Torre on Girardi: 'This kid is a good manager'

From the LA Times:

Torre shook his head when told of how fans at Yankee Stadium chanted "We-want-Torre!" in the ninth inning of the Yankees' 7-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night. The loss dropped the Yankees to 13-13.

"Those fans are impatient," Torre said. "I enjoyed the 12 years. They weren't always happy with me."

Torre expressed sympathy for Joe Girardi, who replaced him as Yankees manager.

"I feel for Joe because this kid's a good manager and he's going to be a better manager," Torre said. "We're still talking about the first month of the season. There's so much baseball to play. There's a lot of talent on that club and they're going to win their share of games. You certainly have to have a thick skin to do what we do for a living."

Torre also believes the Yankees fans will embrace A-Rod when he returns from the DL:

"I'd like to believe the situation that they're in right now, struggling to put anything together at this point in time, I think the fans will welcome him," Torre said. "That's a feel. Any time you get beat up -- and I think Alex has been beat up -- I have a sense the people of New York like to lift you up and dust you off. And then if you don't perform the first month, they'll let you know they're not happy with that.

"That's pretty much what they did with Jason [Giambi]. And I have a sense they're going to do the same thing with Alex."

I completely agree with the second part. While Yankees fans have been very tough with A-Rod since he got here I think this time they will at least try to welcome him back with open arms. We'd be foolish not to. But yea, if he's struggling after a week the boo birds will come back.

As for Girardi, I'm not sure how I feel about him yet. He shouldn't be fired or anything like that, but as you all know I'm not convinced he's that good of a manager yet. Nice of Torre to defend his former player and bench coach, though.