Torre Joins Yankee Elite

When Yankees first baseman Andy Phillips recorded the final putout on Sunday, Joe Torre went where only 3 previous Yankee managers had gone before. The 1,000 victory mark. Joe McCarthy (1,460), Casey Stengel (1,149), and Miller Huggins (1,060) sit atop the list of all-time Yankees victories with Torre gaining quickly. Torre is in his 11th season as the head man in the Yankees dugout, quite an accomplishment in itself. No Yankees manager has lasted more than 5 years since Ralph Houk ran the ball club from 1967-1973. Not coincidentally that run came to an end when George Steinbrenner purchased the ball club.

Torre had won 894 games combined as manager of the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals. Those were years that contributed to the name "Clueless Joe" that was splashed across the New York newspapers when Torre was hired as Yankees manager prior to the 1996 season. With 4 World Championships in 5 years, Torre suddenly became a genius. Now that the Yankees haven't won a title since 2000 his detractors have started using the word "clueless" again and trying to give all of the victorious credit to the since departed Don Zimmer.

The bottom line is that it takes talent to win. Could Torre have won without Steinbrenner's deep pockets and clever trades (e.g. Roberto Kelly for Paul O'Neill) by the front office? Probably not, but the same can be said for any other successful manager. In today's market, it takes money and a smart front office to win.

Great managers can make players better and help good or very good teams get better. Bad managers can take a great team and run it into the ground. Torre has done the former with the Yankees. A lot of fans, especially those who hate the Yankees, feel that Torre just has to make out the lineup card and the players will take care of the rest. The same was said about Sparky Anderson, admittedly by myself as well, until he went to Detroit and was equally as successful. It's not that unusual either for a manager to have success in one town, but not be able to match it in others.

Times have changed since the Yankees last won in 2000, but so has the formula for the Yankees success. Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Andy Pettitte...the list goes on. Players who are all-stars, but not necessarily Hall of Famers (with the exception of Jeter), made up those teams from 1996-2000. They put up very good numbers, outstanding in some cases, but they weren't big time studs like an Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, or Vlad Guerrero. They understood what it took to win and how to sacrifice for the good of the team. They had players, like Tim Raines, who could have started for other teams, but chose less playing time in New York instead for a chance to win. I have not read Buster Olney's book, "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness", but I am sure there is common ground between what he wrote and what I and many other Yankees fans realize. Since the Yankees started going for the cream of the crop players, like A-Rod, the post-season success rate of the team has diminished. The players may have the talent, but don't necessarily have the character when it comes to crunch time.

If the Yankees don't win the World Series again this year, it may very well be time for a change in the manager's office. Sometimes change shakes thing up. More likely than not, however, it will be because of who makes up the 25 man roster that determines whether or not the Yankees win. The roster is filled with question marks, but the manager's chair is not.