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krazyc0c0 · Oct 22, 2007, 03:35 PM

Joe Torre's Decline of the Contract
Why in hell would he do that?

I was sitting in my college science class this afternoon, about to take a test and I came across my friend holding the paper of October 19th. On the front cover was Torre's picture! As i read it- it said this brother thought it was a absolute joke, for the yankees to offer a one year contract for 5 million dollars on a raising scale if he made the playoffs! it never said he had to win just make it to the playoffs!
I on the other hand thought "joe, you should've took it!" It also said that hank (steinbrenner's son) and his brother were taking over the "yankee Empire" . whta's that supposed to mean????

It ALSO said Ron Guidry might not come back nor alex OR posada OR rivera! i find that to be NONSENSE!!!!!!

Help me out with this cause I don't get it at all! What are they supposed 2 do nowww????????

TheWOAT · Oct 22, 2007, 03:58 PM

The familys response to Torres press conference lacked class. Torre thanked the Boss for giving him the great opportunity to manage the Yanks, and said that basically he found the idea of incentives "insulting" since everyone knows that the Yankees are all about championships, and that no one needs motivation in NY. Torre left taking the high road... Little Steinbrenner came off sounding like a child.

MacosNerd · Oct 22, 2007, 04:16 PM

Money = respect in baseball. That means accepting a smaller contract can be construed as a lack of respect. In a business where you need to rally a bunch of athletes together to form a cohesive team you cannot do that if they don't respect you.

Joe a classy person made the right decision. If that wasn't evident last week it was when Steinbrenner's son started shooting his mouth off.

I hate the yankees (red sox fan here) but I admire Torre, he's a great manager, and its foolish to think otherwise.

wallinbl · Oct 22, 2007, 04:44 PM

He was making 7.5 million per year. A 5 million per year offer is a cut in pay. The offer itself was an insult. They wanted him to decline the contract so it didn't look like they fired him.

exca1ibur · Oct 22, 2007, 04:48 PM

The offer was basically a slap in the face.

4 World Series
6 League Champioinships
7 Divisional Championships
10 Division Titles

They want to put him on a performance pay like a rookie? That was an insult. They just made an offer to make it look as though they tried to keep him, no way he'd accept that.

Dork. · Oct 22, 2007, 05:01 PM

After Stienbrenner bought the Yankees, he micro-managed all the baseball decisions for 20 years and after the team peaked in the late 70's and early 80's, the Yankees sucked for 15 years. (Remember how many times he fired Billy Martin?). Sometime in the early 90's, he started taking a hands-off approach, and the Yankees started winning championships. Now that George is just a figurehead and his sons are running the show, it looks like we're going to return to the fun old way of doing things. (At least, they were fun for Mets fans!)

Joe Torre's resignation wasn't fun for me, though -- I was on the way to visit relatives on Long Island, and was stuck in traffic in a torrential downpour. I was waiting for a traffic report to see if an alternate route was open, but every radio station had to have live, uninterrupted coverage of his press conference. Grrr!

MacosNerd · Oct 22, 2007, 07:30 PM

Regardless of Steinbrenner's son spouting on how he wanted Torre back, that's just not true and nobody is buying into his delusion.

If the yankees were truly serious about wanting him back, they would have crafted a compensation package commensurate with his experiences and successes.

Hearing him say that it should be a performance based package is laughable, especially the way the yankees throw money at players.

In some sense I hope Joe retires and enjoys time with his family and does a tv gig. He's 67 and its going to be tough to match the success he had in New York. Regardless of where he ends up he will always be compared to his New York stint.

G4ME · Oct 22, 2007, 08:06 PM

i'd almost like to see him got to a tampa bay or a toronto team for pennies, just to show that he turned down their offer not because of the cash but because of the stimulations he was forced into.

Plus it would make watching those games a bit more interesting.

Either way as a sox fan he has my respect and it was a bad way to end the season on all fronts.

well for the yankee franchise that is

paul w · Oct 22, 2007, 08:21 PM

In a job where practicly every other manager ends up being fired (the Steinbrenner Yankees), the man said no and walked on his own terms, the public pretty much overwhelmingly taking his side. The only other better exit would have been after a World Series championship. Something I would imagined he'd have considered these ;ast couple years had he won it all.

But instead he'll walk away with a record unmatched by any manager since...um...jeez...

Sure he managed what was a really, really talented team with enormous resources. But there were at leats three years, if not more where everything could have blown up and it never did. Joe has to be given some credit for that.

Anyway he's beloved like whoa and he'll likely still make a ton of money from endorsements, TV or managing so I'm thinking Joe's going to be OK.