Torre the Right Man for the Job

POSTED BY Kenneth England, 18 October 2007

One of the funniest long-standing jokes in modern sports is certainly Steinbrenner's insane circus of managers with the Yankees. I have come to expect insanity regarding this from the Yankees front office (even though it's been a long, relatively calm era under Torre.) I have even come to expect the insane expectations and reactive attitude of the New York media on this issue, so it doesn't surprise me to see the New York sports news outlets to be advocating a change at manager. What really surprises me at the moment is the way non-New York sports media outlets are advocating a change at Yankees manager. Are you people insane?

Anyone who can't see that Torre is still the perfect guy for the Yankees job really confuses me. It's been well noted in the current analysis that Torre deals with the ridiculously insane and obsessive New York sports media better than any other current candidate possibly could. That, by the way, is 100% true and a very good reason to keep Torre in place, but this goes far deeper than that. It's also been well noted lately that Torre has a proven track record, moreso than any likely candidate except for LaRussa (and who knows how realistic that option even is.)

What's getting missed here is the insane circus that I mentioned above in the first paragraph. Does anyone even remember the Yankees of the 1980's? They had like 800 managers and no championships. None. Zero. By the way, it's the only decade that the Yankees didn't win a championship. Coincidence? Maybe. I don't think so. Changing managers every year doesn't build the kind of continuity that makes for championship teams. Here's the real catch: no matter who you replace Torre with, no matter how good or qualified or perfect you think they are for the job, replacing Torre will start the insane musical chairs of Yankees manager all over again. I'd bet the farm on it. Torre is the only man on the planet who can bring the kind of presence and gravity to the job strong enough to counterweight the manic craziness of "the Boss."

And what exactly is Torre being fired for. So far, the most insane analysis I have heard is that he has to go because he "hasn't won in seven years." Excuse me? I understand when rabid New York fans and media expect to win every year, but when even midwestern analysis of the story yields a "he hasn't won in seven years" article it boggles my mind. Because back in a little place I call reality, logical people realize that no sports team, not even the vaunted Yankees, can be expected to win rings every year or so. Ask Cubs fans how insane that expectation is. Besides, it's really not Torre's fault that ownership spent massive money on bloated, aging free agent contracts for a decade.

So what if veteran players are moving on and the team is getting younger. Girardi is a fine manager but bringing him in as a young players' manager won't work. Steinbrenner won't have the patience for it and he will be fired within a year. Trust me. Just because something seems logical and looks good on paper doesn't mean George will have the patience to let it play out. I'm not exactly sure where this idea that Torre can't manage young talent came from anyway, because I doubt that it's true.

Part of me would love nothing more than to see Torre fired just to watch everyone be wrong. It would also be amusing to watch the Yankees spiral down into another decade of random, fractured, revolving-door-at-manager existence. Somehow, I think the Yankees fans disagree. That, at the bottom line, is why Yankees fans are praying that Torre stays.