Sports: Torre: pride of the Yankees

Torre: pride of the Yankees

By GARY SHELTON

NEW YORK -- It is at the most essential of times that the most essential of performers emerge.

It is then, when the hour is late and the moment is huge and the pressure is great, that the best of a team comes out. And so it was with these Yankees on Thursday night, when the man with the dark eyes finally emerged from the dugout.

By now, you know his name. By now, you know his designation.

Joe Torre, the essential Yankee.

It was a simple enough move, really. A little double switch in the eighth, sending in Luis Sojo at second base and batting him ninth as Mike Stanton entered the game as a reliever. And it meant the world, when Sojo slapped a single up the middle an inning later for the winning run.

Just another calm, splendid move by baseball's calmest, most splendid manager.

This is his team, his victory, his championship. This year, more than ever, Torre has become the impact player in the Yankees dugout, the difference between a dynasty hanging on and hanging it up.

His team has turned old, brittle. For most of the season, it seemed less a dynasty than a dinosaur. With age has come injury, and with injury has come mortality. Still, the Yankees win. Still, they are champions.

Once, there were Babe Ruth's Yankees. Then Joe DiMaggio's Yankees. Then Mickey Mantle's Yankees. Then Reggie Jackson's Yankees.

These are Joe Torre's Yankees.

Around here, it never changes. Not the success, not the chemistry. Not when George Steinbrenner is fuming, not when Paul O'Neill is aching or Chuck Knoblauch is sulking or Roger Clemens is slinging bats. Credit Torre. In a day when players are supposed to be unmanageable, selfish, money-driven, his team has been cohesive, egoless, victory-driven. During a year in which the Yankees seemed beatable, he found a way to make sure it didn't happen when it mattered.

With Thursday night's 4-2 victory over the Mets, the Yankees have won four championships in five seasons. That isn't supposed to happen anymore, not in this day of free agents and expanded playoffs. Not when you consider the Yankees don't have great sluggers or 20-game winners or MVP candidates.

What they have is Joe.

Calm, splendid Joe.

It has been so long since he was a punch line. "Clueless Joe" was the headline the Daily News ran on the day Torre was hired. It has been ages since he was considered a passenger, since people noted that Steinbrenner is paying the cover charge and suggested the bank manager is as important as team manager.

These days, Torre's legacy is assured. He is going to the Hall of Fame. He is beloved in his city. You could build an argument that no Yankee manager -- not Billy Martin or Casey Stengel or Miller Huggins -- has ever been better. New York has seen his pain -- his battle with cancer, his concern over his brother Frank's heart transplant -- and it has seen his triumph. It has seen the way his teams have become a sum greater than their parts, year after year.

And because of that, you could not blame Torre if he chose to walk away.

He is 60, and what else does he have to prove? He mentions the lunches with his wife fondly, as if he enjoys the slices of life that do not involve the ballpark. And his boys are growing old. Soon, David Cone will be gone, probably O'Neill, perhaps Scott Brosius. The Yankees need to be recharged. Does Torre really want to be a part of that?

"If he retires," said Derek Jeter, 26, "then I'm going to retire."

Probably. Next year is the big payoff in Torre's contract. It grows to $3-million, a nice payoff for a manager. Still, you have to believe that after a year that Torre admits hasn't been as much fun for him, the thought of walking away has occurred to him.

"This is my fifth year with him here," bench coach Don Zimmer said. "He's been manager of the year, the mayor of the world. He's been everything. And I know there are people who will look at me as if I was goofy when I say this. But this has been Joe Torre's best job of managing."

Knoblauch was hurt. O'Neill's bat slowed. The bottomless cup of the relief corps turned thin. And the team backed into the post-season, losing its last seven games, 15 of the final 18.

Perhaps that is why Torre has been so emotional these playoffs, weeping at the end of every series, including this one. It ended emotionally, too, with Torre rising to his feet, screaming "No!" when the ball left the bat of Mets catcher Mike Piazza. In a way, that fit. This was not a Yankee team that drove luxury yachts while everyone else was in rowboats. If nothing else, this Subway Series showed us all the things that are admirable about Torre. He is everything that Mets manager Bobby Valentine is not: sincere, patient, genuine.

But it is during games that Torre appears to be something of a magician. Every button on his console works. Put in Jose Vizcaino, and he gets four hits in the opener. Bat Jeter leadoff, and he hits a home run in Game 3. Get Sojo into the game, and he drives in the winning run in Game 5. This is Torre in the World Series. Every question has an answer.

"We can put our record, our dedication, our resolve against any team that has ever played the game of baseball in my mind," Torre said. "We may not have the best players. But we certainly have had the best team."

Maybe they had the best manager, too.