Joe Torre's return, and George Steinbrenner's monument

Apologies for the delay. It's been such a busy night. Only with the Yankees would they be playing for first place in September, and yet the game becomes secondary.

So Joe Torre and Don Mattingly had just finished addressing the media when Brian Cashman walked by. The Yankees' GM was confused over why everyone was giving him a weird look, with cameras flashing, until I asked him, "Have you seen Joe yet?"

"No," Cashman said, gazing toward the interview room. "Is he in there?"

And moments later, Cashman and Torre embraced, and then retreated to the Yankees' clubhouse to speak privately.

Yes, this was indeed a real reconciliation between Torre and the Yankees. Are all of the hard feelings gone? Of course not. But the reality is: 1) On a business level, Torre and the Yankees benefit from associating with each other; and 2) On a human level, "It's just not healthy," as Cashman said.

The ceremony itself was all right. The best part was the presence of Torre and Mattingly among the crowd of Yankees greats who, unintroduced, trailed the procession of current Yankees (in uniform) and all four Steinbrenner children. The monument is, well, huge. And yet fans can't see it during the game, a huge flaw of the new Stadium. They have to do something to make Monument Park more visible.

--The Yankees' parent company has massive debt, but as far as I can grasp from this story, it's not that big a deal.

 --Good write-up of the enigmatic Matt Kemp by FanGraphs. 

--OK, got to write my column now, in which I'll have more thoughts about Torre and Steinbrenner.

But also, Torre said he'd be interested in speaking with the Mets about their imminent opening at manager, which isn't a shocker. Really, though, the only way I could see Torre getting that job would be at the Wilpons' insistence, and the Wilpons don't seem that into Torre. I can't see any general manager coming in and wanting to hire Torre.