'Rivera, the man most responsible for making Torre a multi-millionaire,' Bill Madden

(Madden, NY Daily News, 1/31/09): "And later in the book, in what almost seems like piling on of Rivera for that calamitous Game 4 loss to the Red Sox, Torre/Verducci suggests it all turned on Rivera's misguided attempts to pick pinch-runner Dave Roberts off first.

• It was cited that, in an almost identical scenario three weeks earlier, Roberts waited until Rivera's third pitch to steal second before getting driven home with the winning run.

In this instance, Roberts was said to be stiff and chilled from sitting on the bench for nine innings when he was sent in to run for Kevin Millar. But after Rivera threw over to first three times, before throwing his first pitch, "something unintended and important had happened ... Roberts' was now warm and his legs were loose. Rivera had done him a favor."

• Interesting inside baseball stuff, but why would Torre want

• Rivera, the man most responsible for making him a
• multi-millionaire,

• come off looking like a culprit?

If it was a mistake to think Roberts would be running on the first pitch,

• why didn't Torre or Mel Stottlemyre tip Rivera off to that and instruct him not to throw over to first?

And if they knew the three throw-overs had sufficiently warmed Roberts up to steal,

• why didn't they then pitch out?...

Again, it's all interesting reading, but why would Torre want to put his favorite players - players to whom he always preached trust - in any kind of a bad light?

• And why now? When he's still managing?

What kind of a message is he sending to the young, impressionable kids in his Dodger clubhouse, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Russell Martin, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw?

What kind of message is he sending to the whole organization - an organization that enabled him to remain the highest-paid manager in baseball because

• they believed he was the perfect guy to bring unity of purpose to a dysfunctional clubhouse of warring veterans and young players -

• when he's in New York all this week promoting his book on his Yankee years?

• Promoting himself when they're all out on the Dodger caravan promoting the upcoming season?"...

I guess this stolen base is what Mike Mussina considers 'doing nothing' for the 8 years he was on the Yankees. I don't expect character from baseball players, so nothing surprises me. But Mike should recall who pitched the

• final 2 innings of his 2001 ALDS game 3 in Oakland, score 1-0.

• And perhaps give a gander to 2003 ALCS v Boston, Game 7, Mariano pitched 3 scoreless innings in a tie game for the Win, taking the team

• to the World Series, and was named ALCS MVP. (sm)

P.S. As a poster noted elsewhere on this topic, this kind of garbage is why the Yankees have to pay players so much to play there. And,

• The Yankee fan is as much a target of Torre's poison arrow as any other entity.
• A fan who buys this book for any reason is condoning hateful, sick behavior.(sm)

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