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10/18/2007: "Escaping the Gotham Circus"

As I write this, the New York Yankees are holding a news conference to explain why they don't have a manager any more. Held in an embarassing limbo since the Yankees were drummed out of the playoffs by the Indians, manager Joe Torre was offered a contract extention this morning, and the press reported the news conference was to announce that Torre would be returning to skipper the Yankees for another year. But in the opening statement of the conference, Yankee officials were forced to explain that while they had indeed offered a new contract to Torre, he had turned it down. Oops.

Now, Torre's decision could be because of the snub of being allowed to twist in the breeze for the last week, or the change in leadership as control of the team transfers from one generation of Steinbrenner to the other. It could even be due to the pathetic restructuring of his contract, where much of the money he was guaranteed in past years was turned into "incentive bonuses" he could achieve only by bringing the team to the World Series.

I think, however, that after over a decade as the ringmaster of the Yankee circus, Joe had simply had enough. He's not a young man any more, and this was his third managerial stop. He's done all he could do as a manager, and doesn't appear to aspire to the general manager position. He's made a ton of money, and I think he just wants to go home.

Of course, the fact that he could do so and make the Yankees look like jackasses at the same time probably didn't hurt ...