OPINION

By Richard Justice

updated 3:46 p.m. ET Aug. 25, 2008

Maybe Joe Torre wasn't the problem after all. Right, Hank Steinbrenner? You didn't think it would be that simple, did you?

The Yankees didn't win four championships in five years just because of Torre. Nor is he the reason the Yankees didn't get out of the first round of the playoffs from 2005-07.

The truth of the matter is Torre's time had run out with the Yankees. He had a great run, but after 12 seasons, people had come to believe that anyone could do the job the way he did it.
Now that he's gone, maybe people will appreciate all the things he brought to the table. Torre was absolutely perfect for the Yankees.

He might not have the only manager who could have led the Yankees to 12 consecutive postseason appearances, but it's unlikely anyone could have done better.

The Yankees never made the playoffs 12 years in a row before Torre arrived. They did win five consecutive championships under Casey Stengel and four under Joe McCarthy, so it's not like Torre invented winning in the Bronx.

He did reinvent winning in the Steinbrenner Era. He brought a calming influence to a franchise known for its chaos. He kept all the madness, all the ownership rants, all the tabloid headlines -- pretty much all of it -- away from the players.

Managers always get too much credit and too much blame, but Torre created a perfect environment. With so much talent on the roster, simply giving the players the best chance to succeed is extremely important.

Maybe he wasn't a great strategist and maybe he did burn out the bullpen, but he had qualities far more important. He dealt with players honestly and didn't get rattled by the bad times.

Some of those before him had seemed on the brink of coming undone because of the pressures of big egos in the clubhouse, a demanding owner and a barking media.

It's a good thing Hank was ready to get rid of Torre after last season. Yes, he made Torre an offer for 2008, but that was an offer designed to be turned down.

Now, Torre could have the Dodgers back in the playoffs while Joe Girardi and the Yankees seem likely to miss the postseason for the first time since 1993.

Had Torre returned, there's no way he would have survived this season because there's no way he could have taken this team to the playoffs. All of the alibis being offered by Hank Steinbrenner for Girardi are legitimate.

Other teams have been hit hard by injuries, but the Yankees are a mess. They've lost righthander Chien-Ming Wang, outfielder Hideki Matsui and catcher Jorge Posada for large chunks of the season, and now they're without righthander Joba Chamberlain. Then there's the combined 0-8 record of rookie righthanders Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy.

Outfielder Melky Cabrera played his way back to the minors. Second baseman Robinson Cano has been nothing special. Only seven teams have gotten fewer innings from their rotation than the Yankees.

Torre also has dealt with injuries and poor performances in Los Angeles. Righthanders Brad Penny and Jason Schmidt, closer Takashi Saito and shortstop Rafael Furcal are on the disabled list. In addition to being injured, Andruw Jones has been terrible.

The Dodgers are lucky to be playing in a terrible division. They're also lucky that outfielder Manny Ramirez became available. But while Girardi's young starting pitchers have gone south, Torre has gotten nice work from Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley (and "rookie" Hiroki Kuroda).

It would be wrong to minimize Torre's contributions. He was a borderline Hall of Fame player and is going to the Hall of Fame as a manager. He puts players in position to succeed, and in the end, that's all anyone can ask of a manager.

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Torre was able to leave the Yankees under the best circumstances possible: a bombastic owner showed him the door, unaware of what he had. Had Torre stayed, he would have taken the fall for this year's mediocrity. His legacy would have been tarnished.

Now his legacy survives. He left New York with his dignity, too. His Dodgers might end up finishing second to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West, but anyone betting against Torre does so at his own risk.

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