What this is not… It is not an autobiography, or biography for that matter, of Joe Torre. Torre has, of course, given a lot of information in the putting together of this tome, but this is Verducci’s book and to pretend it is Torre’s is disingenuous. The subject matter is the period of time that Joe Torre was manager of the New York Yankees, from uncertain beginnings, through to the dominance of the late 1990s and 2000, the struggles to win a World Series post then, to the last couple of years of uncertainty and his final departure. It is life with the New York Yankees in detailed form, framed around the tumult of the steroid era, the phasing out of the old Yankee guard, and the decline of the owner they called “The Boss”.
Regular readers know how much I despise the Yankees. For me their advantage is such that when they don’t win major questions should be asked. If Joe Torre were manager of Manchester United, Real Madrid, hell, even Chelsea, his failure to win the World Series since 2000 would have resulted in his receiving of the order of the boot well before his denouement at the hands of the Cleveland Indians in 2007. The disaster in the desert, the Weaver meltdown in Miami, the comeback to end all comebacks at the hands of the Sox… all might have seen a premature end to his reign. However Joe Torre does come through his own book looking dignified, restrained and at peace with himself. It would be a surprise if he didn’t.
What this book does do is expose how a manager often has to work with one hand tied behind his back, and it is in the players he has to deal with that your admiration for him comes out. Reading about the strops of Gary Sheffield makes me wonder how a bloke like him doesn’t go insane. He had David Wells, a notorious headcase, and Randy Johnson, a man who could handle small markets but despised bigs. Then there was Carl Pavano – a man so ill-suited to being a professional athlete that even Torre can’t defend him. It was clear that this man was a thief, and yet…. Torre has to deal with the consequences of the VP of Player Operations (or whatever they call Brian Cashman) decisions and not complain too loudly.
The book gets all dewey eyed at the greats of the 1990s – the Paul O’Neills and the Bernie Williams’ and, of course, continues to facilitate the beatification of St Derek of Jeter throughout as some sort of Jesus figure. There are egos all over the place – Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Mike Mussina – and they all weave in an out of the story. Damon’s malaise at the start of the season leading to a difficult year, A-Rod trying too hard to fit in and failing miserably, the rages in Clemens and the ill-fated comeback and Mussina? Well, as one of those quoted in the book and an obvious co-operator, Mussina throws Mariano Rivera under a pretty large bus by blaming him for losing the World Series in 2001 and blowing the Red Sox series via two blown saves in 2004. I’ll bet he’s a popular one on the reunion tours!
All throughout the character of George Steinbrenner pervades through the Yankees, and Torre had a decent relationship with him. I think if the Boss were of sound mind and body now Torre might still be there if he’d chosen to, but the sons have taken over and Torre was toast. The clear inference I got is that Torre thought he’d won despite Brian Cashman, and once the big free agent era and the numbers approach of Cashman came into effect, they stopped. No doubt Cashman will point to 2009 as his redemption, but buying up the best two pitchers on the market and nabbing the best first baseman not called Pujols, he wasn’t exactly going against his past purchasing policy. The abject failure to make use of Chamberlain and Hughes, the laughable Kei Igawa contracts etc. show his limitations. Torre, through Verducci, makes us aware, ever so gently, that he thought Cashman a fraud and a bit of a snake. There’s no pearl handled dagger on the blade, but the wound is beautifully executed – in my opinion.
Verducci can ramble – as he does on steroids – and can repeat (I was getting fed up with the amount of times that something was the last ever – such as ….little did he know that was the last play-off series win he would ever have) especially on the decline of George Steinbrenner. But this book was a really good read, excellent value at nearly 500 pages, and although I must now have read about 10 books detailing either the 2003 or 2004 Yankees / Red Sox series, I still get chills just thinking and reading about it – I will never tire and the 2004 series has to be in my top 10 sporting moments of my lifetime. How could you ever. What you get from this book is how theYankees believed they were dead when they lost Game 6. I only wish they had told me that before that Game 7. Reading about the Boone walk-off was painful, but even then the victory never resulted in a World Series so to Yankeedom, it was a failure.
Torre emerges with class from his own book. That is not a shock. What is are the anecdotes and the characters he encounters. To me Pavano and Sheffield are two that you deserve the millions to manage. Read Sheffield’s reaction when he thought that Torre preferred signing Guerrero to Sheffield and you’ll see what I mean….
Excellent read.
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