It’s somehow appropriate that Jim Bouton has been defending Joe Torre as of late. Because not only did Bouton write “Ball Four,” that inside look inside a clubhouse, but he also wrote a book of baseball anecdotes called “I Managed Good, But Boy Did They Play Bad.”
And while nobody could accuse the late-90s dynasty Yankees of playing bad, it seems like Joe was all too willing to shift blame to his team, instead of taking the heat himself, for their playoff failures this decade.
I have yet to hear that Joe takes any blame for his dopey moves. I still can’t understand why, if he can describe Jeff Weaver as unable to handle pressure and Kevin Brown as being a mess, that he put them in important playoff games? It makes no sense.
I haven’t read “The Yankee Years” yet, and I will not buy a copy, as I don’t want to put a penny into Joe Torre’s pocket. As I never did get a review copy, I will have to read it from getting a waiting list copy at the library. Oh well.
Real-life obligations intruded on missing hearing Joeapalooza live on the radio yesterday. Heck, I even missed getting my Snuggie shipment. UPS didn’t want to leave the box without me signing for it. And I can understand, because if the Snuggies walked off when I was away from home, I would be pretty peeved! Who can resist the temptation of the Snuggie?
Anyhow, I digress. Even without reading the book, I think I can comment a little on Joe’s big day in New York City yesterday, and the fallout from the book.
First off, why are journalists surprised that most of the people on line for Torre’s book signings think he’s the cat’s meow? How many people are going to wait hours on line, and plunk down 30 bucks, just to tell somebody they can’t stand him? Not many.
Put it this way – Joe could be signing books across the street from me, and I’d still have to think long and hard about going to say something to him, if it would cost me money to buy his book!
What amazes me is that Torre is still trying to spin the A-Fraud description as a joking thing done to Alex’s face, even though his own book says nothing of the sort. What, is he going to claim to be misquoted in his own book?
Joe did acknowledge yesterday that he probably shouldn’t have told Randy Levine to “shut the bleep up” in 2003. Interestingly enough, they were on a conference call to discuss the fallout over David Wells’ book!
“It’s probably not the best idea in the world to tell the president of the ballclub to shut up,” he said.
Guess that’s why Torre was the highest-paid manager in the history of the game – because it took him six years to figure that out, and to wonder why Levine wasn’t very fond of him after that. Sheesh.
Two of the dynasty-era Yankees commented on the book. Jorge Posada defended Joe:
“He’s been a father figure to me. I don’t think he can do any wrong,” Posada said. “There’s nothing that has been on the book that hasn’t been written or talked about earlier or before.”
Posada is such a solipsist. Just because he knew that – no joke – Kevin Brown once curled into the fetal position during a game doesn’t mean that everybody knew it.
It also would be nice if Posada could be loyal to his current team. Joe may be a father figure to him, but he’s not his manager anymore.
And Derek Jeter has – in a true shocker – come out and defended Alex Rodriguez:
“I’m just curious as to why people keep asking the same questions over and over. We’ve been down this road before. Alex is a teammate. I support him. Our whole team is behind him. We all support him. And we’re looking forward to a new season. To be quite honest with you, it’s old hearing the same questions. It’s something that’s been addressed before in the past. Everyone’s moved beyond it. And it doesn’t really need to be addressed again.”
Maybe Jeter ought to ask Mr. T, as he calls him, why he felt compelled to write a book about his team which described A-R0d as a “Single White Female.”
Anyhow, the most telling reaction yesterday was Brian Cashman refusing to comment on “The Yankee Years.” Just wished Cash had not also said that the Yanks would be skipping going after Manny Ramirez. Bummer.
What do you think? Leave us a comment!
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