"Preparation wasn't the problem." NY Times, Harvey Araton

"No replacement for Torre — not Lou Piniella, Joe Girardi or Larry Bowa, not even Willie Randolph — is going to win as long as this franchise believes it can carry a postseason with the foolish approach it took into this one.

You think Torre has had enough chances given the money spent and the resulting win-it-all mandate? Fine. Just don’t mouth clichés about how the Yankees quit on him, how he failed to prepare them. That is nothing more than old Steinbrenner football-coach babble, and beside the point. If Steinbrenner, the 76-year-old principal owner, bought that the “greatest lineup ever” could camouflage the pitching and defensive deficiencies, that’s understandable. But Torre? That’s an offense easily argued as fireable.

• He, more than anyone, should know that his championships weren’t won with all-stars stationed everywhere. Did Torre forget that it was a journeyman named Charlie Hayes who squeezed the last out in 1996? That Scott Brosius was a career .257 hitter? That his title teams did not have one field player, Jeter included, who would have rated — statistically, at least — as the best at his position?

Somehow, he convinced himself that all the bats would cover for one first baseman, Gary Sheffield, who couldn’t catch the ball, and another, Jason Giambi, who couldn’t throw it. That the September training camp for Sheffield and Hideki Matsui, each coming off a serious wrist injury, prepared them for postseason pitching. He sacrificed infield and outfield defense and wound up with a fantasy-league champion, not a World Series team.

• (Arod chose to take a stroll in the heart of midtown yesterday, inviting scrutiny. Araton notes:)

He was lunching with his wife on Manhattan’s East Side, within a block of the daily Steinbrenner watch at the Loews Regency Hotel. • He set himself up for more scrutiny, more psychoanalysis. " from Harvey Araton's NY Times article, 10/10/06

• This behavior is clearly insane unless you're a masochist.

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon