Oh great. Don't know how I'm going to be able to handle three days of Joe Torre worship, as the New York media genuflects before the altar of St. Joe this weekend. Good grief.
Anyhow, I wrote a piece for The Faster Times about how Torre has played fast and loose with what he really said about A-Rod in his book. Love the "who, me" act on Joe's part. As if the way he humiliated A-Rod on the team, and in his tell-all, was no big thing. At least A-Rod was honest with the press this week about his feelings on Torre.
Joe, on the other hand, should be called J-Fraud for his phony comments about how he never had a problem with Rodriguez. Don't forget that Torre called A-Rod a p*ssy (his words, not mine) to other people in the organization. There's that class again.
I'm just glad the Yankees have a manager who is interested in winning games in this century, instead of regaling reporters about the good old days.
Sure, Torre is beloved by the Four Rings guys. Of course, he seemed to have forgotten that it takes 25 players, not four, to win it all.
Phil Jackson was able to get Ron Artest on the same page. Same with Dennis Rodman. That's a real leader. Compare and contrast with Torre, who couldn't even accept Johnny Damon, one of the best guys in baseball, because he wasn't Derek Jeter. Good riddance to Torre. I don't miss him one bit.
Here's hoping for a Yankee sweep this weekend. Check out my article on Joe.
1 comment:
Lisa, Joe Torre deserves all the praise he's getting. And more.
You use Phil Jackson as an example, of how he integrated Dennis Rodman into one system, and Ron Artest into another. Fair enough, but he also let a massive ego ruin a great team. In this case, not Alex Rodriguez but Kobe Bryant -- with whom he ultimately made peace, but then, unlike A-Rod, Jackson probably had help from Vanessa, a wife who was able to intimidate Kobe into being a team player, something Cynthia Rodriguez could never do.
Joe Torre? Could he have done that? Actually, yes: Cecil Fielder. David Wells. Roger Clemens. Any thin ones? Yes, Chuck Knoblauch. All serious head cases and egotists, and he got them to work with the established Yankee stars. (I was considering including Wade Boggs, but he was something of a team player already.) So your biggest argument here doesn't hold up against Torre.
If you're still upset at what Torre called A-Rod, remember that it takes some guys a while to mature. Babe Ruth was, well, a big baby for a long time despite his massive talent. Up until his 1941 hitting streak, Joe DiMaggio was viewed by many as an ungrateful prima donna (check out the reactions to his 1938 holdout, remembering that was a bad year for the economy). Mickey Mantle was similarly immature. And my guy, Reggie Jackson? Even I have to admit, the guy (30 when he first put on the Pinstripes) wasn't yet mature enough.
But they won: The Babe won his first World Series as a Yankee at age 28 (plus 3 in Boston, starting at 21), Joe D at 22 (almost), Mickey at 19 (almost, although not when it was "his team" more or less until 25), Reggie at 31 (plus 3 in Oakland, starting at 26). A-Rod? 34. And, like John Elway, another immature guy that the Yankees actually did get rid of, he didn't go all the way until he had a "caddy": Terrell Davis, meet Mark Teixeira. In other words, Torre was right. Then. Not now, but he was then.
So if you're sick of the Torre lovefest, maybe you should consider that it's because you love A-Rod so much, and some of us only stopped being sick of the A-Rod lovefest last October -- because, like Torre, he finally earned it.
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