Torre, Zimmer happy for Girardi
Photo credit: AP | Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, right, and Don Zimmer attend the Joe Torre Safe at Home Benefit honoring Mariano Rivera. (November 13, 2009)
Galleries
2009 Yankees World Series parade
It is reasonable to assume that from Joe Torre's standpoint, the only way the postseason could have ended better would have been if the Dodgers had won the World Series.
"It was surreal, there's no question,'' Torre said Friday night at his annual Safe at Home Foundation Gala at Chelsea Piers. "It's not very often that you're someplace 12 years like I was and all of a sudden 14 years later, you're looking up there seeing a lot of familiar faces.''
Though he's a part of the National League now, Torre said there was no question whom he pulled for in the Yankees-Phillies series. "Even though I'm supposed to be a National League fan, when you're as close to these guys as I've been for all these years, I was just really pleased for them,'' he said.
In particular, for the players you'd expect - Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera. He also mentioned a player with whom his relationship was never particularly close and by the end of his tenure was somewhat strained. "[For] Alex, I couldn't be happier,'' Torre said of Alex Rodriguez. "He got the monkey off his back.''
Torre also praised his replacement, Joe Girardi, who had played and later coached for him. "To watch what they've done, especially with Joe Girardi at the helm, really made me feel good,'' Torre said.
Don Zimmer, also in attendance Friday, goes back even further with Girardi. He managed the Cubs when Girardi broke in with the team in 1989. They spent time together in Colorado, when Zimmer coached on Don Baylor's staff, and in New York under Torre. "The first 10 years he was in the big leagues, we were together,'' Zimmer said. "Joe's quite a man and a very good friend of mine, and of course I was very happy for him.''
Zimmer, who said he just signed his "62nd contract'' in professional baseball and will return as a Rays senior adviser, called Girardi three days after the Series ended. "I called him [and] just told him that I was so happy for him,'' Zimmer said.
He then turned a shade of red. "He took a lot of heat from the media during the series, I remember all that, second-guessing every move he made,'' Zimmer said. "And if they would have lost, I'm sure he would have heard more. Now that he won, he's on top of the world. That's how baseball works.''
Zimmer retired from coaching several years ago and Torre seemed headed in that direction until recently. He said he talked to Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti Friday afternoon about the future.
"I had some discussion about possibly extending another year,'' said Torre, who has one year left on his original three-year contract. "I talked to Ned today and told him I just wanted a couple of weeks to think more about it. And the reason I even suggested it is it's been fun. L.A. is getting more comfortable and there seems to be progress that we're making, and as long as I can keep my coaching staff intact - because they do all the work - it's exciting for me and I still have the energy to do it.''
Torre was asked about one of those coaches, former Yankee Don Mattingly. It seems inevitable that he will manage a team of his own someday, perhaps the Dodgers. Mattingly was a candidate for the Indians' job that went to Manny Acta and declined to interview for the Nationals' post.
"I'm a little partial, but I think he'll make a very good manager,'' Torre said. "I felt he had that potential when he was just coming down as a celebrity coach.''"You know, he's a superstar and when he walks into that ballpark, the work he does and the preparation he does, he doesn't expect anything for nothing. This works. And he's got a feel, he's got communication skills with these players. We could have 50 guys in spring training and he's going to treat every single one of them the same way and give them the same amount of time, and that's a credit to him as a person.''
