How About Some More From Torre's Book?

Oh well, what the hell else is going on?

Towards the middle of the post we find out that Torre blames Mo for David Roberts stealing second in game 4 of the '04 ALCS.

Tyler Kepner has these great tidbits:

*To demonstrate a key difference between Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, there is an anecdote about Rodriguez visiting Jeter’s house and flipping on the TV. Rodriguez asked Jeter where he can find the baseball package, and was stunned that Jeter does not subscribe.

“It was just so funny because Derek will never watch a baseball game other than the one he’s playing in,” said the former Yankees bullpen catcher Mike Borzello, who was there that day. “They’re just complete opposites. I remember Alex’s reaction to it was like, ‘How is that possible?’”

The Yankees should have talked to Tim Raines before signing Carl Pavano. Raines, the former Yankee who was coaching with the White Sox when Pavano signed, had played with Pavano in Montreal. During Pavano’s first Yankees season, Raines told Borzello, “He didn’t want to pitch except for the one year he was pitching for a contract. I’m telling you, he’s not going to pitch for you.”

Of course, by then, the Yankees already had a bad feeling about Pavano: team officials were startled to see him rudely rebuke his mother in April, using a mild curse word. Why? He was angry at his mother for wearing a Yankees’ “NY” in face paint on her cheek to the game.

* Though he accuses Kevin Brown of “pitching stupid” by taking the ball in Game 7 of the 2004 A.L.C.S. despite an ailing back, Torre expresses more pity than anger at the troubled right-hander. “There were a lot of demons in this guy,” Torre says, and he mentions that after Brown allowed six runs in the first inning of this 2005 game, he stormed into the visitors clubhouse at Tropicana Field, curled up on the floor in a corner of a storage area and told Torre, “I’m going to go home.” Torre told Brown that if he did that – if he quit on his teammates — he would never be welcomed back.

Brown got up, fired his cellphone across the locker room, put his jersey back on and threw four more innings. The authors do not mention it, but Brown won his next four starts, the final four victories of his career.

The book/Torre even blames Mo for David Roberts stealing 2nd base in game 4 of the '04 ALCS:

*When the pinch-runner Dave Roberts stole second base in the fateful ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 A.L.C.S., Tom Verducci and Torre write, he had no intention of stealing second on the first pitch because his legs were not yet loose. But Mariano Rivera helped him by making three pickoff attempts before his first pitch to Bill Mueller. “Rivera had done him a favor,” the book says. “Roberts was now fully immersed in the flow of the game. His plan had changed. He made up his mind to steal on the first pitch.”

How does Torre, or anyone, know what Roberts was thinking when he came into the game? All I know is what I thought as it was happening; oh David Roberts is running, he's going to try to steal.

And then there was this story from the 2007 playoffs:

* Before the 2007 playoffs, when Torre arranged for his friend Bill Crystal to make a short film to show the players in the clubhouse in Cleveland, Crystal knew how to get laughs. The film started with a pornographic scene, prompting nervous laughter, before Crystal replaced the pornography and said, “Now that I’ve got your attention….”

Crystal and Robin Williams then went into a 12-minute comedy bit, poking fun at various players before turning serious. They told the players to be grateful for the opportunity and for their health. “And there is somebody we should all pray for, because he has not been blessed with the same great health. So before you go out there, when you hit your knees, say a prayer … for Carl Pavano!”

The room, the authors write, erupted in laughter.

The more I hear about the book the worse Torre looks, but with that said the book is going to be very entertaining.