ARLINGTON – Don Zimmer picked up Joe Torre when he was floored by cancer. Now it’s time for Torre to return the favor for Zimmer and take over managing the Yankees starting tomorrow night in Kansas City.
Ten minutes after the Yankees dropped an 8-6 decision to the Rangers last night at The Ballpark, The Post learned Zimmer gathered the World Champions in the middle of the visitors’ clubhouse.
With moist eyes, the baseball lifer for 51 years with a very painful right knee said so long to the players he has led to a 13-6 record while Torre recovers from prostate cancer surgery.
”He thanked us for playing hard and then said he was going home,” a Yankee said. ”It was short and sweet.”
With his knee drowning in fluid and giving him problems that may require knee replacement surgery, Zimmer is ready to lateral the lineup card to Torre. While Torre’s return plans were vague, if tonight is Zimmer’s final game before disappearing to his St. Petersburg home, Torre will take over tomorrow night when the Yankees open a four-game series against the lowly Royals.
Torre will be examined in St. Louis today by Dr. William L. Catalona and travel to Kansas City tonight. Catalona is the surgeon who operated on Torre March 18.
”I will see you tomorrow,” was the only thing a glassy-eyed Zimmer said about the condition of his knee or his future plans.”
Zimmer, who had arthroscopic surgery March 6, underwent an MRI yesterday that revealed a laundry list of problems.
”I couldn’t tell you everything medically,” the 68-year-old Zimmer said. ”They talked to me like it was German. They showed me the pictures and said, ‘I got this and I got that.’ I don’t know what the hell is going on. All I know is that they are going to fit me for a brace (today) that will push the right side in. If that don’t work, it’s a knee replacement or cut the bone.”
Another scope is out of the question.
”I got fluid in the joints which is the reason the pain is so bad,” Zimmer said. ”It’s not fluid you can drain.”
According to trainer Gene Monahan, the MRI showed the reason Zimmer has been in so much discomfort the past two days after experiencing a good five days last week.
”There is no cartilage, it’s bone on bone,” Monahan said. ”We have some good options.”
Asked about a knee replacement, Monahan said, ”That’s way down the road.”
Asking Torre to come back tomorrow night is dicey only in regard to the fact that he really doesn’t know how his body will react to the late nights that are a staple of a big league manager’s lifestyle or the pressure cooker that leading the Yankees entails. Had he gone to KC to observe the games, he could have eased his body back into the grind.
