New York Yankee of Los Angeles

It's official. Joe Torre was formally announced as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers today in a press conference held in center field at Chavez Ravine.

The only real news was that he's also bringing Don Mattingly (whom many thought would succeed Torre as skipper of the Yankees) and Larry Bowa with him from his staff in New York.

Torre's speech wasn't exactly inspirational. Let's just say he could have used some help from one of the striking WGA members. There was no talk of championships, no talk of anything concrete, and certainly no glitzy lines from the true NY dude:

The goals as far as I'm concerned -- you go out there and you play hard and you play smart and you hope to get a good result. I can talk about it all day long. We're going to have to prove it out here.

He opened with a joking apology for growing up as a Giants fan (back then, they were in New York). His real rival in Los Angeles may be the Angels, who continue to gain ground on the Blue Crew's popularity.

He also admitted he didn't really know much about the current Dodger team. You can see more in this video:

AP photo by Matt Sayles.