Joe Torre
Joe Torre
Joseph Paul "Joe" Torreis an American professional baseball executive, serving in the capacity of Major League Baseball'schief baseball officer since 2011. A former player, manager and television color commentator, Torre ranks fifth all-time in MLB history with 2,326 wins as a manager. With 2,342 hits during his playing career, Torre is the only major leaguer to achieve both 2,000 hits and 2,000 wins as a manager. From 1996 to 2007, he was the manager of the New York Yankees, whom...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth18 July 1940
CountryUnited States of America
Very satisfying. Coming back in a place where we haven't been comfortable playing in this year and at this time of year, it shows you what kind of players we have.
It's pressure, sure. But it's a good pressure, because George Steinbrenner certainly puts his money where his mouth is. He certainly spends money to put players in the clubhouse.
With the players we have there are always going to be high expectations. Maybe we can chalk up the slow start into them thinking everything would be OK.
The one thing I can take credit for is for not trying to be someone else. I've always tried to be a manager who allowed his players to play. The game is theirs. What I've done for 10 years is try to stay out of their way.
Reggie was one of those guys who knew how good he was and let people know how good he was. Some players resented that during those times.
I know I alluded to it with my players at one time or another, ... I said, with everything we went through, if it was May or June, you'd have given your right arm to be in the position we are right now. Yeah, we're not in first place, but where we were then, and where we were going, if you knew the last 20 games of the season you're fighting not only for a wild card but for a pennant, you'd be tickled to death.
I know the players were all happy for him because for a long time, he really wasn't getting it done, and they knew how hard he was working. So I'm just very pleased for him.
And it's been work for him. I think I discovered over the years how hard it is to do what he does because he doesn't have the instincts a lot of these players have.
We just want to get home, ... Not many guys have had their families with them the entire time and we want to get back.
When a guy like that goes out there you feel you have the edge.
We had them on the ropes early and couldn't put them away. That's our fault.
We certainly need him in the lineup, whichever way he's better for us. Whichever way is easier for him, that's the way we'll have to go.
I've talked to him all year about thinking small, and big things will happen. When you're fighting for a pennant, everybody here will remember that at-bat (on Saturday) rather than a two-run home run when you're up by six runs. I don't think he would have done that last year because he would have been trying to do something bigger.
I've talked to Bernie and I think he's comfortable with it. Emotionally, he is fine with it. It is just that the last day of July was the day it had to be done. It was in his contract.