Torre Talks To Newsweek

Newsweek just posted an interview with Torre which you can find here:
 
The most interesting thing to me is Joe’s take on steroids:
 
I never saw evidence of anything. I saw home runs go way over the fence, so there were questions you always ask. I guess I didn’t want to believe more than not believing. Without concrete evidence, it was tough for me to go and question somebody. I had a job to do, to put a ball club on the field, and the last thing I wanted to do was to throw a monkey wrench. Whether I wasn’t strong enough or too naïve, I just wanted to stay out of somebody else’s business.
 
We all “knew.”  From McGwire to Brady Anderson to Bonds to Clemens it was clear something had changed in the game and in the sixe of the players.  For that reason it’s silly to keep these folks out of the Hall of Fame.  Baseball enjoyed getting rich along with the players, it’s lame to turn our backs on them now.  The last thing baseball wanted to do was throw a monkey wrench.   Congress did.

Torre’s Book Not Going Away

"The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to."

Those are supposedly the words of Joe Torre in The Yankee Years. That doesn't sound like the Joe we all thought we knew. Was Joe that good of an actor? Did he play the role of the calm patriarch and then go in the office and rip people to Zimmer?

The Daily News has the book and printed a few other quotes, really nothing that horrible. Sure if you isolate one sentence that Kevin Brown had demons it looks catty, but in the span of a big book it may not read that way. Either way for Joe, the Yankees and the Dodgers this isn't going away – and it's five days before a Super Bowl. The only winner so far – Joe Girardi who suddenly looks rock steady in comparison to the Post's version of Joe Torre.

David Cone, no saint, is quoted as saying some guys were on "the program" and mentions Clemens, Pettitte and "maybe Stanton.". I guess those guys won't be having Thanksgiving at Coney's.

Mike Lupica of the News has read the book and says it's much more and better than what we've been led to think.

Interesting stuff. I can't wait to read it.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Jerry In Not So Many Words: I Want Manny. Yanks 3.1M sold already?

Jerry Manuel:

I’m like the fans: If we get him, cool. If not, we’ll deal with it. We have a pretty good team.


“If you’ve got a guy who performs on the field, you can handle the rest of that stuff. I don’t think it’s an issue. I don’t have a problem with the clubhouse. I’ve got an office that’s about so big.  The clubhouse, I let them do what they do.”

The ever so wise Jerry on the silly World Baseball “Classic”:

Of course, my first spring training, you’d love to say no distractions, no WBC. That’d be good for me. 



And my Jerry love-fest continues as he asks Over-Reyes to take responsibility!


That’s the next thing for him, to add some responsibilities.   Taking control defensively, as far as where guys are positioned, different defensive plays. I want him to be responsible for the whole infield. That, to me, is maturation.

Jerry was helping out at a soup kitchen.   Mets Police for all our negativity like to applaud good deeds.  I’d share the video buy NY1 hasn’t heard of embedding technology so click here.

You know, other than winning a championship for the city, it’s probably one of the more rewarding things that we could do as athletes and coaches and people to lift the spirits of those that are less fortunate.



Hooray for Jerry.   He just told the world he can handle Manny, now let him do it.

In other news:

The Yankees say they have sold the equivalent of 39,393 season tickets so far.   They haven’t even gotten to the folks with the 15 game plans (never mind single games) and they’re going to draw 3.1 million!   The Mets also say they are selling well according to this article in the Canadian Press .

Quote of the day goes to Dwight Gooden who had this to say about Kirk Radomski’s claims that he took a urine test for Gooden back in the day:

“I’ve made mistakes through the years, and I’ve admitted them, but that never happened. And the way the tests were administered, it couldn’t have happened. I’ve done enough wrong on my own, I don’t want to get blamed for something I didn’t do.”

I always feel sad when I read about Doc, but that’s a pretty mature quote.   Before we all throw stones at Gooden, be honest with yourself – if you were 19 years old in the big city and making a few million dollars, trouble may have found you too.

www.metspolice.com