Tough Night for the Empire State

Hard not to be in a New York state of mind this morning. Just like the Billy Joel song for starters, but after watching the Yankees and the Bills go down to defeat last night, its hard not to hum it with a little irony.

First the $215 million Yankees, and frankly, the fact they were eliminated from post-season play by the Cleveland Indians in four games isn't the most interesting part.

It's that George Steinbrenner has already said publically, or at least in a newspaper, that Joe Torre would not be returning as manager if the New Yorkers lost in the first round for a third straight year.

Well, it happened. Maybe George is a man of his word, maybe not. But if he is, and if Torre is cut loose, one thought immediately jumps to mind.

The Blue Jays must seriously investigate Torre's availability if he becomes a free agent. It's just a no-brainer.

Now, maybe Torre doesn't want to become involved with the Blue Jays, or maybe he retires after a great run in the Big Apple.

But maybe he listens, and teams other than the Blue Jays - his old team, the Cardinals, for starters? - will likely be interested.

Even Paul Godfrey, for goodness sakes, would have to see the possibilities here, whether its with Torre as manager, GM or some other role. Torre made $7.5 million this season with the Yanks, a number that will scare any number of teams, but the man's got a serious resume.

If you're the Jays, you at least kick the tires on this one. You owe it to the fans were were misled and at times out-and-out lied to this past season. Hiring Gary Denbo to tutor the hitters just isn't going to be enough.

If Torre is cut loose and were to join the Jays, the entire profile of the franchise changes. Maybe the fans even respond by averaging more than 30,000 per game.

Now to the Bills, those poor, suffering Bills.

That just wasn't fair what happened to them last night in a 25-24 loss to Dallas in their first Monday Night Football appearance in 13 years.

It was as though the Bills won the game three or four times, but in the end lost because Cowboys kicker Nick Folk kicked it through the uprights not once but twice from 53 yards to decide the thrilling, topsy-turvy contest.

The difference was Folk, a brilliantly-executed onside kick and the ability of Cowboys QB Tony Romo to shake off five interceptions and then still put his team in position to win it on the last play of the game.

Maybe the game shouldn't have been that close, and maybe the undefeated 'Boys had their eyes on New England next Sunday a little too much.

But the Bills, with a ton of injuries on defence, played a whale of a game and just deserved better.

Then, of course, so does Joe Torre.

Comments

[James]

In regards to Torre, I completely agree. The Jays should also be exploring the possibility of pursuing Walt Jocketty and Tony LaRusa from St. Louis. If the Jays are serious about overtaking the Yankees and Red Sox, they should have the best people available to run the organization. Look what that philosophy has done for the Raptors.

Unfortunately, I don't really see it happening. Godfrey seems attached to Ricciardi, and it seems like Ricciardi goes with no-name coaches who he can easily control.

[Clive Pinnock]

Ha! As if hiring an overpaid manager would actually boost attendance. Anyway, why would the pursuit of Torre be such a no-brainer? After all, Cito Gaston has been waiting on a call for years now. How's that for a no-brainer? Remember Gaston? He was the last manager to win the WS back-to-back before Joe Torre. The profile of the franchise has tanked considerably since Gaston's media-fuelled (ahem) departure.

[A-Mar]

Joe Torre... too bad that would require a bold move from management... and a man that may have too much spine to be under J.P.

[Francesco]

Have you mentioned the Torre-to-Toronto idea to Richard Griffin? I thought the same thing this morning for about five seconds and then decided that even if Torre would consider the Jays, I'd say the chances of the Jays braintrust kicking those tires are smaller than you'd have imagined the chance of Buffalo blowing the game against Dallas, and maybe just bigger than the chance to sign A-Rod. If the Jays tank and JP gets fired the new GM has the old GM's coach on his hands. Plus, firing the hand-picked Gibbons means losing face for JP and still picking up the bill.

Sure, it'd be a small price to pay for winning, but to paraphrase Torre, when it's a crapshoot...

[chris]

Face it. Godfrey fully believes that his little protoge, J.P Ricciardi, is the reincarnation of Branch Rickey and believes the Jays would have been at, the very least, a serious contender in September had it not been for a little bad luck here and there. As long as Godfrey is the Blue Jays president, Ricciardi is his GM for life. Free to do whatever he wants with the team.

And, as long as those two egomaniacle weasels are in charge of the Blue Jays, there won't be any meaningful September games in the future.

[Darren Worrall]

Everybody is talking about the Bills and how they got robbed in the Monday night game. Well, their fans were robbed, too. The Bills' offence scored 3 points on Monday; that is not a way to win. If they had managed only one other field goal, the game would have been out of reach for Dallas. Pretty exciting game, though, and I was cheering for Buffalo all the way.
Your colleague suggests that Joe Torre would not be interested in the Blue Jays. Remember when the Jays used to go out and get all the big guns from around the major leagues? Cito was the manager then. If he is interested, then they should get him in there for next season.