By John Torenli Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Joe Torre began his pilgrimage to the Hall of Fame on the baseball diamonds of Marine Park and the legendary Parade Grounds, practicing and honing his craft in the hopes of making it to the Major Leagues just like any other Brooklyn kid.
Whether he wants to admit it or not, he’d like to end his journey to Cooperstown, N.Y., in the Bronx later this month, celebrating his fifth World Series title as a big league manager and first in two seasons since leaving his hometown for Los Angeles.
Being carried off the field by Dodgers players at Yankee Stadium in a few weeks would provide Torre with the ultimate revenge — one he has been somewhat ambivalent toward exacting since his hasty and well-chronicled departure.
While the former National League Most Valuable Player and batting champion was handed his walking papers by the Yankees following the 2007 season, he hasn’t missed a beat since taking over the Dodgers.
Torre earned his 13th and 14th consecutive post-season berths the past two years, matching the big league record set by Atlanta’s Bobby Cox.
The former Eagle delivery boy reiterated this week that he doesn’t intend to manage beyond his current contract, which expires following the 2010 campaign.
But if Torre can get past Philadelphia in the National League Championship Series, which began in Los Angeles last night, and somehow tops either the Yankees or Los Angeles Angels in the Fall Classic, he’d have executed a perfect exit strategy – one that even a president could be proud of.
The perception of Torre’s dynastic tenure in the Bronx, one which resulted in 12 straight playoff berths, nine consecutive division titles from 1998-2006, six American League pennants and four World Series crowns, has varied.
The 69-year-old skipper is often credited with providing a calming influence for a high-priced, high-maintenance roster that was under intense pressure to perform for an at-times tyrannical owner. He’s also been accused of underachieving – if you can believe that – with the highest payrolls the sport has ever seen after winning his last World Series crown in 2000 against the Mets.
“I think he proved he doesn’t need a $250 million payroll to win,” Dodgers third-base coach and long-time Torre backer Larry Bowa said.
Torre’s Yankees failed to recapture their October glory, despite reaching the Fall Classic again in 2001 and 2003 and making the playoffs every season thereafter.
A trio of first-round exits, capped by a Division Series loss to Cleveland in 2007, signaled the end of the Joe Torre era in New York.
A controversial book, Joe Torre: The Yankee Years, which took to task his former bosses as well as some of his more notable players. further strained Torre’s relationship with the Bronx Bombers during his first season in Los Angeles last year.
But the off-the-field headlines never interfered with Torre’s work in the dugout as he guided Los Angeles into the post-season and beat the Lou Piniella-led Chicago Cubs in the opening round before falling to eventual world champion Philadelphia in the N.L. Championship Series.
The Yankees, meanwhile, missed the playoffs for the first non-strike season since 1993 under former Torre protégé and bench coach Joe Girardi.
This year, Torre dealt with Manny Ramirez’ steroid scandal and ensuing 50-game suspension by leading the Dodgers to the best record on the senior circuit and home-field advantage in the N.L. playoffs.
Clearly still at the top of his game, Torre nevertheless insists his managing days are numbered.
“I have one year left on my contract, I don’t anticipate it being more than that,” Torre said Tuesday, just three days after his team stunned St. Louis with a three-game sweep in the opening round.
“I’m pleased as hell with what’s happened here these first two years. The players seem more comfortable this year. Really, that’s the satisfaction a manager gets, when they improve and seem to buy in to what you’re trying to sell them.”
Torre’s been “selling” a quiet, but smoldering intensity in the dugout since taking over an awful Mets team back in 1977.
Though he didn’t find success as a manager until leading Ted Turner’s Braves to the 1982 N.L. East championship, the Brooklyn native also enjoyed a semi-successful tenure in St. Louis and in the broadcast booth before joining the Yankees in ’96.
He entered the manager’s office on 161st Street as “Clueless Joe” and left a dozen years later as the winningest Yankee manager since Casey Stengel.
His return to the Bronx as a pennant-winning skipper later this month would provide the most compelling backdrop to a World Series in this new century, reinventing the hallowed Yankees-Dodgers rivalry with a new twist.
But for now, Torre is remaining mum on what it would be like to take on his former team for all the marbles, both out of respect for his current opponent and the players he helped lead to four titles, including Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera.
“We’ve got to play Philadelphia. I don’t look past that,” Torre said in the days leading up to last night’s Game 1 against the Phillies at Dodger Stadium.
If Torre does manage to win eight more games this season, he will join Sparky Anderson (Reds and Tigers) and Tony La Russa (Athletics and Cardinals) as the only managers to capture World Series championships in both leagues.
If he wins the last four of those games against the Yankees, he’d have a fifth World Series ring, and perhaps most importantly, one at the expense of those who thought he could no longer grasp one.
“You know, managing is tough during the course of the year, and you get worn out by the time the year is over, especially when you get to this time of year,” Torre said.
“But you get regenerated for the post-season.”
Sometimes you get redemption, too.
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