Story and Photo by Mike Takeuchi
*Note Although an entirely separate article by the author appeared in the Santa Barbara News-Press on October 6-the same quotations were used.
For the longest time, while respecting his accomplishments, I was not a huge fan of Joe Torre. Perhaps it was because I am a recovering Yankees hater (Recovering because I really can’t hate an organization that has been almost as good as the Dodgers and Angels have been to me.) or perhaps that I always thought that there were other managers like Mike Scioscia and Joe Maddon, who I thought were more skilled and got less attention. I did always believe however that Torre’s ability to manage players is nonpareil.
I have also learned that over the last five years, the 70-year-old’s communication with the media was as good or better than any leader of a sports team-even us small potatoes in the french fryer. Torre is different in that he knows how to work with us, and actually seems to sometimes enjoy doing it-often employing a dry, sarcastic wit-especially when we sometimes emotionally needy scribes wonder if we are loved. When asked Sunday if his interactions with media will be missed, he responded as such.
"That will hit me one night either three or four in the morning and I'll think my God, where are they?" Torre laughed. "But you'll find me."
He’s also good for a story or two. One day in May last year, shortly after the Kentucky Derby, Torre regaled those present by talking about his thoughts about horse racing. When the manager, who has a stake in a racehorse himself, was asked his thoughts on the Derby winning Mine That Bird, the image-conscious Torre instructed everyone within earshot to turn their recorders off before telling a story about why geldings often do well in racing.
“You’d be pissed too if someone cut your balls off,” Torre’s punch line went.
While having a reputation for only giving journalists from the larger publications like the New York Times the time of day, I have never experienced such-finding him to be very accessible. Years ago while he was with the Yankees, I wanted to know his thoughts about his role in an exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance (which I highly recommend), titled “Finding Our Families, Finding Ourselves”. The special wing had the likes of Billy Crystal, Carlos Santana, and Maya Angelou, joining Torre in separate video stories being played in sets that were built up much like scenes from each participant’s upbringing.
Torre’s experience was far from ideal, as he openly revealed on the screen placed in a set that resembled his childhood dining room about his unhappy childhood due to an abusive father. The year the exhibition came out, before a game against the Angels, he was more than happy to discuss the exhibition and the past for several minutes.
“It was rough, but I tell you, my mom and my sister got the worst of it,” Torre said something to the effect. “By opening up, I think it still helps me and I hope it will help others.”
While admiring his depth, I wondered at the time, if many of the other writers tried to get beyond the game strategies and superficial talk with someone that was a valuable and wealthy source of information. I was also slightly jealous that they had more opportunities because while doing their job, I don’t think they fully appreciated what he had to offer them.
This spring, when he was finishing up with the beat writers in the dugout, I grabbed him for one more question. Sighing slightly, he assented but said that it had to be quick because batting practice had started. When I asked him if he knew of any short-term players who ended up being baseball lifers, he stopped and wracked his brain trying to think of a few before offering a few suggestions. He then spent another several minutes telling a story until he excused himself after being reminded by his coaches that he needed to be out on the field at the cage. After all, there was a game that day.
On Sunday in the dugout for what was perhaps his last time as a manager, he waxed nostalgic with the media on a variety of topics, most notably his upcoming retirement.
"It's scary isn't it?" Torre asked rhetorically. "I am retiring from this phase. But I don't think I will ever shut down (from baseball). Too many people who have done that in certain companies think it's going to be great but don't seem to be very happy."
"There are so many things you get excited about (when managing), but there are other things like the tough decisions in the seventh, eighth, and ninth that I am happy somebody else is going to make," Torre said. "I don't anticipate anything that will make me want to manage again, but maybe there is something out there that may blindside me. I certainly am not looking for it and don't anticipate it."
Recalling his days as a player, Torre never envisioned himself as a manager at the time.
"When I played in St. Louis I was named a captain," Torre said. "Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be modest here, but I didn't have a great deal of self esteem (to value) in my own self worth. So when they named me captain, it really got my attention. During those six years in St. Louis (I felt I learned a lot) when Red Schoendienst was the manager, a Hall of Famer who gave the players a lot of leeway because he felt that the players knew what to do to win."
"I never thought the number of clubs I would (manage). After the Braves, the Mets, and the Cardinals, I said that's it. That was my playing career so I assumed that was my managing career. Then the Yankee thing came along."
While he didn’t bring a World Series championship to Los Angeles, he made the Dodgers very relevant in 2008 and ’09. And at the end of the 4,329 games he managed, 10 league championships, six World Series appearances with four wins in those, his passage to Cooperstown is all but guaranteed. While brushing off this subject, he diverted the topic onto being a fortunate part of baseball history.
"Growing up in New York, they were the two storied franchises and to have been the manager and gone to the postseason with both of them is quite a memory that I will cherish," Torre said.
On Sunday, in front of what remained of an announced crowd of 38,007 of the 56,000 seat Dodger Stadium, he was honored by the Dodgers. Looking in the stands I was disappointed because I thought that a career such as Torre’s deserved better-especially when the fans slightly spoiled the moment temporarily booed owner Frank McCourt. The Dodgers did their best to make it a nice ceremony, although they probably should have utilized Vin Scully in some way and maybe not have introduced McCourt. Presented with a wonderful painting and then giving a nice, heartfelt speech, Torre went out the way he has always appeared to me, with class.
In his office, speaking to the media for the last time, he looked like a man ready for retirement.
"It was a pretty satisfyingly special day for me," Torre said. "People have been so nice everywhere I have gone in the city. And the players, although they may not have understood what I was trying to say, they provided warmth and respect and all that good stuff. Just from all that I have had in my good life with the fans not only how respectful and warm and passionate how they were."
As his interview session was wrapping up, I shook his hand and thanked him. But as I walked out the clubhouse door, I wished I had said more-something like baseball players, owners, fans, and sportswriters owe him a debt of gratitude for not only what Torre has done, but for what he is. Because when you look at his career, from not only the games managed and played, but what he has meant to so many, especially after the terrible tragedy in New York in 2001, we discover that we really do.
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