Delmio.com Book News

Yankee Doodle not always dandy

By Dave
February 5th, 2009 | Leave a comment

A lot of people thought Joe Torre had a job for life with the New York Yankees, including Torre. That started to change as longtime owner George Steinbrenner relinquished the reins of the business, and by 2007 Torre was gone, in spite of a successful run as manager with the Yankees. Now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Torre is still widely identified with the Yankees – perhaps baseball’s most storied, beloved and hated team.

Sports Illustrated, NPR others have excerpted Torre’s new book with SI writer Tom Verducci,The Yankee Years. In it Torre addresses his relationships with Steinbrenner and stars Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez.

Torres says Rodriguez  had an especially difficult time dealing with the huge expectations that came with being the highest-paid player in baseball. His teammates openly referred to A-Rod as “A-Fraud” in the locker room, which can’t contribute much to team chemistry except toxicity. There was plenty of that, and the fallout continues with new reports of A-Rod testing positive for steroid use and lingering suspicion surrounding Clemens.

In SI, Torre describes the last few meetings with the Yankees, when it became apparent that he was no longer welcome there.

An excerpt:

So that was it. The 12-year Torre era had come to a nonnegotiable end. Torre’s run ended with a meeting that took little more than 10 minutes. As Torre got up from his seat in Steinbrenner’s office, Hal Steinbrenner said to him, “The door’s always open. You can always work for the YES Network.”

Torre was too stunned to speak, caught between bemusement and anger. Did the Boss’s son really just dangle the consolation of working for the Yankees-run regional television network after the Yankees refused to negotiate with the second-­winningest manager in franchise history?

Torre shook the hands of everybody in the room, starting with George. The old man took his dark glasses off and said, “Good luck, Joe.”

Visit the SI site HERE.

Visit and listen at NPR.

Related posts:

1. Book news: Juiced – again