SI.com has an interview with Tom Verducci of, you wouldn't believe, Sports Illustrated. Verducci is the co-author of "The Yankee Years, a book due out soon that turned New York newspapers and sports television a flutter yesterday, with reports of Joe Torre (the other co-author) bashing A-Rod and others. In reference to these reports, Verducci says the following:

I think it's important to understand context here. The book is not a first-person book by Joe Torre, it's a third-person narrative based on 12 years of knowing the Yankees and it's about the changes in the game in that period. Seems to me the New York Post assigned this third-person book entirely to Joe Torre and that's not the case. In fact, if people saw that Post story they probably noticed there are no quotes from Joe Torre in it. Joe Torre does not rip anybody in the book. The book really needs to be read in context.

Anybody who knows Joe, especially during his time in New York, knows he's a very honest man and he is very honest in the pages of this book. People also know Joe Torre doesn't go around ripping people and he doesn't do that in the pages of this book. There is a lot of information in this book over a tremendous period of baseball history. It's been reported out by me as well as informed by Torre's own insights into that period.

He also says that the book is not a tell-all book and that Torre will not be surprised by any of the contents, because he has read it multiple times.

As an aside, Torre called Brian Cashman to talk about the reports, and ESPN mentions that briefly:

When reached by ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney on Sunday, Cashman said that he had spoken to Torre by phone. He said that the manager told him to wait for the book to come out, that they are friends and will always be friends.

"Joe was a great manager for us," Cashman said. "I'm glad he called me. I'm very comfortable with my relationship with him."

Via John Shabe and Steve.