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.

Weekend Recap Part 2 of 3

Here is the baseball section of the weekend.

Before You Join the Fire-Torre Bandwagon, Ask Yourself a Few Questions

If you have been residing under a rock with some very high quality ear plugs for the past few days, you would STILL know that the Yankees are out of the postseason, getting beat in 4 games by the Cleveland Indians. Just a few days ago, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner found it necessary to go blabber his senile mouth about how if Torre didn’t manage to move past the first round, he would be fired.

I don’t know what Steinbrenner was thinking, if he even was thinking. Going out and saying such a thing on the heels of an elimination game isn’t “motivation”. It’s stupidity. These aren’t college kids who will go and “play one for the ol’ ball coach.” No, this isn’t a movie. These are professional athletes who are on the highest level of stardom, who make more money than they can spend, and have their own personal agendas to worry about rather than to be motivated by a 77 year old owner threatening their manager’s job. The antic was not only ridiculous, but disrespectful. If my boss threatened my job in front of all the other employees, and went out of his way to do so for several years, I would quit before he got the chance to fire me and I’d make sure I did something to make him hurt. Joe Torre is too nice of a guy to do that or say anything bad about “The Boss”, which makes it even lower and more despicable for Steinbrenner to continuously leave him out to dry like this.

Okay so the series is over and the Yankees are out. Why hasn’t the man fired Torre yet? What’s the hold up? If you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you’re going to stab your friend in the back, the same friend who helped you win plenty of championships and get you to the postseason twelve straight years, make sure you stab him so he doesn’t suffer. Torre has no idea what’s going to happen and the Yankees look like they’re going to take their time in deciding what to do, while he just sits there and waits. The levels of disrespect that Steinbrenner is showing makes me want to stop routing for the Yankees all together.

Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN news last night that the Yankees need to make a change. Why? Because they haven’t won a world series in all of seven years? Seven years is not that long of a time people. Get over yourself Steinbrenner. Get over yourself New York. Getting a team ready and maintaining their focus for the entire season is a manager’s job. It’s a job that Torre did to perfection for twelve straight years. When you go into a playoff series and your ace (Wang) absolutely chokes, how is that the manager’s fault? When no one on your team can hit worth a nickel, after being the best hitting team in the league, how is that the manager’s fault? If your MVP cannot drive in a run when he has the bases loaded and one out, how is that the manager’s fault? What would La Russa have done that would make Wang pitch better? What would La Russa have done to make Arod calm down and hit the way he did in the season? La Russa wouldn’t be able to make Posada have a better series in which he had only one hit. What would ANY manager have done that would have made the Yankees better for those four games?

Say the Yankees fire Torre. What do you accomplish? You bring in Tony La Russa, who everyone seems to be fathoming over. Please. He had squabbles in his tenure with the St. Louis press. What do you think will happen in the New York spotlight? If you don’t get La Russa, who are you going after? I haven’t even heard Joe Girardi’s name mentioned which is a pretty good indicator that he’s not in the running at this point. And forget who the replacement will be, what will happen to the team?

Do you really think Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite, and Mariano Rivera would want to stay? Absolutely not. They were all Joe Torre guys. Everyone on that team, with the exception of Arod, was a guy who loved Joe Torre. They would go out and fight for the guy. Ask them. Pretty much anyone interviewed has said that it doesn’t hurt to lose in the playoffs as much as it does to let down and lose for Joe Torre because he’s such a great manager and a great person. If you think you can find someone better, by all means. But I am 100% sure, absolutely, positively sure, that there is no manager in the game who can handle New York and Steinbrenner, along with the egos that came and went, with as much class and style as Joe Torre did. And I can also say with utter certainty that there is no manager who would have won the way Joe Torre did.

If and when the Yankees fire Joe Torre, I will love to see them miss the playoffs next year with a new manager. How can I say this when I’m a Yankees fan? Simple. I don’t respect organizations that treat good people badly. You screw Torre, you can go screw yourself for all I care.

In other baseball news, the playoffs have now lost pretty much all appeal. The Cubs are out, the Angels are out, and the Yankees are out. Go enjoy your Colorado-Arizona series while I enjoy some football.

A “Player’s guy” is what many described Torre as.