the rix mix

If it's time for Joe Torre to step down as Yankee manager, it's not because he failed to get the team to the World Series again. It's because the Joe Torre era is coming to an end. Joe brought over a decade of stability & sanity to a Yankee clubhouse that had usually been a nuthouse during the Steinbrenner years. & he was a winner every year he managed the Yanks. But George Steinbrenner is old. Yankee Stadium will be demolished after the 2008 season. Jeter isn't a kid, Mariano is aging, Clemens is finished & a hired gun anyway. Joe walks stiff-legged to the mound. He looks exhausted after every game, even the afternoon laughers. He's tough & wise, but he lacks the irascible temperament of great old man managers. It's getting very near color commentary time for Joe, if that's something he wouldn't mind doing. It would have been a great thing for Joe if the Yanks had gone to the Series this year, if he could lead the team into the new stadium, through the transition. But maybe that's for Don Mattingly or Joe Girardi. Joe became manager when Bill Clinton was president & Giuliani the mayor. He was manager at the new millennium & on 9/11 (the Yanks lost the 2001 Series to the Diamondbacks, in 7 games, in the bottom of the 9th, on Nov. 4th, it was a terrific Series). Given Joe's managerial records with the Mets, Braves & Cards, there was little reason in 1996 to think he'd last long - much less attain Baseball Hall of Fame level success - with the Yankees. But he has.

If Steinbrenner wants Joe out, he certainly could have arranged a change in respectful, valedictory manner. Denying Joe a dignified exit, treating him no better than when Trump fires a reality show contestant, is terrible. But it's George's way, the Yankee way. In Yankeeland there's no league parity, the Yanks didn't lose because the Indians won 96 regular season games & had better pitching.

Labels: baseball