That Joe Torre Book

You Folded, You Told It, Then You Sold It

The rhubarb and ballyhoo at the moment is the upcoming book allegedly written by Tom Verducci and Joe Torre, covering the non-Championship years of the recent Yankee Dynasty. It's a bit depressing that Joe Torre of all people would want to write such a kiss-and-tell book when he was the manager who suffered under the repurcussions of David Wells' book back in 2003.

He of all people should know what any book to do with the Yankees would do to his successor Joe Girardi; or perhaps that is exactly why he did it. It's hard to say. At best of times the greater audicen and fandom of any sporting franchise canonly try and interpret the semaphore signals the franchise front office sends about what it is trying to do. This is not particularly a Yankees thing, it applies to teams of all sporting codes.

At the end of the day, the only thing that remains are the results and the stats that lie there under the hard stare of sunlight. What happens during the dark of moving players, signing contracts, arguing merits and demerits just doesn't matter. Who knows what people's intentions or opinions are? It's an epistemological nightmare jungle of 'Doxa' trying to untangle that mess. As an audience you can sort of interpret what people say and build some kind of picture, but it's likely to be just as ridiculous as any Action movie plot.

In the end, there's just Win or Lose, that's just it.

The fact that A-Rod might or might not be 'A-Fraud' is just so tangential to the tangential that one strongly doubts the value of recounting the silly days of the 2004 playoffs. The Yankees lost. They got turned around from a 3-0 position and lost 4 games. They screwed the pooch, they went down in flames. It's painful to even reflect on it. A book trying to pin THAT postseason on the persona of one Alex Rodriguez is just plain silly.

What's more bizarre is the gyrating non-logic by the alleged authors, Verducci and  Torre trying to distance themselves from the controversial content. It's a little like a game of "Who Farted?" in an empty lift. Their names are on the cover. It *must* be their book. I know people who have struggled their entire adult lives to get a book published. If somebody publishes a book with your name on it (and you don't sue because they have your consent to use your name), we have to assume the authorship rests with you.

Thus, it brings to us a realisation with a sickly hue of sadness that Joe Torre wants to exploit the Yankee legacy once more for a buck. After all that talk about professionalism and keeping things in the clubhouse and being tightlipped to keep a tight ship, we get this book. We can only assume he invested with Madoff or he banked with the Lehman Brothers.

One More Time For The World

I REALLY wish the Australian press would give it up. Andy Roddick IS NOT 'A-Rod'!!