February 19, 2008
Three Years of Discomfort
Joe Torre talks about the end of his career with the Yankees:
His situation began to sour, he reflected, after his team blew a lead of three games to none to the archrival Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series.
"The last 3 years were difficult. I think it started probably with losing to the Red Sox. Because that becomes a mortal sin," he said. "And even though the Red Sox were obviously a very good team that year, we got lucky early. They didn't play well. Then we had two leads in Games 4 and 5 we couldn't hold onto.
"Since that time, it may be a little too strong to say [the Yankees] wanted to make a change. But for me it wasn't as comfortable. It could have been self-induced. I don't know. Last season was very uncomfortable, especially with the bad start we had. There were a lot of questions and stories I had to address.
"I'm sure it took its toll on me, but when you walk into the clubhouse and all of a sudden the players aren't sure what they should say, what they shouldn't say, your coaching staff, that made it doubly uncomfortable for me. I just think over the last few years it was gradually getting to the point of not being a helluva lot of fun. The baseball was still fun, but aside from that . . . "
Posted by David Pinto at
08:07 AM
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Let the badmouthing begin!
Let the badmouthing begin!
My favorite part was him glossing over the fact that it was blowing a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox instead of losing to the Red Sox that was the mortal sin.
I'm sure the fans were much more uncomfortable watching him botch game after game and bullpen decision after bullpen decision.
Maybe if Torre doesn't pitch Flash in the blowout game then Flash has something left in games 4 and 5 and manages to get out of the 8th inning without putting a runner on base.
Just a thought.
Dead Horse. Not gonna beat it.
Well - it was kind of a choke job of epic proportions - IIRC Grady Little didn't make it to the next season after '03
Maybe if he would have bunted on a guy whose ankle was stapled together...
Looking back, winning 4 WS in 5 years for The Boss, a more generous Boss in his advancing years, earned Torre a 6 year grace period. Fair? You bet. In the Bronx?...Unheard of in the George era on 161st Street and River. Time for Torre to go? Absolutely. For those of you non New Yorkers...the headline of the newspaper here the day he was hired read, "Clueless Joe". Whether you praise him or malign him, there's probably truth in both cases.