From Neil Best:
Interesting stuff on Pages 394 and 395 about Johnny Damon's physical and emotional struggles early in the 2007 season, when a leg injury sapped him of his enthusiasm and he began to annoy old-guard Yankees.The more we find out about this book, the worse it gets.In a private meeting, Torre told Damon, "The kind of player you've been your whole life is the player who goes out there and fully commits himself. You're not that kind of person now. It's easy to see that."
To which Damon said, "I'm not sure I want to do this."
The book says one teammate visited Torre and was near tears discussing Damon, saying, "Let's get rid of him. Guys can't stand him."
19 Comments:
yeah sure, the book is not about trashing people but about Torre's years with the Yanks. nice clean up job on that one Verducci. I'm sorry but this was irresponsible of Torre. He is still a manager in MLB and now has compromised alot of people and their relationships with others. he can't be trusted.
Its becoming more and more apparent that the problem wasn't the new Yankees, it was the old gaurd being resistant, selfish, foolish and downright immature. The team was changing and the core Yankees obviously did everything imaginable to make the loccker room as uncomfortable as possible for the new guys.
I can't imagine Torre will come out of this looking good, but we'll have to wait and see.
Mike
And the hits just keep on comin'. Torre is scum for this. Good luck getting the trust of your players in L.A. Joe.
Mike, at this point I'm beginning to agree with you.
And I thought everybody liked Damon. This doesn't make sense.
WTF Torre? Way to thank the organization that made you who you are. Way to thank the team who paid you millions upon millions, making you the highest paid manager in baseball history, and, most especially, the fans, who backed you and cheered you for years. Classy move, Joe.
"In a private meeting, Torre told Damon"
A private meeting? Way to make that crap public, Torre. Again, more class.
I remember writing in Subway Squawkers about how I was ticked off at Damon because he showed up to spring training overweight and out of shape that year. That was the one thing Damon did in his three years as a Yankee to really disappoint me.
That being said, I'm just a fan yakking about the team. Joe is somebody who based his whole career on trust, and that whole "what happens in the clubhouse" thing. What right does he have to expose any personal problems Damon might have been having then?
Torre won't be invited back to the stadium for a long long time, if ever. What a spectacle it would be if the Dodgers were playing the Yanks in NY for inter-league play this year, which they are not.
I'll say one thing, the book will be entertaining.
Gonna be open season on anyone with that has the cojones to wear a Torre shirt/jersey this year. Since yesterday I have heard at least 10 people that loved Torre comment on how much of a prick he has become. Or well I guess he was a prick for a while and we are just finding this out now. If that is an accurate sample he his losing support by the second. We should have listened to Gary Sheffield a few years back when we had the chance. That was a joke. Ha Ha.
Of everything I've read so far, it seems like it's all about Joe putting the blame on everyone else for not winning a WS.
He says he didn't like the team's makeup post 2001. The team wasn't unselfish enough (isn't that part of a manager's job?). He didn't like this signing or that signing. Damon wasn't playing all out or didn't care. Everybody hated so and so. A-Fraud. Blah blah blah.
Way to sell everyone out, pass blame, and then pretend like it had nothing to do with your awful in-game managing.
M-Rod - while I can't make any first hand comments about Torre, a former minor league team owner in the Yankees organization (I won't say where as I don't think it would be right), had some fairly ugly things to say about Torre. He said that he was arrogant and stubborn, and that he had known Torre for years.
This owner is one of the more respectable guys I know, so I doubt he'd make things up. Of course it's just one person's account, so take it with a grain of salt, but still.
I think the thing with Torre is that if he likes you, you're golden, and if he doesn't, you're FU***D.
That's what Michael Kay says about Torre too.
Yeah I agree the old guard including Jeter with the whole A-Rod thing seems very hard headed. A lot of pitchers dont like catching to Posada. I mean the old guard players are coming into Torre office and telling him to get rid of a player is rediculous they are not the GM of the team.
Joe, Joe, Joe!!!! What in the hell are you thinking? All of the trust that your players had in you and now you're throwing them under the bus. All Damon did was have a private conversation with you and you make it public? You need to get over yourself and come on back to planet Earth. I found out what you were all about when you said that the Stienbrenner offer to you was insulting a year ago. Are you kidding me, the highest paid manager in baseball history and now you think your better than anyone else in the game. Be humble Joe, be humble because now you just opened a whole big can of worms that I'm sure will not only bite you in the ass but your managing career as well. Joe, your 100 years old and you don't need this going to your grave with you but you know what, it's to late, you screwed that up with this book that didn't even need being written. I hope the money you make off this book makes up for the discraceful offer the Yankees made to you last year which was still higher than any other managerial contract in all of baseball.
What David Wells said today about Torre playing favorites was no shock -- it's well documented that he didn't like Tino or Chad Curtis, despite both of them single handedly winning World Series games on their own -- but the rest of the stuff is classless.
Maybe when you have a lot of over-paid douche bags on one team, the immenseness of the douche is too much to overcome...
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