Joe Torre Won Many Hearts on His Day

Oct 20, 12:00 AM

Current Headlines: RYE, N.Y. _ This was the equivalent of a hanging curveball to David Ortiz, an alley-oop to the 1986 Michael Jordan. Joe Torre strolled into the vast ballroom of this pleasant hotel in scenic Westchester on Friday, and you knew that, within minutes, he'd have the hundreds of attendants eating out of his hands.

Given the spectacularly incompetent horror show that the Yankees produced on Thursday, never would Torre face a more sympathetic crowd.

He killed in his news conference, of course, utilizing equal parts honesty, humility and humor to make his former Bronx (and Tampa) bosses look like a pack of incompetent boobs.

I honestly think that the Yankees' chances of winning it all in 2008 and beyond, as per the moronic mission statement voiced by team president Randy Levine and the Steinbrenner boys Thursday, improves with Torre's departure. But Friday completed a two-day, public-relations beating for the organization, ironically giving Torre the classy ending that he deserved.

You always got the sense that Torre, given his hot-and-cold relationship with George Steinbrenner _ and, more recently, his freezing cold relationship with Levine _ wouldn't mind going out a martyr. So this was his dream scenario.

It's amazing how badly the Yankees botched this. And it's a foreboding start for the Hank and Hal Steinbrenner reign.

The Yankees' top decision-makers obviously didn't want Torre to come back, a move that could be rationalized on many levels _ and could've been sold to the fans, as well.

They could've gone with the reliable "fresh voice" route, explaining their desire for a change. Or, if they wanted to get a little more personal, they could've explained that, as 2008 approached, they wanted a manager more willing to embrace the industry's developments. Such as exhibiting more patience for young players, and utilizing statistical analysis, and deploying the 25-man roster with more flexibility, so that the Shelley Duncans and Edwar Ramirezes of the world don't rot on the bench while two relievers' arms fall off from overuse.

They could've gone a step further and asserted a correlation between Torre's regular-season managing and the postseason disappointments. At some level, Torre and his pitching coaches Mel Stottlemyre and Ron Guidry have to take accountability for failing to develop a deep enough core of reliable bullpen arms. So Mariano Rivera might have been tired in October 2001 and 2004, and Tom Gordon, too, in 2004, and Luis Vizcaino earlier this month.

People might have disagreed with the arguments, yet not with the thought behind it.

Instead, lacking courage and intelligence, the Yankees set Torre up with a phony offer that nearly everyone saw through. And in defending their antics in a Thursday conference call, they exposed themselves as a group of arrogant nimrods, baseball cavemen at a time when everyone with a brain comprehends that the postseason is more about luck than managing or motivation.

Levine spoke about how "It's nobody's fault" that the Yankees haven't won a World Series in seven years. In other organizations, there would be battles for credit over making the postseason seven consecutive seasons, let alone the actual 13. With the Yankees, there's backstabbing and scapegoating.

Enter Torre, who explained why he found the bonuses for postseason success "an insult." Who told why it wouldn't be healthy for the organization to employ a manager in the final year of his contract yet again.

Easy as cake. Remember, Torre always dominated the press-conference portion of the competition.

Torre owns such a gift for communicating, which, for the most part, served him well in Yankees pinstripes. He presented his pain, although not in a petty way. He refused to commit to a future appearance at Yankee Stadium to celebrate his 12 years there. You'd have to bet that he'll relent on that, eventually, but why should he have given anyone the satisfaction Friday?

No, Torre gets it all, the love from the fans and the media, and the satisfaction of knowing he damaged his enemies.

He was never a brilliant, in-game strategist. But this stuff? Right in his wheelhouse. You can be sure he'll be chuckling as the Yankees, reeling, try and placate disgruntled free agents Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera.

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PHOTO (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

JOE TORRE

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