Sunday, May 31, 2009

Torre Still Rooting For Yanks

From SI.com:

Although Torre is now on the other side of the country, he still follows the Yankees and watches many of their games.

"It's not pain. I look at it and I care about people and I stay in touch with people over there," Torre said. "When you're in California, you get to the ballpark and you turn on the game. It's 4 o'clock out there so it's 7 o'clock somewhere where they're playing. So I see a lot of their games. And yeah, I watch them with interest because I've been with a lot of those guys for a good period of time."

Torre is rooting for Yankees manager Joe Girardi to do well.

"I have to pull for them," Torre said. "People think because you leave the Yankees and supposedly you're unhappy with each other that you're supposed to pull against them. But I can't pull against the individuals over there, least of all Girardi who played for me, coached for me -- I recommended him when he had his first managing job.

"This kid is going to be one of the top managers. This I know is a dream job for him and I'm glad things are getting better for him. I don't care how young you are, it still takes a little starch off of you."

Classy as always.

It's pretty impressive what he's been able to do with a Manny-less Dodger team too. They're 13-9 since he was suspended, and overall they're 34-17 and already 8.5 games up in the NL West. Looking very likely like Torre will make it 14 straight years with a postseason appearance. Good for him.

15 comments:

  1. Torre > Girardi.

    They made the wrong move forcing Torre out of town. Hated Girardi, always will.

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  2. Also not a fan of Girardi. I felt either Mattingly, Bowa or Torre was the man for the job. Girardi was 4th on my list.

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  3. Torre is bum take Posada too with him in LA. Cervelli would get the run in.

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  4. I love Torre always have always will, but its not Girardi's fault that Torre got run out of town it was the front office. What was Girardi do not go for his dream job because of how they let go Torre, thats just stupid.

    That being said it was great to read this....Torre is such a stand up guy. I would not blame him for being pissed and rooting against the yanks because of the way that everything end. This just shows of his impeccable character.

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  5. I still can't believe how bad the front office treated him. He gets the Yankees to the playoffs 11 years in a row, wins 4 World Series championships, and you give him a paycut over $3 million. If Jeter hit .200 one season he wouldn't get a paycut, not one penny.

    After Torre quit, I wanted Mattingly to get the job. But Girardi still led the team to 89 wins last year despite all the injuries, and has them in 1st place right at this moment. So you can't say Girardi hasn't been good as skipper so far.

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  6. Or that the front office made a bad choice. Bet you if we win it all this year we'll all be praising the job Girardi's done so far.

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  7. Pettitte took a pay cut this year. The front office still made Torre an offer to be the highest paid manager per year. Torre is money hungary who has a huge ego.

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  8. No, Torre is a classy guy who wants only the mouney he deserves.

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  9. Torre is such a classy guy he ripped Mariano in his book.

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  10. He didn't rip Mariano at all. Read the book, not some story in the post that spins things in a totally wrong direction. If anyone ripped Mo it was Mussina.

    Also, to the other anon, it had nothing to do with the money. Torre wanted a two-year deal so he wouldn't have to spend the year wondering if he was going to be fired or not. He didn't want to have to deal with what he dealt with in '07 all over again.

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  11. how dare you use the voice of reason greg! don't you realize that you have just destroyed the other anons' arguments?!

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  12. I just don't see how any rational Yankee fan could hate Torre. The Yanks won 4 World Championships during his reign. And anyone who knows anything about sports knows that isn't easy to do.

    A manager gets credit when the team wins and blame when they lose. That's life.

    I will always appreciate the Torre years and thank him for it. I hope the Yanks retire his #6 some day in the not too distant future.

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  13. It makes no sense to me either, but for some reason a lot of Yankees fans really don't like the guy.

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  14. Glad to see Torre say that he holds no ill will toward the Yankees. I suspected that would be the case, but it nice to see it anyway.

    From reading his book, I get the impression that if the front office had said "Joe we don't want you back" he would have been fine with that. His issue was being offered an incentive laden contract. After taking the team to the post season thirteen consecutive years, what kind of incentive did he need?

    As far as Girardi goes, the jury is still out. The team certainly looks better since A-Rod has been back, their attitude has been much better. I still believe that his coaching staff sucks though.

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