Dodgers' Joe Torre finally is able to let emotions take over
T.J. SIMERS
Dodgers manager says he is a mess as the team clinches the National League West title.
Coming out of the mouth of the unflappable one, it just sounds so funny. "I'm a mess," Joe Torre Joe Torre says.
He beats cancer, works for a dozen years with George Steinbrenner, and as tough as the baseball and New York grind can be, he always has the Yankees in the playoffs.
But now the Diamondbacks have lost, lifting the Dodgers into the playoffs, and Torre is in the dugout struggling to keep a grip on appearances.
It's already been a trying week, of all things at this late date, one Yankee slight atop another. And now the emotion that comes with hitting the finish line, a media mob wanting to know how he did it.
"It never gets old," he says, the mood shifting to business again when everyone wants to know who will be the third starter, who will be the closer and who do you want to play in the World Series?
The news conference ends, Torre stands, but then turns with his back to the field while putting a foot on the dugout bench to further explain himself one on one.
"You know, I thought I could go home last night, what with the magic number at one, and maybe for a few hours be all right," says Torre, more human now than automatic pilot of a playoff team.
"Couldn't do it. I'm a mess," he says. But then with a grin, he adds, "You know, it's wonderful to have that feeling again."
OPENING DAY in Dodger Stadium. Torre is talking to Dodgers GM Ned Colletti when he meets Page 2 for the first time.
And it begins, "So you're the guy who is here on vacation," just the kind of greeting Rick Neuheisel would get later, but from game No. 1 Torre is the same affable guy as the one showing up for game No. 159.
"Except for that one day," Torre corrects, and he's right, a real grouch, cranky and short, the news conference ending that one day, and Torre taking Page 2 aside to apologize for being so grouchy, cranky and short.
Now maybe they come just as decent in demeanor, and Grady Little was every bit as decent as Torre. Maybe they come just as qualified, and we already have one of those in town in Phil Jackson. And maybe they come just as approachable despite being so well-known and hounded by attention, but there's someone at work here who's been there, done that and it's still not enough.
One hour after a win earlier in the week, Torre is in his office, and jaded as he might be with all those wins and rings, he just blurts out, "I'm excited."
