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mark kiszla

Torre deserves to be in Cooperstown

By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Sports Columnist

Oct. 27, 2000 - NEW YORK - The poker face broke, and all his love for the game spilled out. As the baseball soared toward the warning track in the bottom of the ninth inning, threatening to halt the New York Yankees' championship celebration with one crack of the bat, manager Joe Torre screamed: "Nooo!"

Winning never grows old, even if you're the Yankees.

The scary fly ball was caught by cen ter fielder Bernie Williams. There would be no miracle homer off the bat of New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza. Torre sighed relief. His Yankees were champions. Again. And one thought immediately came to mind:

There should be a Hall of Fame speech in Torre's future.

If there is any justice, Torre will not only gain admittance to Cooperstown, but make the journey while he's still young enough to enjoy the journey.

The Yankees beat the Mets 4-2 on Thursday night. Parade to follow. Then, Torre should quit.

If Torre retires tomorrow, the clock starts ticking on his wait for a vote that should usher him in as the first great manager in baseball's era of free agency.

Sure, Yanks owner George Steinbrenner has staked Torre to a team built with a stack of money that casts an intimidating shadow over every other team in the major leagues.

But it is Torre who has shown how to create trust out of greed and built tradition in a time when baseball loyalty lasts only as long as the terms of a contract dictates. There remains one more season on Torre's agreement with the Yanks. But, with a graying champion destined for the upheaval of fresh faces, now seems the perfect time for him to go.

It's the toughest move a manager ever has to make. When does Torre remove himself from the game?

"Hopefully, I'll know when it's time," said Torre, standing outside the locker room 90 minutes prior to the Yankees' clinching victory in Game 5 against the Mets. "I know one thing: I'm 60 years old. When I decide to walk away, it's not something where I can walk away for a couple years and then decide to come back. If I were 45, it'd be one thing. But to do it now, I think I want to be pretty sure that's what I really want to do."

Torre beat prostate cancer a year ago. A brother is living on a borrowed heart. Unlike many men, he doesn't run from his own mortality. But saying goodbye to baseball would take the resolve to end a dream.

All his life, from the time he was a Brooklyn kid playing stickball on Avenue T, where any hit that traveled over two manhole covers counted as a home run, the game has been Torre's one true thing.

All he owes baseball is everything. The sport was Torre's escape from an abusive father. Baseball served as the confidence for a pudgy, self-conscious teenager. He wandered through a World Series clubhouse as far back as the 1950s, when his brother Frank played for the Milwaukee Braves. He earned a name for himself as a major league player, hitting .297 from 1960-77. He managed the Mets, Braves and Cardinals before landing a job with the Yanks that would finally make him a champion.

Now, Torre's life is all champagne. He has won the World Series four times. His wife says she would be happy if Torre hung up the famous Yankee pinstripes and retired now.

When does a man have enough success to leave his lifelong love and go home?

It is not a question of diamonds. For while Torre has a gem-encrusted ring for every finger on his right hand, deciding when to quit seldom comes down to a measure of wealth.

What Torre must decide now is how much passion he has left for working in a cauldron that bubbles with the heat of New York - where The Boss views anything less than No. 1 as a failure, and there are 20 million second-guessers for any error a manager commits. How does Torre feel? His eyes reveal nothing. But ask him if this season has been as much fun as his previous four in New York, and there's not a second of hesitation in the reply.

"No," Torre said. "It's always work. We do have our fun. Winning is a lot of fun. I remember having a meeting a couple years ago and telling the guys: 'You're not enjoying yourselves.' (Outfielder) Paul O'Neill said to me afterwards: 'Skip, it's not fun unless you win.' And that's true."

Torre's genius is simple. He fosters a sense of family in a sport where money rules, but it's not everything. Let him explain: "These players have decided they owe it to each other to perform the best they can for as long as they're going to be together," Torre said.

Yanks shortstop Derek Jeter hit a home run in Game 5. At the tender age of 26, he is as complete a player as you'll find in baseball. He was named the most valuable player of this World Series, the 26th time the Yankees have won the championship.

But, as teammates hugged and danced, somebody asked Jeter about his manager, and if he dared consider the Yankees without Torre.

"If Joe Torre retires," Jeter said, "I'm going to retire."

E-mail Mark about this column.

Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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