Torre on not managing: 'I don't miss it'

For the first time since 1990, Joe Torre is not in Florida or Arizona managing a big league team as spring training opens.

Instead, he went to see "Driving Miss Daisy" on Broadway on Thursday night.

"I don't miss it," the 70-year-old former Yankees and Mets manager said Friday in a telephone interview. "My wife even asked me and friends have asked me. You miss the relationships and you miss the camaraderie. The day-to-day stuff with the managing, I just felt it was time somebody else did it. It was time for me to move on."

That's not to say Torre is done with baseball. He is closing in on his next gig - commissioner Bud Selig's executive vice president of operations. The job once was held by current Mets general manager Sandy Alderson.

"It looks like it's going to happen at some point," Torre said. "But we haven't gotten everything worked out yet. Hopefully, in the next week or 10 days, we'll have a clearer picture of it. I pretty much know what it entails. It's a job to do with the game I love."

Torre spent the last three seasons managing the Dodgers. He briefly - and awkwardly - campaigned for a shot at the Mets' managerial job at the end of last season. That led to a public apology to then-Mets manager Jerry Manuel and an admission from Torre that his time in the dugout was over.

That doesn't mean it has been easy. "I'm sort of a duck out of water at this point in time," he said. "When you're not in uniform all of a sudden, there's a certain insecurity about that. But I'm looking forward to what this next chapter's all about."

What it won't be about is seeking an ownership stake in the Mets. Torre, who managed the club from 1977-1981 before winning four world championships with the Yankees, said he has "no interest" in being part of a group that tries to buy the 20 to 25 percent of the Mets that is for sale. Torre was the Mets' manager the last time they were sold, in 1980. That group included current owner Fred Wilpon, who fired Torre a year later. But the two have grown friendly over the years.

"I feel very badly," Torre said. "Fred - despite the fact I was fired after he took over - I always felt that the ballclub's very important to him and he took a great deal of pride in putting it together. We still converse. He's been a supporter of my foundation. He's been a friend, and I feel very badly for him because I know how much the Mets mean to him. I'm sorry to see what he's going through."