The Sports Rumors

Torre, South Florida, Red Sox and More…

Torre Says Thanks, but No Thanks

I was at work yesterday around the three o’clock hour when I got a text message from a buddy of mine in New York. He said that he had just heard Joe Torre was being offered a one year deal for $5 million, with $3 million offered as incentives if the Yankees reach the World Series. First thing that came to mind? Joe, please do not take this deal. Please do not disrespect yourself and your legacy by being a puppet, a scapegoat, and a mere peasant in the empire that is the New York Yankees. Do not let George Steinbrenner belittle you by offering you another one year deal, with incentives no less, so that you have to deal with the constant façade of questions relating to your job all season. The fact that the Yankees threw in “incentives” makes me so angry and outraged because monetary incentives are thrown to motivate people. Joe Torre needs to be motivated to reach the World Series? Dusty Baker agreed with this sentiment when he said in an interview with Michael Kay that this was such blatant disrespect of a man who has won four World Series and made it to the postseason in each of the past 12 years. Now he needs motivation, monetary motivation at that? Absolutely absurd.

Being a Yankees fan, hearing the news on my drive home from work about Torre rejecting the offer was bittersweet. I was happy that he is leaving with his pride, or whats left of it after twelve years of dealing with “The Boss”. However, I was sad because Torre had turned the Yankees into such a respectful, classy organization that was always an elite team. Mike Greenberg said it best this morning on his radio show:

“You can hate them, or you can love them. But you cannot deny that the Yankees were as classy as any under Joe Torre.”

I don’t know who the next guy will be. Mattingly, Girardi, whomever. I don’t know if they will be successful or not. I don’t know which Yankees will be back, which will be gone, which will retire. I do know one thing though. There will never be another manager in Yankees history who won the way Torre did, and who carried himself the way he did. Good luck to you Joe, with whatever you do.

South Florida Cinderella Story is Over

Well it was nice while it lasted, but as I said earlier this week; historically dominant and elite teams win in college football. In college basketball, yes, Cinderella stories happen nearly every year. Not so in football. USF was defeated by Rutgers 30-27 last night. I was impressed by the confidence the team carried into this game, but never in the past six or seven weeks was I impressed by their game play. A reader of this site said it best, “I swear, every game of their’s I watched, it was like high school ball”. He is referring to the sloppy, missed tackles, turnover filled victories that they had up to this point. Again, good for USF for starting to make a name for themselves. But you have to win consistently for a few years before you can be taken seriously.

Red Sox defeat Indians; Beckett and Lofton Jaw

With the 7-1 win last night, the Red Sox have given fans a reason to watch the championship series as they cut the series lead to a game, 3-2. The series shifts back to Boston for games 6 and 7, starting Saturday night at 8pm. (On a related note, what a terrible decision to show the game at 8pm on a Saturday night. Who is going to sit at home on the one weekend night that they can go out and watch a 5 hour baseball game? Terrible.)

The game became rather interesting last night when Beckett and Kenny Lofton began jawing at each other, rather intensely. Both benches cleared, but nothing came of it. The two have a history dating back to a few years ago, where Beckett has said that it is disrespectful to the pitcher the way Lofton tosses his bat on his way to first base after a walk. He said he would like it if Lofton would show a little more respect. Lofton of course, tossed his bat like he normally does, and on his way to first base, Beckett began screaming obscenities in the direction of Lofton, to which he responded.

What a bunch of weak, whiny behavior this is. You’re mad because he tosses his bat a certain way? Seriously? It’s that big of a deal to you? That is extremely lame and I hope every Cleveland batter starts tossing their bats the same way (which is really unnoticeable unless you are looking for it). The whining of Curt Shilling and now Josh Beckett, among other Red Sox never ceases to amaze me. It’s really like the city of Boston and the Red Sox shrill, school girl attitude were a match made in heaven.

The Fan vs The Athlete Update

We had quite an interesting discussion on a variety of subjects regarding the relationship between a fan and a team. It was all started by the Manny Ramirez “Who cares” comments. The link to the page is listed at the top, and here.