Waiting for the Boss

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

George Steinbrenner ought to offer a free ticket to a Yankees game to the first person who can explain what in the blazes the New York Post was trying to say in its editorial on Joe Torre yesterday. The Yankees manager certainly has an incredible résumé. With 11 straight years in the playoffs, six American League pennants, and four World Series victories, he can start planning his trip to Cooperstown today. His no. 6 is all but guaranteed to be enshrined behind centerfield at Yankee Stadium.

But our own baseball writer, the inestimable Tim Marchman, who hasn’t managed so much as a Little League team, was able to get to the point a day earlier. And Mr. Marchman could have drawn a Yankee lineup card for 11 years that would have been competitive enough most years to win the necessary 90 games it takes to make the playoffs.The fact is that much as New Yorkers love Mr. Torre – and they do – Mr. Steinbrenner made Mr. Torre’s managerial accomplishments relatively easy.

Managing in the American League is not rocket science, and considering the players Mr. Torre has had wearing pinstripes over the last 11 years, he had an awful lot going for him before he did a thing. The Yankees are built to make the playoffs, and no one is impressed when they do. Winning the World Series is a different story, but even the great Joe Torre hasn’t been able to do that for six years.

We asked Mr. Marchman what he would have done on opening day this year. “Hmm, I guess I’d have batted this Red Sox-turned-Yankee with the .316 batting average and 117 runs scored first. Next I’d have put in the greatest Yankee shortstop of all time. After that, I guess I’d have batted the defending MVP and followed him with my first baseman and right fielder, who have a combined 805 career home runs.” And so on.

Joe Girardi had much tougher decisions. He managed the Florida Marlins — with a combined payroll that was less than the salaries of five different Yankees — to 78 wins this season. And he got fired, not Mr. Torre. Mr. Steinbrenner shells out more money every year than any other owner in baseball. Can he blame New Yorkers if they expect results? If the Yankees failed to make the playoffs for even two or three of the seasons Mr. Torre was in the dugout, he would have been fired. If he had not made the playoffs six or seven times, he would have gone down as the worst manager in baseball.

What exactly was the toughest decision Mr. Torre made this year? Was it, say, finding a way to replace Gary Sheffield or Hideki Matsui when they went down with injuries? Mr. Steinbrenner and his general manager, Brian Cashman, made that pretty easy when they brought in the best player on the market, Bobby Abreu. Making the playoffs with a lineup of wall-to-wall superstars doesn’t win you manager of the year anymore, and even Mr. Marchman’s 2006 Yankees probably could have done it. Mr. Marchman reckons his 2-year-old son, drawing a lineup card in crayons for the 2006 Yankees, would have scraped together enough wins to be competitive. What’s the dumbest thing he could have done, bat A-Rod eighth? Oh, wait, that was … ah, forget it.


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