, plus we should all be excited about our team in 09' and years to come with the new stadium as well.
WHAT?! Bouton doesn't see anything wrong with Torre's book?
What a friggin' shocker!
Both douches.
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