Don’t blame yourself Joe Torre, blame the bigots that run MLB

Are we Yankee’s fans or are we Met’s fans? We’re not quite sure where we stand on this decisive issue, however we think if Joe Torre was smart, he’d spend next baseball season rooting for the Rangers (ed. Note: yes, we’re aware that that is a completely different sport). But with Torre’s decision not to return next year as the New York Yankees manager, one can only assume that either Torre has grown tired of being the highest paid Major League Baseball manager in history, or he is being essentially given the boot by the self-absorbed, jerky Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and spawns Hank and Hal. As George himself said during an interview yesterday, “Our goal is to win it every single year, even though we know, obviously, you can’t win it every single year. But nothing less than a championship is considered really acceptable”. Our emphasis here is on the phrase, ‘but nothing less than a championship is considered really acceptable’. Really? No, really? So all that talk about ‘playing because we love the game’ or ‘do your best and that’s all that matters’ was all B.S.? We are so going to have a talk with our high school track coach after this. Even the Olympic creed goes: "The most important thing . . . is not winning but taking part". When did playing sports (which translated into its original form in French literally means leisure) become so competitive that merely playing wasn’t good enough, it became all about being the ‘best’? Oh, that’s right; it changed when money entered the picture. Once people realized that there was money to be had, playing a competitive sport became commercialized in every way possible. Merchandise. Salaries. Incentives. Joe Torre was offered 5 million to manage the Yankees next year with a 3 million bonus if the team made it to the World Series. We don’t parade around proclaiming to be saints, but when we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars to be playing a sport that you can play at the empty lot down the corner for free, it just seems, we dunno, stupid?

Joe Torre says No: NY Times