Despite his New York Yankees holding a 3-0 series lead over the eventual World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, Yankees manager Joe Torre said he “got over it okay.”
Torre was the speaker in the SMU Athletic Forum yesterday.
He said he believes his team never lost focus in the American League Championship Series.
“Just from my experience in postseason play … I knew how important it was to put teams away,” he said. “We certainly were surprised to be ahead three to none.”
Torre said his team might have gotten tight in game four. The Yankees had a lead in game four, before the Red Sox tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, and eventually won in extra innings.
“All that being said, we were still three outs away with Mariano Rivera on the mound,” he said. He went on to say that in his opinion, Rivera is the best closer in baseball.
In game seven of the series, Torre believes that his team “didn’t get the starting pitching we needed to have.”
Torre said he did not watch the World Series, but he gave credit to Boston.
“Their bullpen pitched well against us,” he said. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and unfortunately, we didn’t score.”
“They weren’t lucky, they were good.”
Torre credited the Red Sox’s pitching for the improvement of the team.
“The thing that made them tough is getting [Curt] Schilling and [Keith] Foulke,” he said. “Their offense has always been good and their pitching improved.”
‘They can go on a roll and just steamroll you.”
Despite losing the ALCS in seven games, Torre said, “I don’t think we need anything drastic to happen.”
“Look, we were on the threshold of beating them in four straight,” he said. “We didn’t have the depth we had had in the eight years before this.”
Torre, a New York native, said the pressure of managing the Yankees does not bother him.
“The New York scene is exciting, it’s pressure-packed,” he said. “And I still love it.”
“First off, you know what the requirements are with the Yankees, even going to the World Series isn’t enough.”
He added that the fans simply are not satisfied unless the Yankees win the World Series.
Asked about possible offseason acquisitions for the Yankees, Torre declined to comment because he has not taken place in any meetings. He did however, offer his opinions on a few free agents including Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, who met with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner earlier this week.
“Obviously Pedro’s one of the elite players in baseball,” he said. “Free agents find it more lucrative to come through New York and talk to Steinbrenner.”
“He doesn’t just meet with people for the sake of meeting with them.”
Another player of interest to the Yankees is Houston Astros center fielder, Carlos Beltran.
“We were interested in him before he went to Houston,” he said. “Obviously, he’s one of the best players out there.”
Shifting gears, Torre spoke about his charity, the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation.
According to the foundation’s Web site [http://joetorre.org], the mission of the organization is “to develop that will end the cycle of domestic violence and save lives.”
As a child, Torre’s father was abusive to his mother, and Torre said he and his wife, Ali, started the organization to “do something in my mom’s name.”
“The biggest problem with domestic violence is that nobody talks about it,” he said. “I’m not sure the abuser realizes what he’s doing to his child, even though [the child] may not be in the room.”
Torre was named manager of the Yankees in 1995. In his first full season (1996), he led the team to its first World Series in almost 20 years. He was also named AL Co-Manager of the Year in 1996, along with then Texas Rangers manager Johnny Oates.
The Yankees have made the postseason in every full season he has been manager. As manager, he led the Yankees to four World Series titles in nine years (1996, ’98, ’99, 2000).
As a player, Torre possesses a career .297 batting average and is a nine-time All-Star. He won the National League MVP award as third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinal. Torre is the only person to ever be named both MVP and Manager of the Year.
Before managing the Yankees, Torre managed the New York Mets (1977-81), Atlanta Braves (1982-84) and St. Louis Cardinals (1990-1995). His career record as a manager is 1781-1570 (.522).