Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
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Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
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'George is George' Oct. 18: Joe Torre explains his decision to return as Yankees manager and talks about George Steinbrenner. |
“I just wanted to pretty much clear the air on everything that was part of my unhappiness or anger or whatever you want to call it, frustration. I guess you can put all those things under the same heading,” Torre said. “I just wanted to pretty much, for my own satisfaction, to find out if he still trusts me with his team.”
He was angered by Steinbrenner’s public criticisms during the season, especially when the owner bashed pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, who is leaving, and second-guessed Torre’s decision to have left-hander Alan Embree pitch to Paul Konerko of the White Sox on Aug. 9. Konerko hit a solo homer that gave Chicago a two-run lead in a 2-1 win.
“It just rubbed me the wrong way,” Torre said, “I’m a year older. I’m a year crankier. It could have been the combination of the two.
He said the criticism became “very personal.” His wife, Ali, noticed how it bothered him.
“He was jumpy, irritable,” she said.
Dissent within the Yankees organization developed as the team got off to an 11-19 start, its worst since 1966. New York didn’t clinch the division until the next-to-last day of the regular season and finished 95-67.
“It wasn’t a lot of fun,” Torre told Steinbrenner.
“Yeah, it wasn’t,” he said Steinbrenner responded.
Given all that, Torre said he needed “to hear that they want me to do what I do.”
“I had to not only hear it,” he said, “but hear the tone in which it was said.”
Torre said the availability of former Yankees manager Lou Piniella, who left the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, wasn’t discussed.
“If George wants Lou or anybody else to manage, that’s certainly his prerogative,” Torre said.
When he first became manager of the Yankees, Torre talked with Steinbrenner quite often. During this year, he thought “we really disconnected basically.”
“I think I’m going to have to make more of an effort to make calls on a regular basis if something’s going to get me upset or angry or whatever,” Torre said.
He could do without the stress, but understands Steinbrenner won’t change. But he does love being manager of the Yankees.
“It comes at a price tag,” Torre said.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.