Joe Torre Out as Manager of the NY Yankees … The Empire Strikes Back

In the end Team Steinbrenner made Joe Torre an offer he could to refuse.

After 12 years at the helm as the NY Yankees skipper, Joe Torre is out. Being a long time Red Sox fan, there has never been much love-loss with the dreaded evil Empire. However, Joe Torre was a class act and respected by all … Yankee fans and those that were not.

Even Sox fans have to admit their respect for the man that in many cases Red Sox nation had wished was their manager. It is not often that a Yankee gets a standing ovation in Fenway Park. When Joe Torre returned from his but with cancer, he more than earned it. However, as Star Wars and Red Sox fans both know, even Darth Vader saw the light eventually and left the Dark Side and the Sith and came back to “the Force.”

One would have thought that 12 years and how many consecutive play off appearances and World Series titles would have accounted for something. However, not when dealing with unreal expectations of Yankee brass. An insulting contract offer based on incentives is rather comical when one looks at the Yankee payroll that rivals many third world countries national debt. One could only imagine if the Yankees signed their over-priced talent on the field to the same sort of incentive contracts whether they could make it out of the first round of the play-offs next year?

One thing is for certain … who ever the next Yankee manager is will have unattainable expectations. What type of contract will be extended? How could it be any different that they one given to Torre that was rejected? Yankee fans and all baseball fans for that matter know that Torre was not wanted and he was run out of town by Team Steinbrenner. Its their propagative to do so, but at least have some guts and don’t cower behind the premise that you wanted Joe to stay.