by Len Di Gregorio

Created on: November 07, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

This is a travesty. The face and personality of the New York Yankees, manager Joe Torre, is leaving, after 12 successful years at the helm of this storied franchise. In those 12 years, all Torre has done was qualify for the playoffs in each of those 12 seasons, winning 9 consecutive division titles (10 overall), 6 pennants, four World Series, and 1,173 regular season games, or about 98 games per year. With his contract expiring at the conclusion of the 2007 season, he has decided to move on, rejecting a one year offer for $5 million, with an incentive based option for 2009. Not quite ready to "hang them up," Torre has recently accepted an offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers, for 3 years at $13 million, or $4.33 million per year, less money annually than his one year offer from New York. After reviewing the facts surrounding the decision made by the Yankees, this deal doesn't make business sense, nor is it logical, in terms of management's decision and the way they went about it.

The Yankees' principal owner, George Steinbrenner, is a difficult and obstinate man to work for. The success mentioned above was not satisfactory to a man who considers not making the World Series a failure of a season. Although the Yankees have the luxury to afford the highest paid and arguably the best players in baseball, year in and year out, they haven't reached the World Series in 7 "long" seasons. That last season, they beat their cross-town rivals, The New York Mets, in the 2000 "Subway Series." And the last time the Mets won a World Series, for comparative purposes, was 21 years ago. They also have, by the way, the ability to afford upper echelon ballplayers.

The contract offered to Torre, 67, seemed fair, at least to the naked eye. Five million dollars to continue to manage the most successful baseball franchise in history, for one more season, with built-in incentives of $1 million for each round of the postseason achieved, and with a guarantee for continued employment in the Bronx in 2009, providing the Yankees reach the World Series. But if you read between the lines of this new contract, it was not only a contract the Yankees were secretly hoping he would reject, it was also an insult. In actuality, he was earning $7.5 million dollars annually, not $5 million, which represents a 33% decrease in salary. A slow beginning to this season, largely due to injuries, accounted for a 21-29 start, after 50 games. To conclude the season at 94-68, making the playoffs for the 12th consecutive

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>