No Need for Fuss about Joe's Book

First and foremost, you haven't seen a blog on the infamous book co-authored by Joe Torre here at Jersey Hardball because we wanted to hold our thoughts until we read the book. Now that that has been taken care of, here goes.

The most knowledge, die-hard Yankee fan I know is Jersey Hardball’s own Editor in Chief, Favad Ali. After years of gushing praise over longtime manager Joe Torre, just prior to Torre’s book release amid the ‘A-fraud’ comments and claims Torre broke the clubhouse code, Favad referred to Torre as ‘Clueless Joe’ and wanted to talk about his pre-Yankee record as a manager. His sentiment was shared by thousands of fellow Yankee fanatics who felt betrayed that the current LA Dodger manager was just trying to cash in and dirty the always good name of their beloved Yankee team. Well fret not Yankee fans because when you read his book he’ll win back you’re hearts. Torre has nothing but gushing praise for the 4 championship team era and it’s original core. Players such as Jeter, Bernie, Posada, Mo, Pettitte, Cone, Tino, Brosius, Knoblauch, and O’Neill are shown in nothing but the most shining light and you’ll probably discover a new found respect for these great players. Not being a Yankee fan myself, I certainly did. Does Torre speak in a negative light about some players? Yes, the same ones the fans have been more harshly bashing for years. 

Other than his words on Carl Pavano, he still remains constructively critical for the most part about players such as Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, and Gary Sheffield just to name a few.
The one person who I felt Torre was looking to go after in this book was none other than Yankee owner, George Steinbrenner. I wouldn’t describe the way Torre speaks of him as attacks. I don’t think the way he speaks of him was a cold calculated maneuver. I think it was just a subconscious way of getting back at Steinbrenner for the 12 years amidst the lack of trust in Torre, the firing rumors, and essentially being in the middle of a dysfunctional front office and the team on the field. 

In Torre’s final two seasons with the Yankees he paints a picture of Steinbrenner, the great Yankee owner who brought them to the forefront of the baseball world, as basically a sad, aging man wilting away to be almost functionless. Whether this is true or not is really not the matter at hand. The issue is that regardless of the way he ran his organization or treated his employees in now his waning days he most assuredly deserves more than that. Regardless of your personal feelings of Mr. Steinbrenner, he wanted to win at any cost, and at least deserves to be thought of in this light. Not being a mere shadow in a meeting or being barely able to carry on a conversation. 

These are things the readers do not need to know. I believe Torre should of just left these kinds of things out, just maybe not of said anything about the man from those last two seasons. Just leave Steinbrenner unspoken of, let the fans think he’s the same old George, too old to travel but still in Tampa watching his team and going nuts. Don’t let the fans know he’s actually down in Tampa withering away.

As for all the hype about his talk about Alex Rodriguez in the book I think people will be disappointed. Yes, Torre does say the players referred to him as A-Fraud and that A-Rod desperately wanted to emulate Jeter, but is this really a surprise to the true fans? Everyone knows A-Rod has a plastic personality, that he’s not a true leader especially not for the Yankees. If you didn’t realize this all you had to do was watch A-Rod in an interview speak about the team and you’d be able to see right through him. Arod’s on the field ability is praised in the book. Torre says in the book on Arod “Nobody has ever worked harder in my memory..” and “Nobody’s in better shape than Alex”.

The player that Torre does bash in his book and it should come as no surprise, is Carl Pavano. He paints Pavano as a glass player with a weak mental makeup and a surly attitude. Among other incidents Torre reveals Pavano fired his agent over not getting him an extra $50,000 in his Yankee contract even after the agent offered to give it to him out of his commission. Torre also doesn’t shy away from the way Pavano was viewed by the players, he states “The players all hated him. It was no secret”.

Yankee fan or not, this a great book. Beyond all the pre-release hype and controversy is in my opinion one of the better baseball books in recent memory. What you have in ’The Yankee Years’ is essentially Yankee baseball, all the triumphs and failures mixed with two other recent books on the game ’Game of Shadows’ and ’Moneyball’. With ’The Yankee Years’ you get an in depth look at the beginning of the Steriod Era as well as the Moneyball Era and beyond. The book provides not only an interesting look inside baseball’s most storied clubhouse, but an insightful look at the inner workings of the front office. The evolutions in scouting and player assessment are discussed thoroughly, though Torre describes the Yankees as a team severely lacking in both areas, citing them as reasons for the recent postseason failures. 

All in all I must say this is a book that needs to be read by any baseball fan, especially Yankee fans so you can fall back in love with Torre all over again.

-Robb Lennahan