Joe Torre

[Elbren]

I'm curious to see what others think of Joe Torre. A lot of people (baseball fans in general) seem to consider him one of the best managers today. Few seem to remember his not-so-memorable time in St. Louis. I still remember the captions in the NY papers when the Yankee's hired him, "Say It Ain't Joe!".

So what do you guys think? Is he a great manager or do you think he mostly benefited from having an unlimited payroll??

[DrungoHazewood]

He was a good manager, but mainly out of the Cito Gaston mold. With a good team he was smart enough to get out of the way during the games, and just deft enough with the personalities to keep the clubhouse from imploding.

I'm sure he'll go to the Hall eventually, but he's about the 4th or 5th-best long-term Yankee manager. Maybe even farther down if you count guys like Dick Howser.

[RShack]

I'm curious to see what others think of Joe Torre. A lot of people (baseball fans in general) seem to consider him one of the best managers today. Few seem to remember his not-so-memorable time in St. Louis. I still remember the captions in the NY papers when the Yankee's hired him, "Say It Ain't Joe!".

So what do you guys think? Is he a great manager or do you think he mostly benefited from having an unlimited payroll??

He also managed in ATL and, while the teams were pretty good those years, he left nobody impressed. His rep was for not caring about anything much except where the nearest good Italian restaurant was.

I think he's so-so when it comes to the normal manager-stuff. I think what made him great was Steinbrenner. George transformed Joe's "What? Me worry?" attitude from a liability into an asset. If he cared too much, it would've been fireworks, like with George and Billy Martin. Instead, Joe's temperament made him have teflon re: George. All the crap just rolled off his back. That's a lot of what made the players love him: he was Steinbrenner-proof because of his attitude. That helped the whole team be more Steinbrenner-proof. In a more-normal environment, I don't think he would've been that special. IMO, it was the combination of his temperament and the environment that made him golden.

Be interesting to see how Girardi and George get along. Girardi couldn't get along with the FLA guy. I think he's gonna bomb in NY due to the combination of these factors plus the fact that the team's gonna suck ;-)

[Mark Carver]

He also managed in ATL and, while the teams were pretty good those years, he left nobody impressed. His rep was for not caring about anything much except where the nearest good Italian restaurant was.

I think he's so-so when it comes to the normal manager-stuff. I think what made him great was Steinbrenner. George transformed Joe's "What? Me worry?" attitude from a liability into an asset. If he cared too much, it would've been fireworks, like with George and Billy Martin. Instead, Joe's temperament made him have teflon re: George. All the crap just rolled off his back. That's a lot of what made the players love him: he was Steinbrenner-proof because of his attitude. That helped the whole team be more Steinbrenner-proof. In a more-normal environment, I don't think he would've been that special. IMO, it was the combination of his temperament and the environment that made him golden.

Be interesting to see how Girardi and George get along. Girardi couldn't get along with the FLA guy. I think he's gonna bomb in NY due to the combination of these factors plus the fact that the team's gonna suck ;-)

Maybe it will be back to 6 managers in 6 years for Steinbrenner days, of the late 80's and early 90's.

[byrdz]

Torre was maybe not so great going in but I think he learned how to manage with the Yankees and no doubt had the tools to learn correctly. So, coming out of the Yankees I'd say he's one the best and will be remembered as one of the best.