The Torre Era in Perspective

With the recent October “failures” of the Yankees, a lot of people do not realize the significance of Joe Torre’s departure. It is fair to say that fans of the Bronx Bombers have become spoiled by success. The fact that only reaching the postseason is now a major disappointment speaks volumes about the excellence, which became standard under Joe. The fact of the matter is that the Joe Torre Era was one of the highest points for baseball’s most successful franchise.

The Yankees are synonymous with success. Few managers had as much success as Joe Torre did. Only Joe McCarthy won more games managing the Yankees. Torre won as many pennants as Miller Huggins did. He won four World Series titles to Huggins’ three. McCarthy and Casey Stengel both won more pennants and World Series titles. McCarthy had eight and seven respectively, while Stengel had ten and seven. Those were different times, though. The other three only had to finish in first place in the regular season to win the pennant and win a single October series to win it all.

Torre had to navigate through two postseason rounds just to win the American League title. Then he had to win the World Series. Short series can come down to a lucky bounce or two. If a quality pitcher has a bad week, his team can go home. With so much up to chance, it is unlikely for a team to have consistent success in October. Look at the Atlanta Braves. They were in the postseason every year from 1991 to 2005 and won a single World Series. They played a large role in their own fate, but some things were out of their control during that run. During the 1990’s, they consistently had the best team and could not win multiple titles. The fact that Torre’s early teams were always able to overcome those pitfalls and win is remarkable. Many (myself included) have openly wondered what the recent incarnations of the Yankees are doing wrong in October. Perhaps the real dilemma is figuring how Joe got the 1996 to 2001 teams to overcome every obstacle.

Forget about Yankees history. Baseball history has not seen a team put together a run like Torre’s in over four decades. The only other team to come close, Bobby Cox’s Braves, were bitter October failures next to Joe Torre’s teams. They won one less pennant and three less World Series. Twice the Yankees beat the Braves to win the World Series. This includes the 1996 World Series, when the Yankees were vast underdogs and got destroyed at home in the first two games. Joe outmanaged Cox in that series. The Big Red Machine, a legendary collection of players, is a blip on the radar compared with Joe Torre’s Yankees.  Joe did not even have a single off season with the Yanks. The worst he ever did was losing in the Division Series. That would represent the high-water mark for a number of teams from 1996 to 2007. Nobody else in baseball made the postseason every year since Torre took over. Beyond that, Torre was the only manager from the 2006 postseason to make it back in 2007. No matter how high a team’s payroll is, there is no guarantee of success. The Red Sox were $20 million clear of every other Wild Card competitor in 2006 but were out of the race in August. The Mets had the National League’s highest payroll in many of Torre’s years and missed the postseason, including the 2007 season.

The most impressive part of Torre’s job was the pressure he was under. Huggins, McCarthy, and Stengel never had to work for George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner might be the most demanding and impatient owner ever. Nobody has any job security under George. In the words of George Costanza, “He fires people like it’s a bodily fuction.” Every other manager under George cracked under the pressure or gave the owner justification for dismissal. Joe always kept his cool and shielded his team from the intense scrutiny the outside world gave them. Torre managed this team in the era of talk radio and the internet. Teams are now under closer scrutiny than ever. No other great Yankees manager faced these obstacles, but Joe did so with ease. With an extremely impatient owner and fanbase, only Bobby Cox had a longer current tenure with the same team than Torre did at the time of his departure. The Yankees were so afraid of the backlash from firing him when they wanted to that they even made a token offer.

Joe embodied class. Even hardened Yankees haters said that they at least had a healthy respect for the job that Joe Torre did. They could not completely despise a classy man of such dignity. He will be difficult to replace. It has been a long time since anybody has seen a run like Torre’s with the Yankees. Joe belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Yankees managers along with Huggins, McCarthy, and Stengel. He made it look easy. Some fans actually believe it is easy. They say they are ready for a new era. It certainly will not be as good as this one was. Why anybody would ever want a run this successful to end is baffling. People soon will realize just how good they had it.