David Wells took potshots at Joe Torre last week, calling Torre a "coward" for benching him in the 1997 ALDS, and having pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre tell him the news. Only thing is, Wells started Game 3 of that series!
Even I, somebody who has no love lost for Saint Joe of the Bronx, thought this was a bit ridiculous, and unfair to Torre. So I wrote a piece about it for The Faster Times over it. It's not just that Wells criticized Torre for something that never happened that irked me. It's also that apparently nobody in the media took a look at a stats site to see if Wells' story was true. And even Torre didn't exactly defend himself well over Wells' charges.
Anyhow, please check out my article on it!
1 comment:
The only thing I can think of here is that Joe planned NOT to use Wells in the ALDS - he went with Cone and Pettitte in games 1 and 2 at the Stadium - figuring he would be up 2-0 and Mendoza would pitch game 3. Unfortunately, Andy lost game 2 (to yecch! Jaret Wright), so Joe was forced to go to Wells in game 3. Interesting that with all the talk of Andy's postseason success, 1997 is never mentioned - where he lost both his starts to Cleveland.
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