Will the Blame Fall on Torre?

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

Someday soon, George M. Steinbrenner III will summon his underlings to their annual post-season meeting at the Yankees’ complex in Tampa. As always – win, lose, or collapse – blame will be laid, fingers will be pointed, and heads will roll.


Only this year, things will be different. The heads that roll are likely to make a thud when they land that could send shock waves across the baseball landscape.


The team that pompously bills itself as “The Greatest Franchise in the History of Sports” last night completed the greatest collapse in the history of sports, giving back a 3-0 lead over the Boston Red Sox in the space of four incredible days.


Saturday night, in the wake of their 19-8 pounding of the Red Sox in Game 3 of the ALCS at Fenway Park, a sweep seemed inevitable. Little did the Yankees know that the team to be swept would be them.


What has transpired between the Red Sox and Yankees was less likely than the Jets beating the Colts in Super Bowl III, less likely than the Mets beating the Orioles in the 1969 World Series, less likely than Buster Douglas knocking out Tyson in Tyson. Never before had a baseball team even come back to force a Game 7 after losing the first three games, let alone win it. Tuesday night, the Red Sox achieved the first goal; last night, the second.


Steinbrenner paid a lot of money for the team on the wrong end of that feat.


Now, someone is about to pay for that. Brian Cashman, anyone? Mel Stottlemyre, maybe? How about the biggest head of all, that of the formerly Most Bulletproof Man in New York professional sports?


What about Joe Torre, St. Joseph himself, the man whose unprecedented success in his eight years as Yankee manager has made him a source of delight for The Boss as well a figure of endless frustration?


Steinbrenner may have given a clue after Tuesday night’s loss when he said, “It’s in Joe Torre’s hands now.”


Last night’s humiliating 10-3 pounding, in front of a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium, leaves everyone on Steinbrenner’s payroll fair game for the bread line this morning.


The easiest target, of course, would be Cashman, the youthful GM entrusted with The Boss’ checkbook. Cashman – with Steinbrenner’s help, of course – ran the payroll up above $180 million but somehow forgot to add the pitching.


Last night, Cashman’s three major off-season pitching acquisitions were on display in all their wretchedness – Kevin Brown, the starter who allowed five runs before he could get five outs; Javier Vazquez, the ostensible ace of the future relegated to long relief; and Tom Gordon, the reliever who was supposed to do for Mariano Rivera what Rivera had once done for John Wetteland.


All three failed miserably last night, as they had for much of the season. As a result, the shaggy-haired, scruffy looking Red Sox were celebrating on Babe Ruth’s field as the clock struck midnight last night.


What will Cashman say in his own defense when asked to justify what he brought to the dance this year? Which brings us to the main event of the evening: Was last night’s defeat also the last game for Joe Torre as Yankee manager?


Don’t laugh. Steinbrenner has been looking for an excuse to drop the trapdoor under Torre for a couple of years now. Finally, he may not only have it, but he may have enough support from the Yankee fan base that he could get away with it.


Since 1996, when the Yankees began their incredible run of seven American League East Division titles, six AL championships, and four World Championships, the bulk of the credit for their success has gone to Torre, widely seen as a sage, calming presence in the ever-roiling sea that is Yankeeland. This has rankled Steinbrenner no end.


This year, however, there has been plenty of criticism of Torre from offices other than Steinbrenner’s, and plenty of reason for it. Just this week alone, Torre’s Yankees were guilty of complacency (they approached every game after Saturday’s blowout as if it were a preordained event), stupidity (why didn’t anyone try to bunt on the hobbled Curt Schilling Tuesday night), and greed.


Why else would Torre, a strict proponent of never deviating from a successful formula, bring in Rivera to pitch the last two innings of Game 4, with the Yankees leading by a run, when all season long his modus operandi had been to use Gordon to set up Rivera for a less-taxing three-out save?


That decision not only backfired immediately – in his second inning of work, Rivera gave up the game-tying run, setting up the Yankees for defeat three innings later – but continued to have repercussions for the Yankees the rest of the series.


The next night, after Gordon self-destructed, Torre was forced to go back to Rivera for two more innings. Once again, he blew the save and this time, was rendered useless for what would be the key game of the Series, Game 6.


There were numerous other questionable decisions made by Torre throughout the post-season. Why, for instance, did he bring in Vazquez to face Johnny Damon with the bases loaded when Damon had hit two homers off him in June? The most disturbing thing about this ALCS, however, was how under prepared and unmotivated the Yankees seemed to be once they jumped out to a commanding lead.


It has been said, rightly, that managers get too much credit when baseball teams win and too much blame when they lose. But when a team comes up flat in the biggest game it has played in years, the blame can’t go any further than the manager’s office.


Before Game 6, Torre had a curious response when asked what his pitching rotation would be in the event of a Game 7. “We’re not talking about a Game 7,” Torre snapped, cutting off the questioner.


A few minutes later, Jorge Posada echoed the skipper when he said, “For us, we know there’s no tomorrow.” Maybe Torre sensed, somehow, that his team’s time was just about up.


Could be his is, too.



Mr. Matthews is the host of the “Wally and the Keeg” sports talk show heard Monday-Friday from 4-7 p.m. on 1050 ESPN radio.


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