One overrated fraud sticks up for another.

"But Torre is not less a Yankee because of this book, he has not somehow diminished his own Yankee legend, he hasn't changed his status as someone who became more the face of the New York Yankees than any manager in the history of the team."

I don't know about that last part.


"There was a morning a few years ago when I sat with him in the visiting manager's office at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., before a spring training game. He had been telling stories that day about Warren Spahn, and talking about a dinner he'd had the night before at a restaurant we both knew in Jupiter, called Carmine's."

Torre is a legend, this is true. A figment of the collective imagination. A myth.

The man who is still "classy" and "gentlemanly," even though the existence of this book proves otherwise. Its content also proves that he wasn't even a very good manager.

Nice Warren Spahn stories, though, I'm quite sure.

"That day the subject came back around to something people had said about Joe Torre for a long time, even after his team had stopped winning the World Series, about how he made it harder than it had ever been for people to be Yankee haters.

'I don't think it was just me,' Torre said that day. 'I think we made it harder for people to hate the Yankees.' "

Yuck.

Lots of speculation that you didn't bunt on an injured Schilling because you didn't want people to hate you. Or maybe that's why you didn't pull the team off the field when they were attacked by bugs in Cleveland.

If your opponents don't hate you, you're doing something wrong.

Maybe you lost sight of the prize.

Of course Torre belongs in the Hall of Fame because he got four rings. Does anybody really care about the manager's wing? Peter Gammons is in the sportswriter's wing and they may as well put Freddie Sez in the fan's wing.


Of course the Yankees should retire Torre's number in Monument Park. He's very popular, and that's the most important determinant.

As for Torre's importance in winning those four rings, he's far behind lots of other people: Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, David Wells, David Cone, Orlando Hernandez, Jim Leyritz, and forgotten World Series MVP John Wetteland.

Basically, if you threw a pitch or hit a ball, you were actually more important than Joe Torre.

I'd retire all of their numbers.

Why not?

Monument Park is already watered down enough with Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Ron Guidry, Roger Maris, etc.

You've got to wonder what Graig Nettles, Roy White, Willie Randolph, Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson, and Bob Lemon are thinking.