The Joe Torre I Remember

By Shari Forst
Posted Saturday, October 13, 2007

I have to admit, when the Mets are not involved in the post season, which is more often than not, I have little or no interest in the division series or anything else that follows.

I did watch some of the Yankee-Indians series because I was interested in the fate of the Yankee Skipper Joe Torre. I have to say I am sick of hearing the praises of the man who I remember as the worst mets manager in the history of the franchise. He managed the team from 1976-1981 without managing to post a winning season. He was also the first player/manager I remember, although he only played a few games before retiring fully as a player. In 709 games he won 286 and lost 420.

I kind of remember him being very much a clueless individual when he managed the Mets. I never thought he would be successful anywhere else. Of course, I was only a 10-year-old kid when he took over the reins. He would always walk out to the mound with his hands in his back pockets to talk to the pitcher "du jour" who just got shelled. He would go back to the dugout and nothing would be different. I remeber seasons that the Mets couldn't even muster 70 wins. That's the Joe Torre I remember. I know he had no players to speak of on those horrible Mets teams, but it doesn't change the fact that once again a Met that was tossed on the trash heap makes good with the cross-town rivals. Much like the Braves, the Yankees can turn Met trash into their treasure, and it bothers me to no end.

Now Joe has spent the last 12 seasons managing a team that I could probably manage and make the playoffs every year. On the Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton show this morning, one of them said that Torre was given the keys to a Ferrari with this team. I am not saying that Torre hasn't learned anything by experience, nor that he isn't a classy man; he is.

However I have to ask how much of a team's wins and losses are really because of the manager. Look at Art Howe with Oakland. He made the playoffs because he had decent talent when he was there, and he had Billy Beane making the real decisions when they had to be made. He came here and had to manage a team of misfits and fossils and look what happened.

To me a good manager can motivate even a mediocre team to win. Look at Jimmy Leyland and what he has done over his career with the Pirates, the Marlins and most recently, Detroit. As much as I hate to say it, Bobby Cox of the Braves manges to get the most of players that I always thought were on their last legs. It just kills me. I would love to know what Torre would do with a mediocre team with potential.

The Yankees lost to Cleveland for the same reasons the Mets didn't make the playoffs; God awful pitching. How much of that does the manager really have to do with? I guess it depends on the organization.

I think if Torre had managed the 1977 Yankees he would have been a winner back then too. I think part of Joe's success with the Yankees was that he wasn't the one making all of the big decisions alone.

OK, yes; I am jealous. Torre was a joke when he managed the Mets and now because of his Yankee tenure he will go to the Hall of Fame as a manager. The Yankee fans all carry on because they got to the playoffs but didn't go any further. I would have been satisfied if the Mets played some playoff baseball. I don't expect too much from my team anyway, so if they get there it's a pleasant surprise.

I guess I can't stand listening to what an amazing manager he is when he has had one of the best teams money can buy, and an owner who although is overbearing seems to know what to do to win. The Mets these days are a tricky proposition because many of the same players who ran away with the division last year coughed it up big time this year. Not that I want to know for real, but I wonder what Mighty Joe would have done with the 2007 Mets when they hit the skids. Managers to me are like doctors, they are all good until there is a huge problem.