01/28: Torre, Mussina Speak on Book
Posted by: Patrick
Jack Curry of the Times spoke with Joe Torre on - what else - "The Yankee Years".
Mike Mussina, who is quoted in the book, spoke to the Post. Basically, he stressed that A-Rod is a great player and a hard worker and though it is possible he was called "A-Fraud," it would have been done in jest.
Ron Blum of the AP shares excerpts relating to Kevin Brown, David Wells, Carl Pavano and Randy Johnson, while the Daily News has some excerpts where David Cone is quoted, talking about steroids in the Yankees clubhouse. In so many words, some players suspected that people working with Brian McNamee were not just taking multivitamins.
Commentary wise, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports and Joel Sherman of the Post both have an interesting perspective.
Honestly, I don't know how I feel about the book right now. I haven't read it, so that makes sense, but also, I'm just not sure how I feel about the general context. I like Joe Torre, he was a phenomenal manager who I feel that too many people and, especially, Yankees fans, do not have the proper appreciation for. That doesn't make him perfect.
Unfortunately, I think most feelings tied to the book will boil down to this: if don't like Torre, this will be a reason to dislike him more. If you like him, you'll sympathize with what he says. As usual, I think the truth lies somewhere between.
Maybe he felt he needed to get this off his chest and set the record straight, in his eyes. But, perhaps selfishly, a good part of me wishes this book hadn't been written, even though I haven't read it. Maybe that's unfair. But at the same time, that perspective is not always realistic. This sort of book, in baseball, is rare. A look behind the scenes, not from a reporter, but from a credible source who lived it. Whether or not that's a good thing is probably a matter of your perspective.
Via Bryan Hoch and Frank Della Femina.
“I heard the word betrayed and I knew that it wasn’t part of the actual book,” Torre said in a telephone interview from Hawaii early Tuesday morning. “I can tell you this much: I know there’s stuff Brian and I disagreed on, and I had one perception and he had another, which, to me, there’s nothing wrong with that. We’re obviously two different people.”
Torre added: “As far as the betrayed thing, that’s the reason I called him. I knew there was no word betrayed in there in regards to feeling that he left me out there somewhere.” ...
“I don’t think I said anything about A-Rod that I didn’t say already,” said Torre...
Torre added: “As far as the betrayed thing, that’s the reason I called him. I knew there was no word betrayed in there in regards to feeling that he left me out there somewhere.” ...
“I don’t think I said anything about A-Rod that I didn’t say already,” said Torre...
Mike Mussina, who is quoted in the book, spoke to the Post. Basically, he stressed that A-Rod is a great player and a hard worker and though it is possible he was called "A-Fraud," it would have been done in jest.
Ron Blum of the AP shares excerpts relating to Kevin Brown, David Wells, Carl Pavano and Randy Johnson, while the Daily News has some excerpts where David Cone is quoted, talking about steroids in the Yankees clubhouse. In so many words, some players suspected that people working with Brian McNamee were not just taking multivitamins.
Commentary wise, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports and Joel Sherman of the Post both have an interesting perspective.
Honestly, I don't know how I feel about the book right now. I haven't read it, so that makes sense, but also, I'm just not sure how I feel about the general context. I like Joe Torre, he was a phenomenal manager who I feel that too many people and, especially, Yankees fans, do not have the proper appreciation for. That doesn't make him perfect.
Unfortunately, I think most feelings tied to the book will boil down to this: if don't like Torre, this will be a reason to dislike him more. If you like him, you'll sympathize with what he says. As usual, I think the truth lies somewhere between.
Maybe he felt he needed to get this off his chest and set the record straight, in his eyes. But, perhaps selfishly, a good part of me wishes this book hadn't been written, even though I haven't read it. Maybe that's unfair. But at the same time, that perspective is not always realistic. This sort of book, in baseball, is rare. A look behind the scenes, not from a reporter, but from a credible source who lived it. Whether or not that's a good thing is probably a matter of your perspective.
Via Bryan Hoch and Frank Della Femina.
