TAMPA As January turned to February Yankee fans everywhere began compiling a list of reasons why this season was going to be the hangover from last year when The Bombers were the best team in baseball history.
Why a certain amount of pessimism lives in all of us isn’t known but it’s there. David Wells wasn’t going to win 18 again. David Cone’s arm, tired last September, was finally out of bullets. Bernie Williams would crumble under the burden of being the highest-paid player in club history. Paul O’Neill was a year older. Derek Jeter would succumb to injury. Mariano Rivera’s shoulder would blow out. Scott Brosius was a one-year wonder. Chuck Knoblauch would hit .265 again. Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez would be in Columbus by July and Hideki Irabu’s fastball wouldn’t top 90 mph.
Nowhere on the list of What Can And Will Go Wrong was Joe Torre being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Williams and Jeter colliding in short center field and breaking arms and legs was there, but losing Torre never made even the most pessimistic Yankee fans list.
Yet, as the Yankees open defense of their World Series title April 5 in Oakland, that’s the No. 1 reason to worry. Yes, Cone’s arm has a ton of pitches in it. So, too, does Roger Clemens’ wing. Brosius has to prove last year wasn’t a fluke and Knoblauch has to hit higher than .265. And everybody has to stay away from injuries.
But Torre’s absence is the wild card.
“I am not coming back until I feel ready,” Torre, 58, said. “I don’t want to come back and then have to leave again.”
At first blush, it’s easy to believe everything will be fine with Don Zimmer running the show. After all, he has 13 years of experience and has been attached to Torre’s hip in the Yankees’ dugout for the past three years. And how many decisions Torre made were actually Zimmer’s ideas?
Then there are the players, a veteran bunch who don’t want to look in Torre’s eyes when he returns and have to explain why they staggered out of the gate under Zimmer, who won’t mask his emotions the way Torre does.
“We have to police ourselves,” David Cone says. “It can’t be all on Zim.”
Yet, one of the biggest reasons the Yankees have copped two World Series rings in the past three years and were installed as favorites to add another piece of hardware this season was the stability Torre adds to the often turbulent Yankees universe.
Torre had input on the 25-man roster that will be introduced in Oakland. But once the games count, Torre says it’s Zimmer’s baby. Yes, he will be watching on television and, of course, he will be talking to Zimmer probably on a daily basis. But when Knoblauch is on first with one out and the score tied in the eighth, Zimmer will have to decide if he starts the runner with Jeter at the plate. It will be Zimmer who replaces Cone with Mike Stanton late in the game with a left-handed hitter ready to hack.
The day Torre pulls on No. 6 and takes the lineup card to home plate can’t come soon enough for Zimmer, who is in a no-win situation.
Let’s say Torre misses 30 games and the Yankees go 22-8. Well, weren’t they supposed to do that. Suppose they go 15-15. Well, Zimmer messed things up. Don’t even think about 10-20.
“Don’t I know that,” Zimmer says.
“This is Joe’s team and everybody knows that,” Zimmer says. “It’s just that somebody has to make the decisions while he is out and I am the man, but I can’t wait to get him back in that chair.”
