BOSTON – Joe Torre didn’t walk into a team hitting on all cylinders. In fact, the engine that drives the World Champion Yankees has been choked by more than a few bad sparkplugs.
Knowing that Paul O’Neill and Jorge Posada possess personalities that don’t take failure well, Torre talked to both slumping hitters before he officially returned to the helm Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
In his calm style, Torre spoke to the players last week at Yankee Stadium and offered encouragement. Now, Torre and the rest of the organization hope to see some results from two very important parts of a sputtering lineup that had scored 11 runs in the last six games for a team that had dropped six of seven going into last night’s action against the Red Sox.
Of course, O’Neill (4-for-26) and Posada (3-for-20) weren’t the only two with dead wood in the Yankees’ bat rack. Chuck Knoblauch, who stopped an 0-for-14 slide with a hit in Tuesday night’s 6-3 loss, had two hits in 38 at-bats.
“You talk to them but in a positive way,” Torre said. “At least I do. With Paulie, his philosophy of hitting is a lot like mine in that he hits a lot of balls to left-center field and I hit a lot of balls to right-center so our approach is similar. I used to go home and grind it, too.”
O’Neill, who was in his customary No. 3 spot last night against rookie right-hander Brian Rose and hitting .265, is his toughest critic and nobody is harder on O’Neill than he is on himself. His legendary snaps are only the outward signs. Inside, failure eats him up. That’s why Torre believes talking to his right fielder helps.
“It’s the same with him all the time, he is so tough on himself,” Torre said. “Basically, you try and go in there and talk about something that’s not even at the ballpark to get him off himself. He just beats himself up. What helps now is that you talk about it more. In those days you never accepted that you had a problem and you had to work it out yourself. I think the conversation helps. I am still convinced they take too much batting practice.”
As for Posada, this was supposed to be his coming-out season, a year in which he was going to move toward establishing himself as one of the premier catchers in the game. Instead, he started last night hitting a paltry .188 with three homers and 10 RBIs. In the clutch, he was only marginally better, batting .214 (6-for-28) with runners in scoring position. Worse, Posada has been struggling behind the plate where he has been charged with an unheard of seven passed balls in 24 games.
“I see Posada doing what a lot of young kids do,” Torre said of the switch-hitter, who may be suffering mentally over getting his salary renewed in spring training. “You sit and talk and let him know that you are on his side and tell him it’s going to happen. And if it doesn’t happen today, it will happen tomorrow or next week. That’s the only thing you can do, reassure him that he is a good player. You can get in that dark hole as a player sometimes and you don’t get a chance to see what other people are seeing from the outside.”
While Posada said the renewal issue isn’t at the root of his problems, Torre has been down the road with Ray Lankford when he managed the Cardinals so he knows it can happen.
“I asked him that and he says it isn’t,” Torre said. “Even though he says it isn’t bothering him, it’s not like he is lying to me but it may be part of that stuff going on.”
What Torre would like to see Posada do is separate his problems at the plate from the job he needs to do behind it.
“That’s what young people do, if he was an outfielder you wouldn’t know it because unless the ball is hit to him you wouldn’t know what he was thinking about,” Torre said. “But when you are behind the plate, you are not allowed to have that luxury of dwelling on part of the game you are not dealing with at that time.
“He has been reminded and it will get better. I think he has to learn to breathe again a little bit and have some fun. That’s the only thing missing from him right now.”
