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It's a good day to be a Yankee-hater.
This bungling of Joe Torre's firing (let's call it what it is) accomplishes the dual task of (a) making the team look like a bunch of clueless skinflints, and (b) making the team worse on the field.
I can tell you: as someone who regularly roots against the Yankees, I wanted Torre gone. I know it's gone beyond clich茅 to call him "classy," but don't underestimate the extent to which Torre made the Yanks palatable to the North American sporting public. He's easy to like, or, at least that's his persona. Sure, it's annoying that they spend so much money, steal other teams' best players, act arrogantly, mint money, etc., but with Torre and Derek Jeter around, it's always been a little tougher to actually hate them. It got easier today.
I laugh when I hear Yankees "fans" railing against the way Torre manages a pitching staff or, particularly, a bullpen. Brian Cashman is the guy who brought in Kyle Farnsworth, and Edwar Ramirez, and Sean Henn, and Kei Igawa (to say nothing of Tom Gordon and Kevin Brown and Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano and Jon Lieber and Javier Vazquez and Jose Contreras and an old-as-dirt Randy Johnson). What's Torre supposed to do when the pressure's so high to win games? Use Farnsworth? I don't think so. So he burns out middle relievers like Scott Proctor and Luis Vizcaino and Ron Villone and Paul Quantrill. If he didn't, if he used all the stiffs Cashman acquires, he'd have been fired years ago.
The thing about how stupid the Yankees' offer to Torre was was that it wasn't stupid. I mean, they couldn't honestly have expected Torre to accept a one-year, incentive-laden deal that paid him a $1m for each round of the playoffs he won, right? As if motivation had been Torre's problem over the last seven years (and not acquisitions like Tony Womack, Craig Wilson, Tony Clark and Raul Mondesi). But did they think we aren't smart enough to see through this? Did they think we'd say, "Gosh, the Yanks made him an offer, but I guess it wasn't good enough for Joe"?
They didn't want Torre back, but wanted to be able to say they tried to keep him. Well, they didn't try hard enough, and I'm glad. It's going to be easier to beat this team on the field next year. And woe betide the next manager if he doesn't make the playoffs.
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it is the end of an era and he was a good coach. I guess we will see what happens next year for the franchise No, It's a bad thing. It shows the world what type of jerk
George Steinbrenner and family really are! Here's a
man who has no problem spending a lot of money on
players, and all of a sudden there's an issue with the
managers salary. What a crock! It also shows you that
George Steinbrenner may talk a big game, but when It
came time to show some balls and fire Joe Torre, he
wimped out like a little girl................. Adds fuel, to be sure. Shows that ownership has absolutely no class or baseball sense. Torre was a horrible manager before he got there, but he had the talent to win 4 titles in 5 years and go to the playoffs 12 straight years.
Pure and simple - the Steinbrenners are idiots! Torre's sooooo overrated. Any manager in the MLB could win 6 WS out of 12 with the players he got. The only thing I respect from him is having to deal with that b!tch Steinbrenner. I admit I have hated the Yankees since I was 10 years old BUT there is nothing to rejoice in the exit of Torre from the Yankees. He was/is a manager's manager and a real gentleman. I am in awe of Torre for not humiliating himself with that deal. If he doesn't retire any team would be lucky to have him I may not like the Yankees but I want them to field the best team they can if, for no other reason, to see them lose. Torre could do that and did it with class. I'm sorry to see him out of the Yankee system - he is a good baseball guy and good for baseball. How is it a good thing? no, its not good for baseball.. torre is the only guy with any class in the whole organization.
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