Ever hear that old baseball adage about how “what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse”? Apparently Joe Torre hasn’t, or he’s pretending he hasn’t. Because he, along with Sports Illustrated columnist Tom Verducci, have written a tell-all book about Teflon Torre’s time with the Yankees, called “The Yankee Years.” And the New York Post has the scoop on the book.
Here are some of the details of the Torre tome, according to the Post:
Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called “A-Fraud” by his teammates after he developed a “Single White Female”-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.
The Post also reports this about “The Yankee Years”:
Torre spent years trying to bring out a winning performance from A-Rod, the highest-paid player in baseball, which from all reported accounts included a lot of hand-holding and battling the insecurities and demons Rodriguez struggles with.
Remember how Torre called out Michael Kay for gossiping about the team in 1996, saying he didn’t need Kay to be the Rona Barrett of the Yankee clubhouse? Looks like Torre was the real Rona Barrett of the Yankee clubhouse!
And while A-Rod may be paranoid, Torre was indeed out to get him all along. Between the lukewarm comments to the press all along about him, to the Tom Verducci-written “Lonely Yankee” hit job in Sports Illustrated in the fall of 2006, to batting him eighth in the playoffs to take the heat off Torre, Joe treated A-Rod pretty badly.
Don’t forget how that Verducci-written SI article talked about a one-on-one closed-door meeting with Torre and Rodriguez, where Alex nervously twirled his wedding ring? That tidbit came from Torre, who was violating clubhouse confidentiality even then.
So while it’s clear Alex is a high-maintenance player who brings a lot of drama – as well as talent – to the team, I would take any anti-A-Rod stuff Torre writes with a grain – no, make that a shaker – of salt.
True, A-Rod has had some awful moments in the playoffs (as has Torre, of course, although Joe does have those wonderful four rings, too), but the Yankees would not have even made the playoffs in 2005 and 2007 without Alex having MVP seasons those years. Kind of like how Torre’s Dodgers wouldn’t have made the playoffs this year without Manny Ramirez having two MVP-like months with the team.
And how does Torre repay A-Rod for those phenomenal seasons? He trashes him to sell books. Classy! Come to think of it, Manny had better watch his back. Because I’m guessing that the high-maintenance superstar will be negatively featured in Torre’s inevitable sequel, “The Dodger Years.”
Besides, given that Torre had his clubhouse attendant make him his green tea every day (iced green tea in the summer, of course), it’s rather rich for Joe to criticize Alex for having a clubhouse attendant do personal chores.
And how about Verducci writing this book with Torre, at the same time he was slamming the Yankees and defending Torre in his Sports Illustrated day job? Nice work if you can get it, eh?
You may remember that back in the fall of 2007, the Yankees’ Randy Levine called out Verducci for a conflict of interest in saying that the Yankees’ownership had blood on their hands for the way they treated Joe. Levine noted that Verducci had previously collaborated with Torre on a book, something that wasn’t mentioned in the SI article.
Verducci rather huffily told the New York Times he didn’t think it was a big deal that he didn’t mention the book, saying that ”it’s 10 years ago and clearly a matter of public record.”
Less than three weeks later, Doubleday announced that Torre was writing a book, with – surprise – Verducci as his ghostwriter. Yet Sports Illustrated continued to let Verducci write about the Yanks – including critiquing Yankee ownership just last month, as well as doing a cover story about the old stadium where he wrote the article as if he were literally the voice of Yankee Stadium. And there were no disclaimers about his new book project included with the articles.
Heck, there’s not even a mention of either book Verducci wrote with Torre on the columnist’s official SI bio. Ridiculous.
I will have more to say later today, and in the future, about the book, including the way Joe slams Brian Cashman and Yankee ownership. But in the meantime, I’d like to ask our readers what they think about the book. Leave us a comment!
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