Yankee Radio Flagship WCBS failed to carry Joe Torre's post-game

Which tells you all you need to know about the mentality of radio "executives." On the other hand, we were lucky to have Suzyn Waldman, much more our eyes and ears into the Yankee clubhouse than any BBWAA voter could ever hope to be. Fortunately, the NY Times' Richard Sandomir recognizes this slim bit of good fortune that befell the Yankee fan after last night's game:

• "It would be easy to condemn Waldman for losing her composure, demonstrating her feelings for Manager Joe Torre and shedding her professional stance. But Waldman is not a standard analyst. She can get away with reacting in a way that a male counterpart might be ridiculed for. (“I cry at ‘Cinderella,’ ” she said in the moments before she sobbed.) She is an empathetic personality — her clubhouse demeanor is as much reporter as mother-confessor — so her catch-in-her-voice weeping about Torre’s probable departure was not surprising.

Waldman’s response to Torre’s possible farewell to pinstripes came about 90 seconds into her conversation with John Sterling. She was summarizing Torre’s remarks to the news media and said through sniffles,

• “I was O.K. until I went into the clubhouse and the coaches are sitting in Torre’s office and they’re watching this and the tears that you hear in my voice are coming down the faces of the coaches in that coaches’ room.”

It is not stunning that she wept. She has been connected to the Yankees by reporting about them or calling their games on WFAN, the MSG Network, Channels 5 and 11, the YES Network and WCBS for 20 years. She brokered Yogi Berra’s return to Yankee Stadium by eliciting an apology from George Steinbrenner for the way he fired him.

• She has established a clear and sentimental connection to the Yankees even if she must endure a nickname like “Georgy Girl” that no other Yankees voice has.

And her Torre tears created a bookend to the Yankees’ ultimately disappointing season.

• To me, it is worse to be a clueless announcer than one who is emotional in a sport where crying is prohibited by the cinematic manager Tom Hanks. But Torre cries, so maybe it’s good for all of us to get out our hankies.
• Chip Caray of TBS can set aside the hanky for a copy of a Manhattan map, access to mlb.com and a Yankees media guide."

From NY Times column by Richard Sandomir, "Yes, There Is Crying in Baseball (and it's OK)," 10/10/07

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