Joe Torre Doesn't Look That Sad To Me

At the end of a remarkably entertaining evening in sports, I'm watching Joe Torre -- calm, resolute, and with the sly hint of a smile that says he's looking back in all of this even as it's happening -- handle the post-game press conference. It's probably all over for him now, and he'll go down in history as better than Martin, worse than Stengel. Better than just about anyone else who has ever managed a baseball team, but not good enough to keep the job in the most rigged game in town.

This year, as in the past half dozen years, he had a Frankenstein of a team -- solo homers, fantasy league superstars, bad defense and brand-name pitching that's just not very good anymore -- that was perversely designed to win in the regular season, and fail in the playoffs. It's the polar opposite of the Yankee teams that won. He even just cracked a joke about The Vigil that is sure to happen outside of his home once the off-season starts and the Death Watch begins.

The fact is that he got this team -- a team where a 45-year-old was supposed to save everything -- to 94 wins. He lost to a team that had the two best starting pitchers, which is what usually happens in the playoffs, let alone the team that had the plus defensive players. And while it's always true that five game playoffs are a dice roll at best, it's also true that he didn't have the better team.

Oh, and by the way, if he does go manage somewhere else, he'll be just another manager there, too. Because as good as Torre is, the players win the games. And the Yankees didn't have enough players to do that.

Meanwhile, big ballsy ups to Tribe manager Eric Wedge, whose support of the doubtable Paul Byrd and Joe Borowski paid off, and gives his team the same 1-2 set-up of Sabathia and Carmona that tied the Yankees up in knots. I still think Boston's better, but then again, I thought the Yankees were better, too. (Clearly, I know nothing.)