"Joe Torre chewed his gum. It was all he could do, really, as he sat in the Yankee dugout here last night. Chew his gum while watching the season - and perhaps his tenure as Yankee manager - come crashing down around him."
That's really all he could do, huh?
How about bring in a lefty to face Granderson, game two, seventh inning?
How about showing more respect for Alex Rodriguez, reigning MVP, than Tom Verducci, lapdog reporter?
How about taking the first round of the playoffs seriously?
What was the turning point of this series? Was it ARod's first-inning, bases-loaded strikeout in game 2? Was it Mussina's inability to hold a lead? Was it Kenny Rogers taking the hill?
The turning point of this series was the bad umpire call at third base. The Yankees fell behind early in game 3 and Joe Torre had a golden opportunity to fire up his team, or at least try to.
Joe Torre sat in the dugout chewing gum.
Torre's stoic, businesslike approach has now completely backfired.
It's a thin line between stoicism and disinterest, between enthusiastic professionalism and drudgery, between steadiness and stubbornness.
Yes, the players always shoulder most of the blame. But Torre sets the tone and Torre's approach has failed for several years now.
Baseball is a tough game and luck is a big part of it. I never expected the Yankees to win every year and I don't even necessarily believe losing in the playoffs requires a leadership chance.
But anybody who still defends Torre is not paying attention.
This team did not even go down swinging.
They were as meek as their manager.
No comments:
Post a Comment