XM MLB Chat: Mel Stottlemyre has interesting perspective on Torre-Harper

6/26, NY Daily News back cover

6/26, Harper, NY Daily News: "He (Torre) sounded convincing, as he always does, and yet earlier Friday Mel Stottlemyre, Torre's close friend and former pitching coach, was saying quite the opposite over the phone.

"If the Yankees decided to honor Joe in some way anytime soon, I think Joe would refuse," Stottlemyre said. "That's just my opinion, but I've talked to him enough to know how he feels about some things.

"I just hope time heals the wounds, on both sides, really. I think maybe it will, at least for Joe. I don't know about the other side."...

Torre can't forgive his former bosses for what he sees as forcing him out after a 12-year run as Saint Joe. The Yankee hierarchy can't forgive him for what it considers betrayal in the form of his controversial book, "The Yankee Years."

Stottlemyre has a unique perspective on it as a fierce Torre loyalist on one side but also as a highly regarded former Yankee who maintains relationships with members of the organization.

And while he has been disheartened by the whispers he hears of Yankee people now trying to belittle Torre's value in winning all those championships,

he also sounds as if he wished Torre had taken more time before writing a book that crossed

some old-school lines in regard to clubhouse sanctity.

"I read the book and there were some things I was sort of surprised by," Stottlemyre said. "I'm

pretty sure Joe wrote that book somewhat in anger."...

...You won't get an argument about Torre's accomplishments from GM Brian Cashman, the man who feels perhaps most personally wounded by Torre's book. "Joe's legacy as a Yankee is safe and secure," Cashman said Friday. "He was great here."...