Say It 'Aint So, Joe

By Erin Colton

There has been a lot of speculation surrounding Joe Torre's new book, "The Yankee Years." And why not? The former Yankee skipper writes openly about things that happened behind closed doors at Yankee  Stadium.

To many of us (including me, at first) this seems kinda cool. Who wouldn't want to know that Yankee players made fun of A-Rod calling him "A-Fraud?" But the only thing Joe Torre accomplished in co-writing this book -- was to publicly embarrass himself.

We all know Torre must have been bitter when the Yankees dismissed him as their manager. He had everyone on his side when the two parted ways. Heck, some Yankee fans even became Dodger fans because of Joe. Torre left with class and never conducted himself as a scorned former member of the most storied team in sports history.

Seems like he was just holding it in until he got a chance to make a buck on it all.

Torre not only slammed A-Rod in the book, but he rips Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, Randy Johnson, Gary Sheffield and David Wells.

 ON ALEX RODRIGUEZ: "Alex is all about the game. He needs the game. He needs all of those statistics. He needs every record imaginable. And he needs people to make a fuss over him."

ON RANDY JOHNSON: "It was sad more than frustrating when we got him, because I thought we finally had someone you could hook your wagon to, and that wasn't the case."

ON CARL PAVANO: "The players all hated him. It was no secret."

ON KEVIN BROWN AND DAVID WELLS: "The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that  both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to."

Wells responded to Torre with, "What we do as athletes, that's our problem, our business, and a lot of guys have come out and destroyed that... that's what Joe did. When you break the code, you're a punk."

I'm not going to say Joe Torre is a punk, because he's not. I will say he broke the code though. You can't write about current players in the league -- while you're still a manager in the league. Do you really think anyone in that Dodger locker room will trust him ever again?

Joe Torre never did anything wrong during his 12 years as Yankee manager. He just waited until he left to.