As the Yankees arrived in Chicago for a three-game series against the White Sox, the headlines back in New York were:
“Yanks or Joe, one must go;”
“Joe vs. the volcano;”
“Cold Bomber brass has Joe feelin’ heat.”
Despite four Yankees championships, manager Joe Torre is indeed feeling the heat and like never before because his $200 million team not only has an uphill battle for the East Division championship but the wild-card spot as well.
Naturally, the subject of job security came up Friday.
“It doesn’t make winning tonight’s game any more important than it’s always been for me,” Torre said. “That goes with the territory. I’ve never been concerned about managing to save my job.
“I’ve got to be thinking about what I would do to try to win a ballgame and worry about the results later. I’m happy to say that, other than having to answer questions about it, it’s never really affected the performance of my job.
“It’s something, obviously, you hope doesn’t happen, because when you sign on to do a job you hope that you’re able to get it done. Even though the team isn’t playing well, you hope that changes.”
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, still in his “honeymoon” period in his second season, sympathizes with Torre, partly because of the daily zoo he faces in New York.
“That’s why Joe Torre gets paid a lot of money, not to manage the team but to deal with other stuff,” Guillen said. “Unfortunately, Joe has so many managers around it’s not easy. When you’re managing that team, you have 50,000 people managing the team.
“Joe Torre, to me, I’m not saying he’s the best manager in baseball, but he’s one of the best baseball men right now. He knows what he’s doing, he’s a winner, but I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”
Torre agrees that “there’s a lot more to deal with” in New York than in any other city, because of the media, the fans and, of course, owner George Steinbrenner.
“The people I work for in New York, they spend a lot of money, they give you the players to be able to get the job done with, so that puts pressure on you,” he said. “But it also gives you the opportunity to have the ability to win, which is a lot less pressure in a way than trying to win with a club that’s not capable of winning.”
Torre’s team hasn’t won a World Series since 2000 and now faces the possibility of not even making the postseason. That puts him even more under the microscope.
“When you’re under scrutiny, that means your club’s doing well,” he said. “If you’re in last place and you make a decision, nobody really cares. But when you’re in first place, or supposed to be in first place, then people are going to remember what you say and haunt you with it sometimes.”
