Joe Torre on A-Rod, Boomer, Cashman and the Boss
In his first interview since the controversy surrounding his new book hit the media, Yankees former manager Joe Torre explains himself to Larry King and responds to the criticism that has come his way about breaking the precious baseball code of keeping clubhouse details in the clubhouse. While I’ll always have a fondness for Torre and what he meant to the Yankees, he seems somewhat delusional about the nasty things he said in the book and their capacity to piss people off. He keeps saying that he hasn’t said anything in the The Yankee Years that would “surprise” anyone or that he wouldn’t say to anyone’s face. Yet, his statements about A-Rod, namely that Alex was unable to “concern himself with getting the job done” and instead became distracted with “how it looks,” don’t seem like the type of stuff that is said between friends. Moreover, Torre admits to Larry King that he hasn’t spoken to A-Rod since leaving the Yankees over a year ago, so it’s not as though Torre has said any of this to A-Rod’s face or gave him a heads up that it was coming in the book. My guess is that Torre had much less to do with the book as he would have us think and Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, who authored the third-person chronicle, put a lot of stuff in there Joe would have probably preferred to keep out. The funniest tidbit I’ve read about the book is that Torre writes how Bernie Williams once forgot his son at Yankee Stadium after a night game and called Andy Pettitte to drive him home. I’d much prefer to read about these tales then about A-Rod being a narcissist, something I knew from the moment I saw his frosted tips.
Here’s the video:
