Joe Torre's Press Conference

[Bugg]

The BS never ends.

Heard some of the press conference. Torre once again stated a few things that make no sense.

1. "The postseson is a crapshoot". I guess people in the press and Joe Torre don't play craps. Yes, each throw is random, but outcomes over time are predictable. When the point is a more probable combination(6 or 8, for example), the odds favor the player; when it's a less probable combination(5 and 9 less likely, and 4 and 10 even less likely ) the odds favor the house. Plus you can back up your bet if you wish, so you can even improve your play even more-but I digress.

It can be fairly said that a team with a $200 million payroll should have better odds,especially against team with lower payrolls, in the playoffs. Yet Torre continues to get away with this ridiculous comment. And if in fact the postseason is a crapshoot, what's so wonderful about Joe Torre or any manager in the first place if his value is negated as he himself insists by mere chance every October? A team like the Yankees with huge resources should manage to get either a division title or the wildcard each season, or their eye for talent is really lousy. Once you get to the postseason, though, it would stand to reason that even over a short series, that talent should prevail over teams with lesser resources.

Billy Beane has often remarked that managers are largely secondary to talent over a season, and that the postseason is in many ways random.I think he's wrong on both counts. But that again begs the question-if it's all talent in the 162-game season, and the postseason is luck, who needs Joe Torre at top dollar at all?

2. "The pressure in New York is too much". And this was news to Torre? Heaven help Saint Joe that he lasted this long. Apparently he would rather have spent his summers relaxing on the bench, with wins and losses being secondary to a good effort, like his good old days with the Mets of the late 1970s/early 1980s.So they dealt your ace and cleanup hitter away on the same day in 1977-no pressure. Did he prefer that?

It's harsh, it's cold, it's a fact-take Steinbrenner's cash, and you're expected to get to the World Series. I'd note when they lost to the D-backs in 2001, Steinbrenner rightly had had nothing but good things to say about Torre and his team. The pressure seems to have only become unbearable when Torre stopped winning in October.

[JetsMan57]

I didnt hear Torre talk about how much of a crapshoot the postseason was when he was winning world series.

Girardi was asked the same question and said "The Best team wins."

ANd thats what the Red Sox were this year.

[Matt39]

The playoffs werent a crapshoot when the Yankees were winning them.

[Barton]

All Torre did the last 4 years was make excuses. He lost his edge a long time ago.

No manager should EVER say the playoffs are a crap shoot; using it as some kind of "dont look at me" excuse when his team loses. It is just pathetic. Leave that kind of talk to the media and fans. The players bought into that garbage, and while there is truth to it, I dont want any of my players thinking that there is some crutch to fall back on once they lose - because "it's a crap shoot". Give me a break.

Enjoy LA, Joe.

[anskyruben]

I hope this is just Joe playing to the morons in southern california.. These fans out here are so brain dead it surprises me they even know when a baseball season starts.

[JonEJet]

Joe Hollywood

[GimmeShelter]

All Torre did the last 4 years was make excuses. He lost his edge a long time ago.

No manager should EVER say the playoffs are a crap shoot; using it as some kind of "dont look at me" excuse when his team loses. It is just pathetic. Leave that kind of talk to the media and fans. The players bought into that garbage, and while there is truth to it, I dont want any of my players thinking that there is some crutch to fall back on once they lose - because "it's a crap shoot". Give me a break.

Enjoy LA, Joe.

Doesn't Jeter ALWAYS say the exact same thing?

[Maxman]

Doesn't Jeter ALWAYS say the exact same thing?

I have never seen Jeter say the playoffs are a crap shoot. Jeters says we didn't execute, we didn't hit in big spots, blah blah blah. Never saw him say -- It is random who wins.

[Bugg]

Torre may not be as godly as advertised

By Doug Krikorian, Staff columnist

Article Launched: 11/05/2007 11:09:09 PM PST

There they were walking in unison, eight abreast, and you suddenly had visions of the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday striding down Fremont Street on the way to O.K. Corral immortality in Tombstone.

But this was different.

Oh, so different, as these eight individuals were strolling on the pristine lawn of Dodger Stadium on the way to the most gushingly hyperbolic, fancifully optimistic, nauseatingly artificial athletic press conferences in the history of such dreary affairs.

Why, after Joe Torre, Ali Torre, Frank McCourt, Jamie McCourt, Ned Colletti and Vin Scully climbed on the center field stage at a little past 10 a.m. Monday, they were actually greeted by applause.

Not by the reporters, who never would stoop to such tasteless provincialism but by all those poachers who infiltrated the comical event with their unnecessary presence that only heightened its burlesque atmosphere. After listening to Scully speak glowingly about Torre and how ironic it was that the Dodgers would be commemorating their 50th year in Los Angeles during the 2008 season with a Brooklyn native as their manager and then listening to McCourt drone on and on and on and on about Torre's unparalleled leadership

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strengths, I fully expected a truck to make a spectacular entrance tugging a huge float carrying a replica of the Sistine Chapel with white smoke coming out of a miniature chimney signifying Torre's ascension.

I swear Frank McCourt sounded like Al Davis when he discussed the sacredness of the Dodgers, although unlike Davis he did admit it's been too long since his franchise has won a world championship, which of course is true since it hasn't one won since 1988 and has recorded only one postseason victory during that dark span.

"And now we have the strong person to lead our team to the top," he said.

They do?

Maybe.

And maybe not.

After all, when you strip away all this insufferable Joe Torre puffery, when you take a slightly more discerning look at the situation than does the person who just guaranteed Torre $12.5 million across three years, the Dodgers have hired nothing more than a 67-year-old New York Yankee reject who hasn't won a World Series in seven years despite being the beneficiary of having managed the highest-priced, if not most talented roster in baseball during this time.

Sure, Joe Torre took the Yankees to 12 straight playoffs - he won four World Series - but it must not be forgotten that George Steinbrenner's wildly excessive spending gave Torre's teams a distinct personnel advantage every season over the opposition.

There was a reason for the Yankees wanting to get rid of Torre, and I'm sure his being the first manager of his sport to blow an 0-3 advantage like the team did against the Boston Red Sox in the 2003 ALCS was a factor, as was his team losing 13 of his its last 17 playoff encounters.

Are the Dodgers getting a winner who still possesses the touch, or a guy in the twilight who no longer has the magic light as he did his first season in 1996 with the Yankees when he led them to a stirring six-game World Series victory over the Atlanta Braves and the one who led them to three straight world championships between 1998-2000?

There were a lot of old Dodger players - Lou Johnson, Kenny Landreaux, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Don Newcombe - in the audience Monday, and one wasn't that enamored by Joe Torre's hiring.

"We went for the glitz and the hype," said the fellow, who prefers to remain anonymous because he'd still like to continue showing his face at Dodger Stadium. "I'd have liked to see us go for a younger guy with fresh ideas and more energy, and I'll be shocked if Joe Torre makes it through his contract. The Easternization of the Dodgers continues under Frank McCourt."

Obviously, Frank McCourt thinks Joe Torre will make a dramatic impact, and will elevate the Dodgers to that level they haven't been to since the final year of Ronald Reagan's second term.

The question I've posed most often about Joe Torre in recent times is how his Yankee teams, brimming with All-Star caliber performers throughout their lineup, have continually managed to falter against underdog foes.

I still can't figure out how that 2006 Yankee team that had the historic five-game Fenway sweep of the Red Sox and had the best record in baseball wound up being humbled by the Detroit Tigers in the opening division series.

And that unfathomable unraveling that Torre's troops endured against the Red Sox four years ago still is difficult to comprehend.

But Frank McCourt perceives in Joe Torre a great savior, as well as I'm sure a guy who might even inspire more ticket sales because of his Hall of Fame credentials.

I perceive a smooth-talking guy who's grateful to have an owner stage struck with him and for taking over a team with a lot of promising young players with a decent pitching staff that was a strong West Division contender throughout the past summer until it folded ignobly down the stretch.

The Dodgers might turn out to be a rousing success under Torre, who answered all the questions Monday with practiced deftness sprinkled with self-deprecating humor like the admission he was a Giants loyalist when growing up in Brooklyn.

Joe Torre is a Dodger loyalist now, but I doubt his club here will be as formidable as his $200 million payroll ones were in New York that, as a New York writer pointed out Monday, created Torre's Saint Joe persona.

Torre blanched perceptibly at that description, and quickly pointed out that it takes more than a large payroll and a team brimming with All Stars to win world championships.

And no one has more experience in this particular regard than Joe Torre, who too often in recent years managed such teams that should have won championships but didn't. doug.krikorian@presstelegram.com

[NIGHT STALKER]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I've gotten the impression that Torre with all his success has this presence about himself that he's bigger than the game....at least that's the way he comes off to me.