An A-Bomb from A-Frau...er...Joe Torre

Well, we now know that Joe Torre's final seasons in the Bronx weren't comprised of the players, coaching staff, and front office having a group sing-a-long of Kum-Ba-Ya. Though we kinda knew that any team with the Boss at the helm and A-Rod on the 25 man roster wouldn't be doing much of that anyways. Yes, we sensed there were problems in the clubhouse, but we didn't know the extent of them. Well, today, when any Yankee fan picked up the New York Post, we found out.






But like many Yankee fans, handling this news is like trying to break up with a supermodel.

(Edit: That's better)

So the Yankees have turned Hollywood and we have ourselves a remake of the Bronx Zoo. One Steinbrenner's gone, but just like the Hydra in Greek Mythology, we just grew back two heads: Hal (who takes after the power-hungry side of George) and Hank (who takes after the press-hungry side of George). Our front office no longer houses Gabe Paul, but Brian Cashman. The scorned Yankee legends/former Yankee managers who have it out for the front office (Billy Martin, Yogi, Torre, and even Mattingly too because you know he's gonna have Torre's back) are still in the picture. And the captian who is jealous of the superstar has a role reversal: the superstar's jealous of the captain. Yep, just like the late 70s and early 80s, we have ourselves one big Charlie Foxtrot (military slang for clusterf...) again.

But whose side should we take? The all-knowing Mike Francesa has already spoken and claimed that Yankee fans are gonna gravitate away from the whole "Saint Joe" persona that has been built up in Yankee lore. And Mike has a point. We're fans; we root for laundry, so we'll probably side with the laundry again.

But I'm just not completely sold on siding with the Yankees point of view on this one. Not from a front office who has disregarded America's version of the Roman Colosseum so they can build a glorified shopping mall/ball-field that I can't afford. Not from a GM who took the reins of a dynasty and ran them into third place team that consisted of overhyped prospects (Hughes/Kennedy/Melky/Ross Ohlendorf), aging superstars with injury problems and/or declining numbers (Matsui/Posada/Damon/Giambi/hell, even Pettitte shit the bed last year), superstars that don't field (Cano and Abreu), pitiful free-agent signings (Pavano/Igawa/Farnsworth/Hawkins), and last resort scrap heap pickups that didn't belong in the majors (Ponson and Rasner). Not from a prima-donna superstar who has done nothing for the Yankees during his tenure in the Bronx.

In my opinion, Joe Torre should have been fired. He was no god, and he never really handled the bullpen well. Sure, everything's easy when you have Wetteland and Mariano to give the ball to and Stanton and Nelson to set them up. And sure, Cashman did fill the bullpen with a shitload of hacks (going all the way back to the days of Juan Acevedo). But Joe found one guy, stuck with him, and used him until they were rendered useless. It started with Steve Karsay, continued with Paul Quantrill, Tanyon Sturze, and Tom Gordon, and ended with Scott Procter, Mike Myers, and Ron Villone. You can even argue Torre overworked the Great Mariano. He used them in 4-5 run leads against basement teams, in September, when we had callups that can survive by not letting up 5 runs in an inning. And then, in October, when we need guys like Tom Gordon to get us through the eigth inning to Mariano in 2004, he puts the first couple of runners on, and we're screwed. Our bullpen faltered in October because Joe overused the pen too many times in meaningless regular-season games agianst bs teams, and that's why Torre's last years in Yankiverse ended in disappointment.

But am I really ready to take sides against a four-time World Champion for this organization in what will be a pretty gruesome mud-slinging war? And side with ... A-Rod?