Complete Disrespect

    With Yankees GM Brian Cashman making the rounds doing interviews, sounding as if he's going from one dentist to another, getting one root canal after another, it's becoming clear that either a decision on manager Joe Torre hasn't been finalized, or Cashman is waiting for the Yankees higher-ups to batten down the hatches in anticipation for the public relations nightmare that is sure to ensue. This is truly unfair to Torre; if they're going to fire him or if they're going to keep him, they should make it clear very quickly. He has done a great deal for the Yankees organization. Yes, he's been paid a lot of money; yes, he's gained a notoriety and a level of success that he never would have had for another organization; but what they're doing to him now is simply unfair.
    I do not believe that Torre is going to return to the Yankees for the simple reason that they're not going to pay him $7 million next year; he won't return for a one-year contract; they're definitely not going to extend him for two years; and Joe Torre isn't a guy who's going to take a pay cut to stay with the Yankees. (He'll take far less money to manage somewhere else, but he's not going to take a pay cut to keep his Yankees job.)
    Cashman can repeat his empty-suit mantras all he wants, but the fact is that the Yankees GM is at least, if not more, responsible for this as the manager is. The last thing Cashman is going to want is to have to deal with a manager that he didn't select. As revered as Torre is with the Yankees, Cashman knows that Torre keeps to the delineated lines between manager and GM. If Lou Piniella came in last year, Piniella would have been in charge and Cashman knows it. The same applies to Tony La Russa. If Torre stays, or Don Mattingly or Joe Girardi is named the new manager, Cashman will retain his position over the manager. This is all about the cutthroat reality of the world and not some series of meetings that are part of the "obvious process" that Cashman keeps going on about. If one thing is evident in the world of George Steinbrenner (and the world in general) it's that it's every man for himself when everything comes down; so don't think that this has anything to do with a "process"; it's everyone staking out his own position for the good of himself, and don't let anyone convince you of something different with their corporate crud.