New York Yankees

[JimG.]

Shameful? He had the opportunity to make $16 million over two years managing the world's greatest franchise, a job he said he loved. For him to say the offer was insulting is ridiculous.

We never seem to agree.

He kept that team of egos together when they had a horrible start...then competed for the division title right down to almost the last day of the season...and won the wildcard. They lost because the PLAYERS played poorly.

He went to the playoffs 12 straight years.

Went to the World Series 6 times and won 4.

That record merits a pay cut? And being left to twist in the wind for 10 days while they got their "act" together? You might work well with my ex-boss who I told where to stick it a month ago...he thinks the same way.

Yes, that contract was an insult and was shameful. Nothing good will come from this decision. The Yanks will pay for this error for years to come.

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

We never seem to agree.

He kept that team of egos together when they had a horrible start...then competed for the division title right down to almost the last day of the season...and won the wildcard. They lost because the PLAYERS played poorly.

He went to the playoffs 12 straight years.

Went to the World Series 6 times and won 4.

That record merits a pay cut? And being left to twist in the wind for 10 days while they got their "act" together? You might work well with my ex-boss who I told where to stick it a month ago...he thinks the same way.

Yes, that contract was an insult and was shameful. Nothing good will come from this decision. The Yanks will pay for this error for years to come.

Jim, we'll never see eye to eye on this, but, if you have the time, consider this S.I. piece in light of your statements: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jon_heyman/10/23/scoop.tuesday/index.html.

Interesting to see the half-truths and misrepresentations Torre has been spouting since getting "insulted" by the world's greatest franchise.

 

[JimG.]

Jim, we'll never see eye to eye on this, but, if you have the time, consider this S.I. piece in light of your statements: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jon_heyman/10/23/scoop.tuesday/index.html.

Interesting to see the half-truths and misrepresentations Torre has been spouting since getting "insulted" by the world's greatest franchise.

So your take is that Torre should have been happy because they offered a $2.5 million pay cut instead of a $3 million pay cut? Dude, what are you smoking?

And he should be happy that he gets a pay cut when they are going to break the bank signing the very players who failed to win? And most likely give A-Rod (who again choked when it counted most) a big pay increase?

And he should be paid twice as much as other managers when he's the one managing a team with twice the payroll of any other team! So that argument is total crap.

If the Yanks had any balls at all and they wanted to give Torre a pay cut, they would have given each player on this year's team an equal percentage pay cut. But they couldn't do that to the spoiled brats, could they? So they picked on the easy target.

NO BALLS!! SHAMEFUL!!!!!!!

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

So your take is that Torre should have been happy because they offered a $2.5 million pay cut instead of a $3 million pay cut? Dude, what are you smoking?

And he should be happy that he gets a pay cut when they are going to break the bank signing the very players who failed to win? And most likely give A-Rod (who again choked when it counted most) a big pay increase?

And he should be paid twice as much as other managers when he's the one managing a team with twice the payroll of any other team! So that argument is total crap.

If the Yanks had any balls at all and they wanted to give Torre a pay cut, they would have given each player on this year's team an equal percentage pay cut. But they couldn't do that to the spoiled brats, could they? So they picked on the easy target.

NO BALLS!! SHAMEFUL!!!!!!!

Geesh. I didn't realize you were so passionate about this!

Anyway, focusing on the pay cut is such a red herring. He was fine with an apparently even greater pay cut last spring training. He's asked for performance pay before (but nothing like what the Yankees were offering him....$1 million per round of the playoffs!!).

The team hasn't won since 2000, and hasn't been to the World Series since 2003. And they've had a few pretty miserable flameouts recently. He should be held accountable, too. It's been 7 years.

All the team had to do was reach the World Series, not win it, and he'd get $16 million over two years. I think Torre is a bit full of it and full of himself.

But, it was his right to not take the deal. I think, though, that the deal was fair and reasonable, and management did everything they were prepared to do. The team wouldn't pay some dude $5 million they didn't want.

 

[riverc0il]

Performance based pay for a baseball team manager is just silly, IMO, and it should never become standard. Managers control a lot, but in the end, the players have to deliver in order for the team to advanced you if an opposing team's GM has put together a far superior team that performs better, that is out of control of the manager as well. I think bonuses for players that make seasonal best statistics (lead the league in ERA, hits, RBIs, etc.) is a better individual performance barometer for performance based pay. So many factors are beyond a manager's control when it comes to advancing in the playoffs. To even suggest that Torre needed that incentive to remind him of the importance of advancing in the playoffs is laughably insulting.

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

To even suggest that Torre needed that incentive to remind him of the importance of advancing in the playoffs is laughably insulting.

Except, again, Torre had asked for, and gotten, such performance-based compensation in the past (just not at the same level)....

 

[tjf67]

They didn't want him back and didn't have the balls to fire him.

So they made him an offer he could not accept...totally insulting!

I will miss Torre and the team will too. I already miss George Steinbrenner who is clearly no longer in control...he would not have waited almost 2 weeks to insult Torre.

George would have fired him right after the last loss to Cleveland. And I would have respected that.

But not this. Shameful.

They did not want him back but gave him the repect he deserves by offering him a contract. Torre knew they did not want him back. He should have stepped up and retired. They gave him every opportunity to win. He could not get it done. SORRY JOE I LOVE YOU BUT STEP ASIDE. Its a hard thing for a true yankee fan to say but if we want a series something had to change. Keep doing the same old thing get the same old results.

 

[jack97]

Keep doing the same old thing get the same old results.

Dunno what they will do in the off season but IMO the front office got themselves into this mess. Bascially signing or trading for big money players that didn't produce. I think the last set of players that came up in the farm system are jeter, petite and rivera. Local media have been saying that they have no prospects left to trade for. Thus they can only compete in FA market or they can make the type trades so that the other team can dump salary onto the yanks..... doesn't sound good in the short term.

 

[JimG.]

They're going to hire Mattingly...don't get me wrong here, I loved Mattingly as a player and he's probably the most popular ex-Yankee player among fans.

But he has zero managerial experience. ZERO. This is who they're going to hire to replace a legend?

And then I had to listen to Hank "no balls" Steinbrenner tell us that we need to have patience with the new manager. Patience? In NY? Does Hank have any clue? He even had the audacity to say that the new manager isn't coming to the 1996 Yanks! Excuse me if I am wrong, but the 1996 Yanks had yet to win anything before Torre took over.

I don't think Hank could fit any more feet into his mouth at this point. I have a bad feeling about this.

 

[JimG.]

They did not want him back but gave him the repect he deserves by offering him a contract. Torre knew they did not want him back. He should have stepped up and retired. They gave him every opportunity to win. He could not get it done. SORRY JOE I LOVE YOU BUT STEP ASIDE. Its a hard thing for a true yankee fan to say but if we want a series something had to change. Keep doing the same old thing get the same old results.

And you think the MANAGER is the one who didn't produce.

Did Joe throw a single pitch or swing a bat once?

"He could not get it done." Please.

Anyone who blames Torre and not the players for that will have a rude awakening next season. Oh, wait, I forgot. We have to be "patient". Yes, I can see it now, all those patient Yankee fans sitting politely in their seats at the stadium.

I see a return to the days of Fritz Peterson and Horace Clark.

 

[tjf67]

And you think the MANAGER is the one who didn't produce.

Did Joe throw a single pitch or swing a bat once?

"He could not get it done." Please.

Anyone who blames Torre and not the players for that will have a rude awakening next season. Oh, wait, I forgot. We have to be "patient". Yes, I can see it now, all those patient Yankee fans sitting politely in their seats at the stadium.

I see a return to the days of Fritz Peterson and Horace Clark.

Joe was the manager. THe buck stops there. He had to go. With that team I could have brought them to the playoffs the past 12 years. Whoever they bring in has a team that can compete with anyone if they can hold the players. May be they will bring some enthusiam to the dug out.

 

[tjf67]

Joe was the manager. THe buck stops there. He had to go. With that team I could have brought them to the playoffs the past 12 years. Whoever they bring in has a team that can compete with anyone if they can hold the players. May be they will bring some enthusiam to the dug out.

Oh an BTW I am not blaming anyone. It is what it is.

 

[JimG.]

Joe was the manager. THe buck stops there. He had to go. With that team I could have brought them to the playoffs the past 12 years. Whoever they bring in has a team that can compete with anyone if they can hold the players. May be they will bring some enthusiam to the dug out.

I respect your opinion.

I think you value your managerial ability a little too much...and I think you disrespect a sure Hall of Fame manager with your comments.

So be it...I predict all Torre detractors will be eating humble pie next season.

 

[tjf67]

I respect your opinion.

I think you value your managerial ability a little too much...and I think you disrespect a sure Hall of Fame manager with your comments.

So be it...I predict all Torre detractors will be eating humble pie next season.

My comments in no way disrepect Torre. He certainly is a hall of famer. At the end of the day his team lost in the playoff s in the first round two years in a row. They came out of the box the past two years flat. The manager certainly has something to do with that.

 

[Mike P.]

Coming out of the box flat was Joe's fault & not Jeter's. Come on, the Captian the last couple of years hits in the .200's. He's also ressponible for for those fur Red Sox Homer's back to back... because he told the GM that Pavano, Mussina & Igawa were prime time guys & the kids could stay in the minors longer.

Granted, Chamberlain & Hughes appear to be the real deals, & Kennedy might be too but if Cashman was responsible for the starting rotaion the last couple of years, he should be the guy out of there. You can add Wright & Kevin Brown to that mix & apparently no one wanted Farnsworth contract this July. That's Kyle, not Leo.

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

Dear A-Rod,

I hate you.

Sincerely,

A former fan.


Seriously though, A-Rod opting out hurt me more than the Sox's seventh World Series victory. I can relate to the Sox fans' passion, even if it pains me. There are no winners in the A-Rod saga. I pulled so hard for that %%@@µ*** and defended him at all times, but I'm left speechless. What a loser.

Hank Steinbrenner doesn't seem like the brightest bulb in the room, but he got this right:

"'It's clear he didn't want to be a Yankee,' Hank Steinbrenner told the Daily News last night. 'He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field.

'I don't want anybody on my team that doesn't want to be a Yankee.'"

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/10/28/2007-10-28_hank_steinbrenner_says_goodbye_to_arod.html?ref=rss

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

He wanted to be a Red Sox and would have if it hadn't been for the players union.

This again? Why do people still think it was the players union's fault? Boston's management wouldn't pay the extra one or two million a year to get A-Rod, instead asking him to restructure the deal. The players union said no to the restructuring, but it was management's then-cheap ways that did in the deal. Since then, of course, they've been willing to blow all sorts of cash on suspect players (see Dice-K (he might get better), Lugo, JD Drew).

A-Rod doesn't give two sh*ts about a ring. He plays for himself. No one and nothing else. He made his announcement during the 3rd inning of Game 4! And didn't show up for the Hank Aaron award. He doesn't give a crap about fans, history, nothing. There isn't anything necessarily wrong with that. He's a professional doing a job. But, he let a lot of people believe otherwise up to this point.

:uzi:

 

[Brettski]

Looks like it's gonna be a fire-sale

 

[FRITOLAYGUY]

This again? Why do people still think it was the players union's fault? Boston's management wouldn't pay the extra one or two million a year to get A-Rod, instead asking him to restructure the deal. The players union said no to the restructuring, but it was management's then-cheap ways that did in the deal. Since then, of course, they've been willing to blow all sorts of cash on suspect players (see Dice-K (he might get better), Lugo, JD Drew).

A-Rod doesn't give two sh*ts about a ring. He plays for himself. No one and nothing else. He made his announcement during the 3rd inning of Game 4! And didn't show up for the Hank Aaron award. He doesn't give a crap about fans, history, nothing. There isn't anything necessarily wrong with that. He's a professional doing a job. But, he let a lot of people believe otherwise up to this point.

:uzi:

Agreed, having that announced during the game was totally lame, being too good to show up for his award again lame, granted Manny or Pedro wouldnt show up either but still. I will say it, i dont want him on the Sox , im happy with the throw in for the Beckett deal 3rd basemen that i have, hes a good guy and a good player, A-rod is a cancer, everyone in the club house hates him and he doesnt care about rings, just money. All year long he says ohhhh i love NY, i cant imagine playing anywhere else, trust me the Yanks would have paid him so hes just a loser and trust me the Yankees will be a much better team without him in the clubhouse, remember when you were winning all those championships with Scott Brosius? Him, Lowell, those are the type of guys you need on your team, not money hungry fake punkass thirdbasemen.

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

A-rod is a cancer, everyone in the club house hates him and he doesnt care about rings, just money. All year long he says ohhhh i love NY, i cant imagine playing anywhere else, trust me the Yanks would have paid him so hes just a loser and trust me the Yankees will be a much better team without him in the clubhouse, remember when you were winning all those championships with Scott Brosius? Him, Lowell, those are the type of guys you need on your team, not money hungry fake punkass thirdbasemen.

:beer: