Patterico's Pontifications

11/1/2007

Joe Torre named LA Dodgers’ Manager

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 5:29 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Joe Torre has been named manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team he loved to hate as a kid:

“Joe Torre grew up in Brooklyn rooting against the Dodgers. Now, a half-century after they moved west, he’s their manager. Torre was hired by Los Angeles to succeed Grady Little on Thursday, taking the job two weeks after walking away from the New York Yankees.

“Joe Torre comes with a great resume,” Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said on a conference call. “What he’s done the last 12 years is as powerful as any manager in recent memory.”

The winningest manager in postseason history, Torre moved from one storied franchise to another, agreeing to a three-year, $13 million contract. He becomes the Dodgers’ eighth manager since they left his hometown, where he rooted for the rival New York Giants.

“As a kid growing up, you didn’t like them,” Torre said on WFAN radio in New York before the hiring was announced. “As a player, to me the Dodgers were the Yankees of the National League because … you either loved them or you hated them.”

There’s more in this ESPN article. Torre was named manager of the Dodgers on the same day the Yankees formally introduced Joe Girardi to succeed Torre as Yankee’s manager.

Unlike Joe, I grew up rooting for the Dodgers (and the Cardinals), and so I’m pleased for the Dodgers. I admire how Joe Torre managed the Yankees to success with its big payroll and egos in a tough market. I hope he does even better with the Dodgers.

— DRJ

11 Responses to “Joe Torre named LA Dodgers’ Manager”

  1. Now, all they need to do is give the kids more playing time (letting Luis Gonzalez and Nomar Garciaparra go would be the most realistic way to do this–kicking the offensive millstone that is Juan Pierre to the curb would be even better), and hope that Jason Schmidt comes back healthy, and the 2008 Dodgers are bound to be much improved. If they wanted to really improve fast, combining the above with signing A-Rod and sticking him at short or third for the next eight to ten years would be nice, or–if they don’t want to spend quite that much–they can bid for Johan Santana next winter when he goes free agent.

    M. Scott Eiland (c3969b)

  2. This LA resident is jumpin’ for joy!

    H2U (090516)

  3. The absolute best part of this is the potential that Torre will hire Don Mattingly as one of his bench coaches. If that happens, I can’t wait to get a picture of Donnie Baseball in his Dodger uniform and send it to all my yankee fan friends. Priceless.

    JVW (951b34)

  4. God yes please please please have Donnie Baseball in a Dodgers Uni. Along with A-Rod. Oh my, as Vin would say.

    Dodger Stadium is still a gem, as opposed to the Rat House that is Anaheim Stadium.

    Jim Rockford (e09923)

  5. The Yankees and the Dodgers haven’t played in a World Series since 1981 (before Donnie Baseball even played for the Yankees) yet the rivalry lives on:

    The absolute best part of this is the potential that Torre will hire Don Mattingly as one of his bench coaches. If that happens, I can’t wait to get a picture of Donnie Baseball in his Dodger uniform and send it to all my yankee fan friends. Priceless.

    Yup, much storied history between the two franchises.

    And much finger poking in the eye.

    Paul (66339f)

  6. I’m a life long Dodger fan. As a kid, I would lay in bed long after bedtime listening to Vin Sculley announcing the exploits of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Sweet Lou Johnson, Maurry Wills, Wally Moon, Wes Parker and many many others. I think hiring Joe Torre as manager is an excellent decision.

    Having said that, I will NEVER attend another Dodger game at Dodger Stadium. Ingress & egress to the stadium lots is insanely slow due to out dated design.

    I could tolerate that if not for other factors. How many homicides& violent assaults in the stadium lost the last few years?

    The last 5 games I went to I swore each was my last. The people who stat around me were the loudest foul-mouthed obnoxious drunks I have ever been around. And that was sitting in the field boxes inside the bases. I shudder to think what the left field barrio, I mean pavilion must be like. The left field pavilion looks like Chino State Prison on furlough. It, it has become so bad in the pavilions do they even sell alcohol out here anymore? The rest of the stadium shuts off the liquor after the 7th inning.

    Perhaps the last straw for me was a recent game where I had some very drunk, very profane very obvious gang members sitting behind my son & I. I asked security to do something. They were too afraid to even contact them. I had to leave my seats. I walked with my son over the bullpen fence so we could see the pitchers warming up. Security yelled at me to step away from the fence. I nicely asked of my son could watch the players for a minute. The guard said something into his radio & I was immediately swarmed by security ordering me away from the fence threatening my son (he was 8 at the time) & I with arrest or ejection if we didn’t move away from the fence.

    That was it for me. I walked out of Dodger Stadium then & there never to return. I’ll spend my money in Anaheim, thank you..

    Bud Dickman (7cfd24)

  7. Perhaps the last straw for me was a recent game where I had some very drunk, very profane very obvious gang members sitting behind my son & I. I asked security to do something. They were too afraid to even contact them.

    I saw the same thing at a Padres-Dodgers game. The same type of fans — drunk gangbangers — were hassling a couple of fans in Padre jerseys and hats. The Padre fans seemed a little too scared to do anything (they were sitting a few rows in front of the drunks and would have had to walk past them) so I went and told security about it. Security’s attitude was along the lines of “we’ll monitor the situation” but I never saw them appear in the aisles to check it out. Fortunately the drunks left early.

    I emailed the Dodgers about this after it happened and never heard back. I suggest you do the same. The more they hear about this type of thing the harder it will be for them to ignore it.

    JVW (951b34)

  8. JVW. Thats exactly what they told me, “We will monitor it….” They then walked away… That must be security speak for not wanting to do their job.

    I emailed, I wrote, even sent a letter to McCort. Nothing. In the future, I’ll spend my money at the Big A.

    Bud Dickman (7cfd24)

  9. Growing up back East I was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and hated the Yankees, as all good supporters of Da Bums did (we also hated the Giants, but that’s another story).

    When the Dodgers left and moved to LA they broke my childhood heart and I’ve hated them ever since. I mostly refuse to call them the Dodgers at all, I just call them the Losers.

    Now the hated Losers have hired the manager of the hated Yankees. I will now doubly enjoy watching them lose in the future.

    JayHub (0a6237)

  10. Two rudest team fans at Padres games: LAD, closely followed by Chicago Cubs. No one else comes near. Literally.

    allan (4a0aff)

  11. Well I grew uo in Florida and I am born in New Jersey, well New Jersey don’t have a baseball team so I like the Yankees even though people hate them but I love them and the damn Yankees has a history of World Series wins.

    So people here in Miami did not have na AL team called the Sharks so what is up with the Marlin?

    Besides if Torres goes to another expansion team in Miami then he becomes a Shark.

    Miguel (25ded6)


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