Bernie’s column deals with Joe Torre and his job being on the line as the New York Yankees visit the St. Louis Cardinals. Will Joe Torre keep his job after this series?
Talk about your ironies. The last time Joe Torre managed a baseball game in St. Louis, he was about to lose his job. Of course, Joe Torre was the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals and now he is the New York Yankee manager.
Bernie starts off his column with:
Torre was sacrificed because brewery hit men needed to distract the fans and save face after brazenly reneging on a tentative contract agreement with Todd Zeile. During the labor unrest of 1994 and ’95, restless Cardinals fans had turned on the manager and were growing tired of stale, skunky baseball. So A-B threw Torre to the mob.
So, Bernie tosses Joe Torre a bone here.
Bernie talks about how being fired by the St. Louis Cardinals was the best thing to happen to Joe Torre.
He then delves into setting the stage:
And now, 10 years later, as Torre returns to Busch Stadium with four World Series championship rings in his safe deposit box, the hot bluster of speculation follows him here. There’s talk of firing Torre again. The old, injury-prone Yankees are wheezing at 29-30, and recently saw their $208 million player payroll diced, sliced and exposed in a three-game sweep by the minor league-caliber Kansas City Royals.
Bernie then talks about Torre’s handling of pressure:
Torre doesn’t duck the punches, or the speculation. He’s absorbing more blows than in seasons past, and he certainly feels more pain. Torre doesn’t glide through adversity with nary a scratch or a sleepless night, content with having millions of dollars in the bank and a likely Hall of Fame plaque in his future. It surely must stress Torre to hear and read rumors that Steinbrenner might be targeting some of his coaches.
Bernie finishes with:
“My wife and I are trying how to see everybody in a very short period of time,” Torre said. “We’re just hoping to break bread with everybody at some juncture.”
As long as Steinbrenner doesn’t show up at the dinner table, Torre should be able to enjoy this weekend visit through his baseball past.
This was a very boring, plain column. It was more of a “what Joe Torre is doing for St. Louis fans who last heard of him when he was managing the St. Louis Cardinals” than anything else.
Score: 4 out of 10