BALTIMORE – Joe Torre has a challenge for all those people who believe he went overboard by naming seven Yankees to the AL All Star team.
“Which one or two do I eliminate?” Torre asked last night before the sizzling Yankees took on the Orioles at Camden Yards trying to extend their season-high seven game winning streak.
Some have suggested that Derek Jeter, a career .322 hitter who was batting .294 when last night’s game started, could have been left home.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Why Jeter?'” said Torre, who was puzzled by that thinking. “He is a good player having a good year. And he finished second in the voting. And I took another shortstop [Cristian Guzman].”
While Lou Piniella voiced his displeasure with Torre leaving off Mariner relievers Arthur Rhodes and Jeff Nelson, Torre received very little negative feedback from his peers yesterday. Nor did he wake up and feel bad that he left somebody out.
When Torre named Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Jeter on Wednesday, he said he there was no need to apologize for taking seven Yankees. Yesterday, he didn’t back down.
“I really didn’t have a whole lot of [reaction] on the phone,” Torre said. “You know there is going to be some feedback about why you took seven. I didn’t take seven last year and it’s not like you go out of your way to take seven. But when you are looking at categories and who has put some numbers together, well, what could I do?
“I thought they were all legitimate picks. I am sure as we go to through the weekend and get to Seattle, I will be asked questions about it. But I have answers. The one thing that I am happy about is – and it was asked as a legitimate question – was which player did you wake in the morning saying, ‘I wish I had picked him?’ None, because any of the players that have been mentioned to me, I was aware of. I had a chance to pick them before I made the decisions. That would have been the worst thing for me, if some name came up and I didn’t give it consideration and realize that maybe I should have.”
Torre took a hit from Nelson a year ago when the Yankees manager left him off the All Star team. Yesterday, Toirre fired off a great line when told that Nelson said the Mariners would use the fact that Rhodes and himself did not get nods as motivation for the second half of the season.
“I hate to think I am going to be a motivator to make them play better in the second half,” Torre said of the Mariners, who opened play last night with a major-league best 61-22 record and a 20-game lead in the AL West. “Who did they get mad at in the first half?”
Nelson said that the Mariners have to win the World Series so Piniella can take his team to next year’s All Star Game.
“He’s right, that’s the perk,” Torre said. “That’s why it’s called a perk. I have been lucky enough not only to pick the team for the last few years but to be able to pick people that I skipped in previous years. I would like to think if I am lucky enough to do it again, maybe Nellie would be on it.”
