NYBB status report

It was the Mets I'd been worried about, especially when they went on a losing jag right after clinching the National League East, and then (of course) when they lost both Pedro and El Duque just before the start of the post-season. The Yankees' pitching was of concern -- as it had been all season -- and Randy Johnson's back problems didn't inspire a lot of confidence, but with that All Star Line-Up, "Murderers Row Plus Cano", they seemed like a shoo-in.

Real life turned out to be a lot different. The Yankees didn't get the pitching, but they didn't get the hitting either, while the Mets reverted to mid-season form and swept their series. I'm glad to be a New Yorker who enjoys and follows and roots for both teams (and I guess I'm in a very small way grateful that a potential conflict of interest has been removed from the scene, and I can expend all my energy on rooting for the Mets), and I'm thankful to have had twice as much chance of getting one of my teams into the World Series, but I'm still a little sad for the Yankees, who had a pretty damn good season and pulled through in spite of adversity which might have sunk some other teams. (Having a bunch of bucks to spend obviously doesn't hurt either.)

I continue to think that Joe Torre is the very best manager for the Yankees to shephard them through 162 games with his Zen-like calmness, but that he also doesn't really understand that managing in the post-season is an entirely different thing which requires new strategies and tactics -- and because of that, he's in danger of becoming the American League Bobby Cox, who has a similar problem. I'm not an advocate of firing Torre, but I do wish someone could make him understand that different situations require doing different things, and you just can't make the exact same moves in the playoffs you used all year and expect to win.

Be that as it may, Willie Randolph's Mets have prevailed, and move on to face the Cards (probably) or the Padres, and that's where my full attention now goes. The King is dead, long live the King.

Go Reyes! Go Carlos and Carlos! Go David!



Update: Larry Dobrow has what I think is a pretty fair take on the Joe Torre problem, focusing on his bad bullpen moves (which I've been complaining about for years), and his mis-handling of A-Rod. But Dobrow doesn't quite get to what I think is the heart of the problem, which is that Torre's famed stoicness is both the reason why the Yankees under his management have been able to win their division so many years in succession and, as well, the root of his inability to move like a cat during the post-season and respond quickly to rapidly changing circumstances in a short do-or-die series. Torre's used to sitting back and letting his horses do the work, while shielding them from outside pressure, but in the post-season the pressure is all from inside the game and there's really managing to be done.

What the Yankees need is a manager with a split personality who can instantly change from impeturbable Buddah to lightning-quick wizard at the drop of the post-season flag. I don't think Lou Pinella's that guy -- he may be able to manage the post-season, but a Yankee team under his helm will never get there.