Joe Torre's Book Causes Uproar in Sports World: What's Being Said?

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

SI.com posted an excerpt from the book The Yankees Years. The main topic is how the managerial meetings were handled after the Yanks’ were knocked out of the postseason by the Indians.

Here is a small piece of that story:

"

So that was it. The 12-year Torre era had come to a non-negotiable end. Torre’s run ended with a meeting that took little more than 10 minutes. As Torre got up from his seat in Steinbrenner’s office, Hal Steinbrenner said to him, “The door’s always open. You can always work for the YES Network.”

Torre was too stunned to speak, caught between bemusement and anger. Did the Boss’s son really just dangle the consolation of working for the Yankees-run regional television network after the Yankees refused to negotiate with the second-­winningest manager in franchise history?

Torre shook the hands of everybody in the room, starting with George. The old man took his dark glasses off and said, “Good luck, Joe.”

“Thanks again, Boss,” Torre said.

————————————————————————----------------------------

“Cash was sitting right over my right shoulder,” Torre said, “and never uttered a sound the whole meeting.” Cashman, for his part, says simply, “It was Joe’s meeting.”

Only much later did Torre start to put the picture together of what had happened to his working relationship with Cashman. The personal falling-out they had in 2006 spring training over philosophical issues, Cashman’s decision not to bring back longtime center fielder Bernie Williams when his contract expired in 2006, his submission of odd lineup suggestions based on stats, his lack of regard for Ron Guidry as a pitching coach, his detachment from the “they” who were making an offer to Torre, his failure to offer any comment or support in the meeting that decided Torre’s future, his failure to personally relay Torre’s proposal to find a way to reach an agreement to the Steinbrenners …

Where could Torre find support in the end? His old ally, Swindal, thanks to one DUI charge, had been run out of the organization and the Steinbrenner family. George was not fit enough to deal directly with Torre himself. And now Cashman had retreated to silence with Torre’s job on the line.

“I thought Cash was an ally, I really did,” Torre says. “You know, we had some differences on coaches, and the usefulness of the coaches. I know he didn’t think much of Guidry. And [former bench coach Don] Zimmer. You know, Zimmer ­didn’t trust Cash, and I disagreed with Zimmer vehemently for the longest time. Then, you know, you start thinking about things. I have a, I don’t want to say it’s a weakness, but I want to trust people. And I do trust people until I’m proved wrong. And it’s not going to keep me from trusting somebody else tomorrow, because it’s the only way I can do my job.”

"

Some other things in the news about the book:

Cashman offers support to A-Rod: 

"

Brian Cashman thinks the Yankees should rally around Alex Rodriguez following the book in which former manager Joe Torre portrayed A-Rod as a divisive figure in the New York clubhouse.

“I think we’ve gone through so much of the Alex stuff that, you know, if anything, maybe this brings people closer together,” Cashman said Monday during a conference call to announce Andy Pettitte was returning to the team in 2009.

In “The Yankee Years,” scheduled for publication Feb. 3, Torre says “Alex monopolized all the attention,” and that “he needs people to make a fuss over him.”

"

BOWA: TEAMMATE SHOTS AT ALEX ALL IN FUN:

"

Alex Rodriguez may have been referred to as “A-Fraud,” but it was in jest, says former Yankee coach Larry Bowa.

In Joe Torre’s latest book, “The Yankee Years,” it’s reported that Yankee players referred to A-Rod as “A-Fraud.”

But yesterday, Bowa - Torre’s third-base coach with the Dodgers who filled the same role with the New York Yankees in 2006-07 - told The Post that former Yankee bullpen catcher and batting-practice pitcher Mike Borzello, a good friend of Alex Rodriguez, used to joke around with the star player by sometimes referring to him as “A-Fraud.”

"

Source: By batting A-Rod 8th in playoffs, Joe Torre wrote him off:

"

Alex Rodriguez told friends Monday that he is “not bothered at all” by the reports that Joe Torre apparently took some shots at him in his forthcoming book, and dismissed talk of an “A-Fraud” persona or any Derek Jeter obsession as old news that no longer applies to his standing in the Yankee clubhouse.

“He laughed at the stuff because he is so beyond all of that,” one person close to A-Rod said Monday. “Personally he feels like he’s in a great space in his life and felt very comfortable last year in the clubhouse and with his relationship with his teammates.”

"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will probably tarnish Joe Torre’s legacy, but in my mind, it’s the same old Joe. I like him as much as I did before this book came out. Torre was pushed out of New York and he is finally getting his feelings out. I have no problem with it at all. This book sure has caused a big stir in New York and around the sports world. Everything you hear is about Joe Torre and his new book.

I have a copy of the book on its way from Barnes & Noble, and I can’t wait to read it.

Nothing ever ends well  /  Yanks Set On Field, But What About the Clubhouse?