Follow Up

Here's a quick follow-up on my last post. Joe Buck, the lead baseball announcer on Fox just echoed some of the things I said in my previous blog and in fact expanded on many of them. Buck, while using a podium infinitely higher than I have here, credited Torre with much of the success the Yankees have achieved the past 15 years. Think about it. Torre oversaw four world titles which led to the creation of the so-called 'Evil Empire.' The cable network Yes, the new Yankee Stadium and the fact that the franchise can spend gobs of money to field an all-star team each season.

I hate to harp on this point as I have no posted two consecutive times on the same subject. While I am a proud Yankee fan, I am still disgusted with the way the organizations 'brain trust' ran Torre out of town. Michael Kay, the lead announcer on Yes, makes light of the event saying that with the Yanks winning another title last year and Torre firmly entrenched with the Dodgers the incident is int he past and everyone has moved on. Maybe this is true for Kay who is on the Yankee payroll and in addition to announcing games hosts his own talk show on the Yes network. But for fans like myself who grew up watching and playing baseball in the 90s, you get an emotional attachment to the players and managers that you see on so many lazy Sunday afternoons. This is especially true of a guy like Joe Torre.

Torre certainly does not need Buck or myself to come rushing to his defense - he can handle himself and never backs out of questions from detractors. But it's always nice to someone like Buck call out an organization on an incident that they try to pretend is long past.

For the full story on what went down between Torre and the Yanks, check out the Torre and Tom Verducci co-authored The Yankee Years. Yes it's got a bitter tone and is a little biased but nnot so much that it blurs truth from fiction. It is the story of the rise and fall of the Yanks under Torre and is a great read for any baseball fan.