Torre manages Yankees through toughest year
Skipper holding up despite stress of being under Steinbrenner's microscope
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NEW YORK - As the season draws to a close, Joe Torre’s wife can tell how wearing it’s been.
He is a little paler after 150-plus days and nights in the dugout. The creases on his forehead are more evident after six months of managing under the scrutiny of millions of fans — and George Steinbrenner, the most visibly demanding owner in sports.
Only after the season, perhaps when the Torre family heads to Maui each December, will the tension completely dissipate.
“My wife notices more than I do. She sees me and then, all of a sudden, after a couple of months, ‘Oh you look good,”’ Torre recalls her saying.
Up until Saturday’s 8-4 win at Boston clinched the AL East, the Yankees were unsure whether they’d wind up in the playoffs for the 11th straight year and whether failure would have resulted in the 65-year-old manager’s ouster. Torre’s voice cracked and his eyes filled with tears after the victory.
“I’m crying like a baby,” he said.
Baseball’s first team with a $200 million payroll had to scramble back into contention after an 11-19 start, its worst since 1966. Searching for the right combination and dealing with injuries to all five starters in the rotation, New York used 28 pitchers and 51 players, both team records.
Yet, in the dugout, Torre’s behavior usually was the same — either sitting stoically on the bench or, in ballparks where that affords little view of the field, leaning on a rail, with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre and bench coach Joe Girardi at his side.
“Joe is the kind of person that will not show his emotions,” said center fielder Bernie Williams, the longest-tenured member of the current Yankees at 15 years. “He probably could have been the greatest poker player alive if he had chosen to do that. He’s the epitome of that phrase: ‘Never let them see you sweat.”’
In the inner sanctum of the clubhouse, though, he’s nearly matched Congress in number of meetings, trying to spur players and stop the slide, searching for words to motivate a group of veteran multimillionaire stars, some of whom don’t like being told what to do.
When you throw tantrums, such as Billy Martin did, the modern player tends to tune out.
“You know in his tone of voice, his facial expressions,” said first baseman Tino Martinez, part of the group that helped the Yankees win the World Series four times in Torre’s first five seasons, from 1996-2000. “When he has a meeting, he doesn’t have to scream and yell, he can just give you that face and that tone he has, and you know we had better pick it up and get going again.”
Not that Torre would have considered throwing a fit. A nine-time All-Star and former NL MVP, he frequently thinks about how current players react to instructions.
“First of all it’s not me,” he said. “I’d get more giggles than anything else if I yelled.”
Steinbrenner repeatedly has expressed confidence in Torre. Asked this week through spokesman Howard Rubenstein what he had to say about the manager, the Boss declined to respond, with Rubenstein saying Steinbrenner was concentrating on the end of the season.
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Steinbrenner made his most public criticism of Torre on Aug. 9, after Paul Konerko hit a solo ninth-inning homer off Alan Embree, giving the Chicago White Sox a two-run lead in a 2-1 win over New York.
“I’m not pleased with the manager,” Steinbrenner said. “I don’t know why they kept the left-hander in there. ... He should never have pitched to Konerko. Konerko’s their best hitter.”
Torre did have a reason.
“I looked at the numbers,” he said last weekend. “Konerko is hitting almost 100 points less against left-handers. If I don’t have those stats, I probably don’t do it. But we’re losing the game, it’s not like we’re tied or winning.”
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