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My thoughts on the Joe Torre situation

The first reaction a lot of people may have is, "How can anyone turn down the potential of eight million dollars?" I think, from Joe Torre's standpoint, this whole negotiation weakened his position. It's not a matter of him making it to each round of the post-season; they have to, and had to, go out and get the type of players Torre managed in the late 1990's, if they as a team want to even think about moving on to different levels of the post-season. The Yankees have spent a lot of money on free agents since 2001, but they just do not have the same players, or team, that they had during the dynasty run.

If this situation was based on pure money, I do not believe that Joe Torre would have turned down this offer. With incentives, that is a heck of a lot of money to turn away to manage in New York. However, I do think that there are other factors on why he turned down this job, which we may not hear about during his press conference. I'm just speculating, but maybe Joe knows that the Cardinals managing position may open up. He also may just be taking the high road right now and will not take shots at people. Torre is saying, "You know, I didn't have to go through all of this." Only Joe himself knows what is best for him and his family at this point in time, and that is the decision he made. He obviously initiated the conversation about going down to Tampa to see where he stood, and he apparently got his answer.

Being the family man that he is, I'm sure Joe got good advice from his wife and family on the issue. He is a respectful man and his comments in the conference were tactful and respectful.

My memories of the Joe Torre Era

All of my memories of the Joe Torre are pleasant memories. My timing was such that when I started covering the Yankees, I covered one year with Buck Showalter as manager and then the rest of my time there was with Joe as the skipper.

I can remember the conditions that he came into. Joe certainly did not have a lot of support, other than the fact that Arthur Richman recommended him. Then to see the way he handled the media, George Steinbrenner, and the players, you realized that there was something special there. The proof is there when you hear all of comments of praise from all of the players.

To me, when you have a talented ball club like he had, the key is not the hit and run situations or the X's and O's of the game, it's the way he handled himself. In terms of game situations, I really think Don Zimmer was a good person to have on that staff. Joe has really missed him over the last couple of years. However, Joe's strength was that when a player was down and the media was on them, he had a way of relaxing the player, allowing them to do their job. In my opinion that's the most important part of being a manager: it's not always about being the strongest field general.

The way Joe handled success was also phenomenal. A lot of managers and players could let success get to their head, but Joe had his players keep their eyes on the prize and always focused them.

I vividly remember the picture of him coming out of the dugout after he won his first pennant and then about a week later his emotions when he won his first World Series. He was so humble about the whole thing. He always mentioned that he could have absolutely been on the other side. He could have been on the losing bench and was always grateful for his success.

As a reporter who covered Yankees for all of those years, I was always amazed and appreciated the fact that Joe always had time for everyone. It was always unreal the amount of time he put into answering the questions in the dugout before the game; that was a credit to him as an individual. If he wanted to say something off the record, I was always thankful that I had the type of relationship with him that he could trust me with keeping what he had to tell him in confidence. That was really one of the biggest treats for me of being the Yankee announcer during the Joe Torre era was the relationship I had with him. Without naming names, there are a lot of managers out there who will give you smoke and mirrors.

I would also like to mention that I am still very grateful that Joe wrote such kind words about me in the foreword of my book. I've always had that kind of a close relationship with him. I think we both understood, from being former players, how fragile success and failure were and I always appreciated that about Joe.