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Turns out Yankees did Dodgers' Torre a favor

Shaun Powell

October 9, 2008

After giving them a dozen years of mostly meritorious service, Joe Torre thought they were suddenly doing him a great injustice. What's the word he used that fateful day? Insult. Yeah, that's it. Insult.

The Yankees insulted their manager by placing conditions on his next contract, which led Torre to tell them where to shove those conditions and that contract and the job. But here today, we now know the Yankees, in hindsight, did not do him a disservice. No, "insult" should not be the word.

"Favor" is the word.

The Yankees made Joe Torre's managing career when they hired him from the unemployment line, and they restored his career when they sent him back. They did him a favor in 1996 and then again in 2007. He arrived to the Yankees at the right time and he left in the nick of time, because here in October, as baseball heats up, he's working and they're not.

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He has the Dodgers four wins from the World Series. His reputation as a manager, in the truest sense of the description, hasn't looked this polished since 2000. Torre is back in the championship hunt and once again has the Yankees to thank.

Had he taken their halfhearted offer to stick around in the Bronx, he would not be where he is now. That's just an educated hunch. He'd be out of the playoffs, and dealing with dissension, and wondering about his job and kicking himself for not checking to see if the grass, in addition to the money, is indeed greener elsewhere.

Torre landed in a place with more pitching, less pressure and just enough Manny Ramirez in the stretch run. The Dodgers had all of that this season, along with a big-market city to maximize commercial opportunities and an amount of history and tradition that's only surpassed by the Yankees. Yep, you might say this worked out for Torre a whole lot better than had he allowed himself to be insulted by the Yankees.

The Yankees of 2008 weren't going anyplace special, whether they were managed by Joe Girardi, Joe Torre, Casey Stengel or Miller Huggins. They were too flawed and too injured and in certain ways too old to put up a fight against the Red Sox or Rays, the two division heavyweights who'll have it out for the American League title. The slow disintegration of the Yankees was bound to happen sooner or later, and what's surprising is how Torre, who still wanted to manage them, didn't see it coming.

This season, in no particular order of importance, Torre would've had to deal with the hot-button issue of Joba Chamberlain and should he or shouldn't he stay in the bullpen; and a banged-up Chien-Ming Wang and Jorge Posada; and a handful of young pitchers who boomeranged back to the minors; and one of the worst season of Derek Jeter's career; and more lackadaisical flashes from Robinson Cano; and the occasional zinger from Steinbrenner Junior. Yes, you can only imagine Hank Steinbrenner behaving like a chip off the old block and Torre somehow taking it.

Clearly, the Yankees were, and still are, in transition. They're changing their philosophy and roster on the fly as they try to remake themselves into a team that feels the need to compete for a championship every year, if only to justify the payroll and their spoiled fans.

The real reason why Torre wouldn't have made a difference in the Bronx was the competition. It was much too steep. The Red Sox had too much pitching and the Rays too much speed and energy for any manager to overcome, Torre or otherwise. He also admitted yesterday, on the eve of the NL Championship Series, that he probably stayed too long, saying, "you're not sure if your voice still makes sense to a lot of people."

Also, by leaving the formidable Yankee resources behind, Torre was able to demonstrate how he'd manage with a lesser payroll. "I had success with the Yankees but I just don't feel that automatically makes me a success somewhere else," Torre said. "You still have to earn your stripes."

And what about returning to the playoffs without the Yankees? "I didn't feel I needed to vindicate myself. I just wanted to see if I could do it somewhere else. The word is 'satisfaction,' not vindication."

Even the most successful people will admit how it's better to be lucky than good, although in the case of Torre leaving the Yankees for the Dodgers, hasn't he been both?