PaullyInNYC

I am hoping Joe Torre comes back if not i may go with don mattingly

citydude

Yea, Joe Torre sounds like the right candidate for me. But the fact remains the new york yankees never got past the first round the past 3 years. I dont know but maybe a change is needed, im just hoping that its not the coach.

PaullyInNYC

NEW YORK -- After all he had accomplished -- four World Series titles, 12 straight years in the playoffs, almost certain entry into the Hall of Fame -- and after all the indignities, this was one Joe Torre wasn't going to stand for.

He wasn't going to take a pay cut from the New York Yankees, no matter that he still would have been the highest-paid manager in baseball, and he certainly wasn't going to prove himself all over again.
Torre walked away Thursday, turning down a $5 million, one-year contract --
$2.5 million less than he made this season, when the Yankees failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year.
"A difficult day," general manager Brian Cashman said. "He will always be a Yankee."

Bench coach Don Mattingly is the leading contender to replace Torre. Yankees broadcaster Joe Girardi, the NL manager of the year with Florida in 2006, is another top contender. Tony La Russa and Bobby Valentine could also be considered.

Most Yankees fans could see this day coming.
After losing the first two playoff games to the Cleveland Indians, owner George Steinbrenner said he didn't think Torre would be asked back if the Yankees didn't advance. New York hasn't won it all since 2000.

Torre took a morning flight to Tampa, Fla., to meet for an hour with Steinbrenner, his sons and team management. Torre listened to the offer and said it wasn't acceptable. They shook hands and Torre headed home.
Torre declined to speak to a group of reporters gathered outside his house in suburban Harrison. His wife, Ali, arrived a few minutes later and said their time in New York had been fun.

"It's always difficult to say goodbye," she said, "but there's always hello."
The 67-year-old Torre, who made the playoffs in every year with the Yankees, scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. ET Friday. He indicated last week that he might be interested in managing elsewhere.

New York's offer included $3 million in bonuses if the Yankees reached next year's World Series and an $8 million option for 2009 that would have become guaranteed if New York won the AL pennant.

Torre just completed a $19.2 million, three-year contract. The Chicago Cubs' Lou Piniella was the second highest-paid manager at $3.5 million.
"Under this offer, he would continue to be the highest-paid manager in major league baseball," team president Randy Levine said. "We thought that we need to go to a performance-based model, having nothing to do with Joe Torre's character, integrity or ability. We just think it's important to motivate people."

It appeared to be an offer designed to be rejected. Scott Boras, the agent for Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, said players would have interpreted an acceptance by Torre as weakness.

"It is difficult, near impossible, to accept a salary cut," Boras said. "Successful people can afford their principles. They understand if they accept the position, there is a great risk the message to all under him is dissatisfaction."

Torre called Cashman on Tuesday and asked to meet with the 77-year-old Steinbrenner and the owners' sons, Hal and Hank, who have taken an increased role in recent month. They spent an hour together, and then Torre was gone.
Steinbrenner let his sons do the talking.

"The objective of the Yankees since the '20s has been to win the championship every year, just as the objective of [Vince] Lombardi with the Packers was or [Bill] Belichick and the Patriots," Hank said. "None of us think we can win the championship every year, but that's the goal. Period."

Torre led the Yankees to 10 AL East titles, but they haven't reached the World Series since 2003.

With 2,067 regular-season wins, Torre is eighth on the career list and was third among active managers behind the St. Louis Cardinals' La Russa (2,375) and the Atlanta Braves' Bobby Cox (2,255). Torre's four World Series titles are likely to earn him a place in the Hall of Fame -- every manager with three or more has been inducted.

"Joe Torre is a great man, he is a legendary Yankee and a legendary Yankee manager," Levine said, adding: "The goal of this franchise is to win the World Series. All of us get up every day knowing that is the goal and all us take that responsibility on. Unfortunately we have not met that goal for seven years."

Torre's was the longest uninterrupted term for a Yankees manager since Casey Stengel held the job for 12 years from 1949-60. Stengel was pushed out, too, let go after his team lost a seven-game World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Under Torre, the Yankees went 1,173-767. He trails only Joe McCarthy (1,460) for wins among Yankees managers.

"I hope Joe is happy," Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "I think you're going to hear people in baseball, every area of baseball, say probably very, very kind, respectful things about Joe the next couple days, and they're all deserved."

Torre, the first person born in New York City to manage one of its major league baseball teams, sounded wistful after the Yankees' final game.

"This has been a great 12 years. Whatever the hell happens from here on out, I'll look back on these 12 years with great, great pleasure," he said, trying not to choke up. "The 12 years just felt like they were 10 minutes long, to be honest with you."

He wouldn't address his future.

CityGuy

i think it will be joe girardi now. Its going to be tough on some Yankee fans who now must realize Torre and A-Rod are probably both as good as done.

SwimCoach

Source: Girardi expected to accept Yankees' offer

The Yankees officially offered their managerial job to Joe Girardi on Monday morning and he is expected to accept it, a source has told 1050 ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand.

"The Yankees have offered Joe the opportunity to become their next manager. Discussions are ongoing," Steve Mandell, Girardi's agent, said.


Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told Don Mattingly and Tony Pena that they will not be getting the job.

Girardi was in Denver for the World Series. A source said he is expected to fly to New York for the announcement, which is likely to come Tuesday. Girardi's contract is expected to be in the three-year, $6 million range.

Mattingly will not accept a position on the Yankees coaching staff, Marchand and ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney are reporting.

"Don was extremely disappointed that he wasn't the organization's choice to fill the manager's vacancy," Mattingly's agent, Ray Schulte, said in a statement.

Hank Steinbrenner, one of owner George Steinbrenner's sons, said Monday he wasn't sure when an announcement would be made. He added there would be more discussions during the day concerning the candidates.

"These guys were put through the ringer," he said from Tampa, Fla. "I think we're ready to make an informed decision."

Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for George Steinbrenner, said: "We have nothing to announce right now."

Girardi caught for the Yankees from 1996-99, served as a bench coach in 2005, then managed the Marlins the following year and was NL Manager of the Year. He kept a young team in contention until September, then was fired, apparently for clashing with owner Jeffrey Loria and others above him.

The 43-year-old Girardi turned down the Baltimore Orioles' managerial job last summer, choosing to spend time with his father, who had health problems.

Girardi, working as a broadcaster Sunday night for Fox Sports from the World Series in Denver, said he had nothing to announce regarding his status as a manager.

"Still former," Girardi said. "Nothing extra tonight."

Girardi was the first to interview Monday, followed by Mattingly on Tuesday and Pena on Wednesday. Pena won AL Manager of the Year in 2003 after the Kansas City Royals (83-79) posted their first winning season since 1994 -- Hank Steinbrenner told The Times that Pena was "definitely under consideration."

Mattingly has no managerial experience. He spent three seasons as New York's hitting coach before he became Joe Torre's bench coach last year. A six-time All-Star, Mattingly is among the most beloved players in Yankees history.

Torre declined a one-year offer to return at a reduced salary after leading the team to four World Series championships and 12 playoff appearances in as many seasons.

PaullyInNYC

Seems to be that Joe Girardi is the new man in town. He will manage the New York Yankees!

nycking

So let's see: Scott Boras is a California guy whose company has its headquarters in Newport Beach, roughly 50 miles (or about 18 hours by car) from Dodger Stadium. His No. 1 moneymaker and celebutante, Alex Rodriguez, has played his last game for the Yankees no matter what Boras says about being willing to speak with any team in free agency.

A-Rod's former New York manager, Joe Torre, appears ready to relocate to the land of cosmetics and Sig Alerts, which may have come as news to Grady Little, who subsequently resigned as Dodgers manager. Of course, Torre's incoming cell call from L.A. arrived only after the Dodgers made an unsuccessful play for Joe Girardi, the guy who is taking Torre's job in the Bronx.

Taken individually, none of it matters so much. Well, it matters in terms of pure entertainment value, spiteful recrimination and the fact that Little, a truly decent guy, just got shafted tremendously this week along Chavez Ravine. In other news, welcome to professional sports.

In terms of the chess moves, though, almost all of this ultimately devolves into how the pawns get pushed around the table. And make no mistake: A-Rod, no matter how much coin he pulls down in the sport, is a pawn. After all the talking, he's still a player on a team, either delivering or not delivering, one game after another. Numbers, wins or losses -- the usual.

Mariano Rivera is a pawn. Jorge Posada: pawn. Torii Hunter, Mike Lowell, Andy Pettitte, Barry Bonds -- at this point in the evolution of the pro game, every player is understood as a hired gun, with loyalty and fan love accruing almost incidentally. There are no company men. Company men evolve at the higher levels and often wear unfortunate ties.

So the Dodgers' delayed but (now) heartfelt pursuit of Torre really shapes up as merely a great move on the board. For one, Torre can manage a little bit. For two, he's the kind of man to whom a player of certain cachet and self-opinion -- not to mention pedigree and history of production -- will gravitate.

And if hiring Torre means having long and interesting discussions with an open-minded and interested A-Rod and Boras, then it's the kind of move that can ultimately set lots and lots of the pawns in motion. It's also a win-win for the Dodgers, pure and clean.

New York's relationship with Rodriguez is its own animal; for that matter, A-Rod's many trips down I Love Me Lane have turned off fans in other area codes. But as for L.A., there's no question about him helping the Dodgers. The team went 82-80, fading down the stretch and backbiting its way to all sorts of anti-glory, but one of the real culprits was its simple inability to score runs. Whatever other melodramas develop along the way, Rodriguez's presence would directly address that.

And Torre can handle him, just as he can handle Bonds or Rivera, just as he handled most of the egos that came high-stepping through New York during his managerial stay there. He did all this while dealing with a Yankees ownership structure that constantly veered wildly in tone, from demanding and pressurized, to distant and pressurized, to (lately) family-style and altogether kooky. The Dodgers' ownership issues are almost tame by comparison.

Rodriguez and L.A. are such a classic fit that it probably won't happen. (Get ready, Chicago.) It's almost too obvious, a TV-ready superstar who can really play going to a team that plays amid a land of actors. The Dodgers have deep enough pockets to do something ludicrous financially, which is precisely what Boras is seeking. The Angels, down the road, have already made some noises about there being a limit to what they'll spend on any one player. That makes perfect sense, and it also just about guarantees they won't seriously court A-Rod.

All of which leaves us where? Why, watching the moves, of course. The Yankees made their move against Torre, which he deftly sidestepped. The Yanks then outmaneuvered L.A. for Girardi, leaving the Dodgers to pursue Torre and perhaps Don Mattingly -- and, by the way, Rodriguez or Hunter or any other large-ego, large-money producer who knows he can play ball the Joe Torre way.

So New York, for all its Steinbrennerian preening, winds up casting off Torre and Rodriguez, two people who, it might be argued, could help a team win some games. Across the continent, the former Brooklyn entry waits, in all its history and its need. Lots of moves, lots of moves.

nycking

The Joe Girardi era begins in New York!!