Manager Joe Torre not looking very happy. AP Photo/Gene J. Pushkar
ESPN's hall-of-fame baseball analyst Peter Gammons went on The Michael Kay Show based in New York City to talk about postseason baseball. What came out of his mouth at the end of the interview was both shocking yet not surprising.
Here's the tail end of the interview:
Michael Kay: One final thing. Joe Torre said today that after next year when his contract is up, he thinks that's going to do it. He'll be 70 years old. Do you buy that?
Peter Gammons: Yes. I do buy that. I can just see him out there surfing in Hawaii, in Maui re-enacting that commercial. I wouldn't be surprised.
I think a lot of things will probably come out here in the next few months. But I think life with the Dodgers is pretty much a living hell.
MK: Really?!
PG: Oh yeah.
MK: So he thought he had it bad in New York, and now it's worse there?
PG: Oh yeah. There'll be a lot that comes out in time with Dodger ownership. But that is a mess. I don't think anybody wants to have to put up with it too long.
MK: Wow.
In Joe Torre's press conference today, Torre addressed the issue but didn't exactly extinguish the fire.
"But my relationship is fine here," Torre said. "It's far from the living hell that it seems to say I was going through. You know, managing is tough during the course of the year, and you get worn out by the time the year is over, especially when you get to this time of year. But you get regenerated for the postseason.
"But I know nothing about where that came from, and as I say, I still have the same plan that I've always had."
If you remember Frank McCourt bought the Dodgers on credit from Fox and didn't do much to endear themselves to the fans. While it seemed to have turned for the better in recent years with the regular success the team has experienced with Torre leading the charge, could it have masked the problems in the front office?
Being so close to the team this season, I didn't sense anything strained when Torre talked. Of course I have nothing to compare this to, so who knows?
We'll see what happens this offseason.
Update: We didn't even have to wait for the offseason. The McCourts have confirmed they have separated which leads to the question of ownership. Will they have to sell the team?
