By JUSTIN TERRANOVA
Joe Torre’s appearance on Mike Francesa’s WFAN show started 19 minutes late, but here’s what he had to say when he was on the line. 4:19 — Torre makes it onto the show. Francesa opens up with a softball — are you surprised at the reaction to the book?
“Did I talk about some of the things that went on the clubhouse, yes. Did anything of the things talked about were a violation? No.”
I didn’t see that response coming.
4:21 — The agreement for the book was made before the 2007 season. “This book would’ve been written even if I was still with the Yankees.”
Some of those team meetings would’ve been awkward.
4:23 — The motivation was “To celebrate my time in New York.” No word if David Wells, Carl Pavano, Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson are invited to the official celebration.
Still waiting for Francesa’s first tough question. He said earlier in the show that it was a good book, but he didn’t think Torre should have co-authored it.
4:26 — Torre, “There was a lot of stuff that I gave Tom that I didn’t allow the book to print, but what ended up in the book I was comfortable with.”
In one breath Torre says he stands behind everything in the book. In the next, he hides behind co-author Tom Verducci for coming up with the “Single-White-Female” angle. Can Torre have it both ways?
4:28 — My relationship with A-Rod is “unchanged.”
“Alex in a lot of instances tries to do too much, gets in his own way and sometimes doesn’t say it the right way. That’s Alex.”
Good point, Joe.
ESPN 1050 billed their “interview” with Torre for 2 p.m. on the Michael Kay Show on their Web site.
“Today! Joe Torre at 2 p.m.”
“Tom Verducci at 5 p.m.”
If by that they meant playing excerpts from an interview at Torre’s Barnes & Noble appearance followed by Kay ripping him, then, yes, good job.
“There was never an interview scheduled. We weren’t intentionally misleading people,” an ESPN 1050 representative said.
They misled me.
4:33 — Francesa goes after Torre on the Bernie Williams’ issue. Torre said he wanted Bernie back but GM Brian Cashman did not.
4:36 — After saying earlier in the show that he wasn’t going to ask about steroids, Francesa goes ahead and does.
Francesa, ” Looking back at it, do you think that Roger Clemens had roid rage the night he threw the bat at Mike Piazza?”
Torre deflects for a while, but does answer the question.
“At the time I didn’t tie the two together. But in retrospect, with everything that’s going on, it could very well have been.”
Here we go:
4:39 — “Did you violate the sanctity of the clubhouse?”
“A lot of times when I talked about the clubhouse, chances are it was talked about through the yeas with the media. So, I don’t believe in my heart I violated anything because I paid strict attention. There was nothing more important than that.”
4:43 — “I didn’t have any control over what he (Tom Verducci) wrote, but I am fine with what was in there.”
These are the times where Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is missed. The occasional cackle, the sarcastic question. It’s just not the same.
4:50 — “Pavano was on the top of my list … he was my biggest dissapointment, and Randy Johnson.”
4:51 — “I didn’t dislike Kevin Brown, I just felt badly for him because I couldn’t help him.”
4:55 — “I wouldn’t change anything (about the book).”
4:58 — “Eventually [A-Rod] will realize he has to do something a little differently. .. He just has to trust his ability and not try and make something happen every time he is at the plate.”
5:00 — “No, I wasn’t bitter, unhappy at times. The most irritated I was, Mike, came when people were standing on my lawn the last couple of years in October and the Yankees just let them wait there.”
5:02 — One word to describe his time with the Yankees — “special.”
Awwww.
