Torre turns down offer to return as Yanks’ skipper
NEW YORK — After all he had accomplished — four World Series titles, 12 straight years in the playoffs, almost certain entry into the Hall of Fame — and after all the indignities, this was one Joe Torre wasn’t going to stand for. He wasn’t going to take a pay cut from the New York Yankees, no matter that he still would have been the highest-paid manager in baseball, and he certainly wasn’t going to prove himself all over again. Torre walked away Thursday, turning down a $5 million, one-year contract — $2.5 million less than he made this season, when the Yankees failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year.
No one has ever accused the Yankee brain trust as being a classy operation. Yesterday, they once again demonstrated what a self-absorbed, mean-spirited, and thoroughly classless group they truly are. Frankly, Joe Torre deserved better.
You’d think that after four World Series championships and 12 straight seasons making the playoffs that Torre would be relatively safe. Remember, though, that these are the Yankees we’re talking about here. Yes, I understand that expecations are higher in New York than elsewhere, but do the Stenibrenner-bots REALLY think that there is anyone out there better equipped to pilot this dysfunctional ship through a 162-game season AND a voracious, show-no-mercy, take-no-prisoners media and fan base?
Joe Torre is perhaps the classiest, most dignified person in baseball. In the sea of insanity and gross immaturity that is New York, Torre has navigated the Yankees through storms that would have capsized other teams and lesser men. Keeping things in-house, Torre never stood idly by so that problems and issues could be aired and worked out in the media. When players stepped over the line, Torre reigned them back in, doing so in a way that allowed the players their dignity while still making crystal clear who was in charge. When you look to define leadership, you really need look no farther than Joe Torre.
After the Yankees’ early playoff flame-out this season, it became almost a foregone conclusion that George Steinbrenner and his evil minions would find a way to rid themselves of Torre. Lacking the collective balls the fire Torre outright, they spent days letting him twist in the wind while they puzzled through how to save face and still get what they wanted. In the end, their solution only served to indicate what a completely classless collection of drones they truly are. Yes, after four World Series championships and 12 straight years getting the Yankees to the playoffs, they offered Torre a one-year contract at a 33% paycut. Sure, most of us are at-will employees, but you can’t tell me that if your employer came to you and said “You can stay, but you’re going to have to take a 33% pay cut”, that you wouldn’t be insulted.
Torre, of course, is smart enough to recognize what the Steinbrenner-bots were trying to do. To his credit, he told them to kiss his @$$. Now, the Yankees have lost not only the best manager they’ve ever had, they’re risking losing several key free agents this winter because of it. The odds of the Yankees making the playoffs for a 13th consecutive season looking very long all of a sudden…which accounts for the smile on my face.
Yes, Joe Torre deserves better…and he’ll get it somewhere else if he so chooses. I hope he does, because Torre is truly one of baseball’s good people. It’s just too bad that none of those good people work in the Yankees’ front office.
