When you start trying to get outside yourself, it starts playing into the opposition’s hands.” JOE TORRE
Fifteen minutes earlier than normal, an hour prior to yesterday’s scheduled first pitch, security ushered the media out of the Yankee clubhouse, per orders of Joe Torre.
Torre closed the blue door that leads into the Yankee clubhouse so he could privately address his struggling team.
Losers of six of eight heading into yesterday, Torre hoped his words would swiftly return his players’ focus.
“We’ve done this before,” Torre said. “We just have to let them know to ride it out.”
Torre feels too much of his team’s attention is on its injuries. Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada have all been nicked this week, while Bernie Williams, Nick Johnson and Steve Karsay are on the DL.
With all the bumps and bruises, the Yankees are getting beat. They are trying to do too much, but ending up doing too little.
“It’s a tough enough game to play when you pay attention to what you do and take a little bite at a time,” Torre said. “When you start trying to get outside yourself it starts playing into the opposition’s hands. It is mainly a reminder-type thing.”
Torre isn’t the type of manager that yells, so when he meets with his team it is with a calm purpose and a briefcase of examples. Friday night, Yankee pitchers walked four leadoff men.
“That contributes to beating yourself,” Torre said.
At the plate, the Yankees uncharacteristically have been first-pitch swinging.
“We are not as selective,” Torre said. “We look like we’ve been trying too hard.”
Why are they doing this? Torre thinks it has a lot to do with the injuries. Guys look at the lineup card and don’t see “B. Williams,” which results in hitters trying to pick up the slack.
“I sense because we have so many guys missing, guys may be trying to do too much,” Torre said. “It sounds simple.”
It does, but pressing is a sure way to fail in baseball. It takes players off their game, resulting in losses.
Torre says he isn’t pressing. In fact, he isn’t changing at all. He doesn’t even have plans to save Mariano Rivera for Monday to finish off Clemens’ 300th win.
“If we have a chance to win [today,] we’ve got to do it because wins have been a little shy lately,” Torre said. “We have to fight our way through this hole we’re going through now.”
