Tonight seems for Torre

Last night’s win gave the Yankees one more night to fight. Last night’s 8-4 victory probably saved the job of their longtime manager Joe Torre; or at least it provided the spark the Yankees needed to get going a bit. You see, Steinbrenner isn’t stupid. He’s made a career out of giving managers ulcers. Do I think he was serious about firing Torre? Maybe. Probably not though. There is a part of me that that says that Torre felt the same way as I did. He didn’t buy it. That said, it did enough to inspire the troops and have them take the threat to heart. These guys are looking at it as a personal fight for their manager’s life, which is something almost more powerful than the young and upstart Indians just attempting to get to the next level of the postseason for the first time.

“We’re playing for our manager that we love,” Damon said. “We’re playing
for our fans that we love. So we’d like to prolong the season as long as we
can.”

This is not good. This is not good at all. Indians have Paul Byrd throwing in a few short hours against the closest thing the Yankees have to an ace. The Yankees are playing for it all, while the Indians are trying to remain drama free and roll the dice. One more time, Joe Torre tries to survive the throat of the whale that is the big apple that Frank Sinatra sings about.

Torre is New York, you know. He’s the perfect Yankees manager. I know Steinbrenner knows that to be true. The professionalism. The track record. The respect he brings, like a Godfather figure. He signifies all the class that a manager of a ballclub possibly can. He’s a winner. Sure there will be critics that will say he should even have won more championships, but I tell you that already, bar-none, he is the greatest manager of modern day baseball. Without a doubt, the greatest of my lifetime.

So tonight, the Yankees once again lace up their cleats and take the field fighting for Torre’s managerial life. Tonight seems for Torre. You give a veteran team a cause to fight for like this and you’ve got a dangerous thing going. Steinbrenner is smart and calculated like that. In some small ways, I don’t even think Torre seems to mind it. He’s used to it. And at least, he’s going down swinging.