The Joe Torre era, a 12-year span that includes 12 straight playoff appearances and 4 World Series titles for the New York Yankees, has officially come to an end. Yankees’ manager Joe Torre declined an incentive-laced 1-year contract that would have kept him with the team through the 2008 season. Torre flew to Tampa Thursday morning to discuss his future in pinstripes with Yankee management and was offered a shabby 1-year deal worth a guaranteed $5 million and $3 million in performance-tied bonuses. Considering half of major league managers make less than a million a year, this might seem to some like a generous offer. But in light of the fact Torre earned $7.5 million this season, Torre would be taking a 33% pay cut, an unacceptable reduction for a Major League manager or a garbage man. Last week, Joe Torre watched his team get bounced from the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year, a feat which in Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s world (a world blurred by advanced Altzheimer’s), is wholly unacceptable. What surprises me about this final chapter of the Joe Torre story is not that he will not be returning next season. Many believe that when the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs this year, that it was time to hire a new manager with a different leadership style and brand of strategy. As Pat Riley once said, sometimes players grow tired of hearing the same voice. Since the colossal disappointment that was the 2004 ALCS in which New York lost four straight games to Boston, it has been disappointment after disappointment, year in and year out. The Yankees have lost 13 of the last 17 postseason games Torre has managed and in ways not befitting a team with a $200 million payroll. What shocks me about the Torre situation is that the Yankees would treat such a dignified member of their organization in a such an undignified manner. If the Yankees weren’t happy with Joe’s performance, they should have let him resign on his terms. And if they did want him to return, which they obviously didn’t, they shouldn’t have offered Torre, the second winningest manager of the team, a cheap, bonus-driven contract. Torre’s been in the Yankee dugout for so long that it’s hard to imagine a new skipper will be managing the Yankees next season. At the same time, Joe’s lengthy tenure made it easy for fans to forget how classless Yankee ownership is when it comes to managers. Perhaps Joe has always been too good for George Steinbrenner and his two stupid sons. But with Torre’s accomplishments as a manager, he has no obligation to be consistently disrespected. While I will miss Joe in the years to come and look forward to his induction into the Hall of Fame, I applaud his decision to leave.
•ESPN: Torre Turns Down Offer
Once again Flume, very well put. My sentiments are the same. While I do not disagree with the opinion that it might be best for Torre and the Yankees to go their separate ways, the way in which the franchise has handled this is pretty disappointing (though not particularly surprising). Overall, I too am happy that Torre has managed to maintain his integrity and pride. I would have expected nothing less. He certainly has come out of this looking better than his former employer and for this I am thankful. Torre was an amazing influence on the Yankee organization and he will be sorely missed, perhaps more than many even realize. To take a team to the postseason 12 years straight during which there have been six World Series appearances and four championships, what more could anyone expect? Torre was batting .500 (so to speak) in terms of reaching the World Series and .333 in terms of winning championships. Maybe if put in those terms, it might help some to fully appreciate Torre’s superior work. In the end, I am apprehensive that many Yankee fans and the NY media are under some kind of impression that a managerial change will mean a return to the World Series. In reality, I think we should all be prepared for not only NOT making the World Series any time soon but very possibly not even making the postseason next year. Whether it was time for Torre to go, it will be very difficult to replace him. We should all be patient and be prepared for one, two or even three relatively frustrating seasons. But who knows? We’ll see….