The schedule is giving off the scent of a real street fight in the American League East, where two months into the season the Red Sox are making the Yankees bleed. It's early, but not too early to wonder if George Steinbrenner has a stomach for a pennant race, or if he's been spoiled by so much success since 1996.
|  | | Only Casey Stengel (7), Joe McCarthy (6) Connie Mack (5) and Walter Alston (4) have won more World Series than Joe Torre. |
That curiosity leads to another unanswered question in the Bronx these days: just how much longer does Joe Torre intend to preside over this golden era? His contract doesn't expire until 2001, but friends say the 59-year-old Torre is already being pressured by family members to come home and enjoy a quieter lifestyle.
Torre is predictably noncommittal about his future, but there are three scenarios that could unfold by season's end -- two of which could mean his early retirement. Here's the breakdown:
Scenario One: Torre leaves as the Yankees decline. The equation of Yankee dominance is founded upon a small nucleus: Paul O'Neill, Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Roger Clemens and David Cone.
There are others, of course, but without these six, the Yankees are a good, but hardly breathtaking team. Trouble is, three of these players -- O'Neill, Clemens and Cone -- are 37, and if they start to age in a hurry, there'll be no third straight World Championship. That's a guarantee.
It's hard to gauge whether Clemens ' arm is old: he's had some brilliant moments so far, but is still only 3-3 and, most disturbingly, is allowing right-handed hitters to bat .300 against him. Cone is another enigma, with only one win.
Only O'Neill seems reliable with a .300 average. So far, he's making good on his promise to exorcise the ghosts of the '99 season, when his average fell to .285 -- his first sub-.300 season in seven years with the Yankees.
If the Yankees begin their slide -- indeed, if this renaissance is over -- Torre will be the first to sense it. And that possibility could be a compelling reason to quit and turn the team over to either Willie Randolph or Lee Mazzilli.
Yankee historians still recall how quickly the franchise collapsed after the 1964 World Series. In '65, the Yankees were a sixth-place team and just one year later -- as Mickey Mantle, Clete Boyer and Bobby Richardson all turned brittle overnight -- the Bombers were in the cellar.
It's impossible to envision a George Steinbrenner-funded team evaporating so quickly, but the logic says, sooner or later, the Red Sox and/or Blue Jays will close the gap on the Yankees. Torre has no incentive to hang around for that.
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Torre's managerial record
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Joe Torre's season-by-season record as a manager:
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Year
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Club
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W-L
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1977
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Mets
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49-68
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1978
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Mets
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66-96
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1979
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Mets
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63-99
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1980
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Mets
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67-95
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1981
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Mets
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41-62
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1982
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Braves
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89-73
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1983
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Braves
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88-74
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1984
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Braves
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80-82
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1990
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Cardinals
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24-34
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1991
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Cardinals
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84-78
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1992
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Cardinals
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83-79
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1993
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Cardinals
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87-75
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1994
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Cardinals
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53-61
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1995
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Cardinals
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20-27
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1996
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Yankees
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92-70
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1997
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Yankees
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96-66
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1998
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Yankees
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114-48
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1999
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Yankees
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98-64
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2000
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Yankees
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22-13
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Scenario Two: Torre leaves after winning another World Series: If the Bombers repeat, Torre will have won four championships in just five years -- a remarkable achievement that would easily earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Even as the manager of three world championship teams, Torre already has had more postseason success than Tommy Lasorda, who was inducted in 1997; Leo Durocher, who entered the Hall in 1994; and Earl Weaver, who joined the small group of managers at Cooperstown in 1996.
Of the 18 elected managers, only four of them -- Casey Stengel, Connie Mack, Joe McCarthy and Walter Alston -- have won more World Series than Torre.
Granted, Torre was a lifetime sub-.500 manager before being hired by the Yankees, but if the Bombers win again in 2000, Torre's four World Series conquests will put him ahead of the great Miller Huggins, the choreographer of the great '27 Yankees team, generally considered the greatest team the Bronx has ever known.
Even now, Torre has caught and passed Billy Martin as the most beloved manager in modern Yankee history. He's earned multi-million dollar endorsement deals and has a spot waiting for him in the Yankees' broadcast booth next year -- which, incidentally, is when Steinbrenner intends to launch his own network.
So why would Torre really need to spend another year in the dugout, when his work would be done?
Scenario Three: Torre returns as the Yankees suffer a heart-breaking postseason loss: Nothing gnawed at Torre more than the 1997 defeat to the Indians in the Division Series, when, as he put it, "we did everything right" but lost in five games.
Bad luck. Bad karma. You choose the name, but Sandy Alomar's home run off Rivera in Game 4 doomed the Yankees, and, to this day, the Bombers still feel like they owe the Indians some payback.
Torre is a fierce competitor, and if a close, fiercely fought Championship Series against, say, the Indians or Red Sox, goes to seven games, being denied the pennant won't be easily digested. That's especially true if the Yankees finish first in the East with another 100-win season.
If that's the case, Torre will be fueled by a sense of unfinished business, and he'll be back in 2001, more determined than ever to end his managerial career as ruler of the American League.
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record will write his Baseball in the Big Apple column throughout the season. | |
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