The View From Here . . .
The resignation last week of Joe Torre marks the end of a memorable era in New York sports history.
By Bob Morgan, Jr.

Joe Torre was born in Brooklyn and was an accomplished player in a major league career that lasted from 1960 to 1977. He had a lifetime batting average of .297 and was named the National League's most valuable player in 1971, when he hit . 363. Following his major league career, he was rather less successful as a manager for a number of National League teams, including the Mets. His NL managing record was 894 wins and 1003 losses.

But all this was to change in 1996, when Torre took the helm of the Yankees. The Yanks had already been in the playoffs the previous year under Torre's predecessor, Buck Showalter, but the team reached new heights under his leadership.

The Yankees managed to win in 1996, the team's first world championship in eighteen years, and then won three straight championships in 1998 (one of the greatest teams ever), 1999 and 2000. All told, the Yankees were in every postseason during Torre's tenure, with two more American League pennants along with his four World Series wins.

While Torre obviously benefited from George Steinbrenner's huge outlays for players, not all well funded teams have been successful. Torre was able to meld a team with numerous outsize egos into a coherent unit. Moreover, he managed to instill a quiet disci-pline in his players. On the field, every player ran out every ground ball. And there were few very, very few off the field incidents that have plagued other teams.

But perhaps Torre's greatest managing job was this year. Much of the starting pitching rotation was injured early in the year and many of the regular players were in deep slumps. On May 29, the team lost to Toronto 3-2 on a steal of home and a Daily News story the next day headlined "Bumbling Bombers Fall Again" recited that the team was 21-29, an astounding 14 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox and 8 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers for the wild card slot.

But the team came together from that point. The pitching staff was patched with the addition of young players and most of the dormant bats came back to life. The team gained 12 1/2 games on the Sox during the remainder of the season and easily became the wild card team. They didn't get past Cleveland in the division series, but it was still an amazing comeback. Significantly, of the eight teams that had been in the postseason in 2006, only one was able to return in 2007 - the Yankees.

I never met Joe Torre, but my late wife, Maureen, did. She was a lending officer for a bank and she was invited to an event featuring the Yankee manager. (Indeed, we have at home a picture of Maureen and Torre.) She spoke to him for a minute or two and thought he was very down to earth and she could see how his leadership skills would have done well for him in fields outside baseball.

One need not feel sorry for Torre even if his exit from the Yankees was completely graceless. He was well compensated in New York and no doubt is very financially secure. He will surely make the Hall of Fame for his managing and could easily find another team to hire him. But to many fans, the image of Joe Torre's brooding presence on the bench and quiet leadership is an enduring one.