[新聞] Boss, Torre didn't have guts

[leddy (耿秋)]

Wallace Matthews

Boss, Torre didn't have guts
October 10, 2006
from newsday.com

The sandwiches on the table were a dead giveaway. Nobody caters a wake, not
even the Yankees. Joe Torre would not be fired on this day.

No, the fabled Boss, he of the vaunted hair-trigger temper and insatiable
appetite for winning, didn't have the guts to pull the trigger on this one.

And Torre, widely thought of as a man of class and integrity, found he had
neither of those in sufficient quantity to walk away from a situation in
which he is clearly no longer wanted. At least, not with $7 million still on
the table.

So each gets what he wanted and each will now get what he deserves. Torre
gets his paycheck and George Steinbrenner gets his pinstriped pinata, a
lame-duck manager he can kick around for another year while his overpaid,
undermotivated team of fat cats yawns its way through another disappointing
season.

Next year will be miserable for Torre, more miserable than Tuesday's Yankee
Stadium news conference, in which Torre spoke of managing next year with the
demeanor of a man having been given a death sentence, not a reprieve.

Although Steinbrenner was nowhere to be seen, his presence was everywhere in
that room, which reeked of humiliation for the man who had led his team to
four world championships in 11 seasons.

Not quite the old Steinbrenner, of course, because if that raging hurricane
of a man still existed, he would have marched into the dugout after the
Yankees' shameful rollover to the Detroit Tigers on Saturday and ripped the
pinstripes off his uniform like a general stripping a failed sergeant of his
rank.

Brian Cashman's protests aside, no doubt there was plenty of truth in the
reports of the past three days, that Steinbrenner wanted to fire Torre to
cleanse himself of the stench of losing.

If not, then why did Torre open what the Yankees were calling his "annual
end-of-season wrap-up" as follows?

"I just got off the phone with George Stenbrenner a few minutes ago. He has
informed me that I'm going to be here as his manager next year. Which I'm
very excited about, because this has been the best job of my life."

That might say even more about the jobs Torre's had than the one he has now.
But throughout his 45-minute Q&A session, Torre never cracked a smile. If
this was Torre showing excitement, you hope never to see him angry, sad or
depressed.

If the firing of Torre was never a serious consideration, then why did the
official statement released by Steinbrenner sound less like an endorsement
than like an ultimatum?

Clearly, there were voices in the Yankees organization calling for the
manager's head. Just as clearly, there were louder voices imploring The Boss
to stay the course, that firing the manager would be a gesture of surrender,
an admission that this fabulous Yankees machine was in need of being rebuilt.

In the past, no amount of persuasion could have convinced Steinbrenner not to
fire someone, not after a failure such as this one, and certainly not after
six years of postseason failure in a row.

But this is a different Steinbrenner, older, frail, less in control of things
than he was, more susceptible to pressure from subordinates and public
opinion.

As bad as this collapse was, as poorly motivated as his team appeared, as
ineffectual as Torre looked over the last couple of games, it would still be
a wildly unpopular move to whack the most successful Yankees manager since
Casey Stengel.

There were plenty of other, more palatable targets to go after. Alex
Rodriguez for one. Retaining Torre was the first shot in a renewed war
against A-Rod, since the manager told the world all about his confidence in
his floundering superstar by batting him eighth in Game 4 against the Tigers.

No, Steinbrenner must have decided it was too risky and not rewarding enough
to fire Torre now. Instead, he gets to torment him for another year, to use
him as a foil to be kicked around, blamed and humiliated in exchange for a
hefty paycheck.

The Boss hasn't had this much fun since Billy Martin was alive.

And Torre, for all his purported pride and independence, clearly decided he
would swallow three days of humiliating headlines in exchange for his
$7-million salary.

For now, nothing has changed in Yankeeland. George Steinbrenner remains the
nominal Boss. Joe Torre remains the beleaguered manager. As they say on the
injury reports, his status is day to day.

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