That’s right! A letter from Joe Torre has just arrived on my desk in Bristol, TN. I thought I should publish it for you all to read….Dear Alex,
I can understand how you, like most Yankee fans feel right now. You probably feel horrible- especially after our team was outpitched, outhit and outlucked (and swept) by a Kansas City Royals team who have about as much hope as getting to the play-offs as…us, really.
We sucked tonight as we have every night in Missouri. We left 101 men on base, didn’t work the pitch counts, couldn’t hit a good fly ball if we tried, and didn’t really hit that well either. I don’t know what to do. I’ve closed the doors and put on the hinges but still the bad smells are getting in.
True, we weren’t lucky in Game 1 here, but we weren’t fabulous either. Games 2 and 3 we made pitchers that have ERAs higher than the late Bob Marley himself look like Cy Young and Nolan Ryan against us- we couldn’t hit a thing.
I know I can be accused of making mistakes. Tony Womack didn’t play all three games- taking away any stealing ability with Derek Jeter slumping the way he was. Gary Sheffield was stuck in rightfield and Bernie “tendonitis” Williams was our starting centrefielder for most the series. And yes, the Royals ran on his arm. And yes, the Royals scored on his arm. We then took our hitting ability at first base, replacing Tino Martinez with Russ Johnson, who sucked at Tampa Bay, and he does now. Why didn’t I stop playing with the line-up and keep it the same (that was the one many moons ago that had Tino at first base with Jason Giambi as the DH)? I have to give our $15mn-a-day bench players a chance to play, don’t I?
It’s funny, because this time last week everyone was talking about a Yankee turnaround. We’d just swept the Tigers and were just about to go into a series with the Red Sox. The Sox themselves were hitting like crap before they came to the Stadium. Aren’t they still batting now??? The pitching, which stood up quite well on the winning run during June, suddenly fell apart, and now we’re back to square one. A win looks a long way away, boys- and so do the playoffs.
Thanks,
Joe