One constant in post season: Joe Torre--Vecsey, NY Times

(George Vecsey, NY Times): "While all is gloom and doom in New York ball parks, there is one constant in baseball:

• Joe Torre is going to the post-season....

Torre is about to qualify for the post-season for the 13th consecutive season, to move to within one of the record, held by Bobby Cox of Atlanta.

• Torre won four World Series in his first five seasons, taking three straight rounds each time. (Casey Stengel won five straight World Series from 1949 through 1953, in a simpler one-tier format.) Torre’s 13 straight post-seasons are pretty neat, but
• as a reward he was run out of town
• by the bumptious owners.

It probably was time for Torre to go for his own sake, and maybe he knew it when he refused a humiliating offer of a one-year contract.

• He was not about to produce miracles with this lot, but he still had the respect of the veterans and the newer players,

• whose bodies and work habits have fallen apart under Girardi, for whatever reasons.

Torre looked great this spring — five or 10 years younger, when I saw him in Florida — like a guy who could breathe again, away from the grim forces of the Steinbrenners. Torre has since dealt with the total disintegration of Andruw Jones and made the most of the gift from the gods, mysterious Manny Ramirez deposited on his doorstep....

• The Yankee ownership did not have the loyalty to the historic Stadium that many of the fans did.

• How smart are the Steinbrenners? They pushed Joe Torre out.

• Now he is heading for his 13th consecutive appearance in the post-season. Did I mention that?"

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