Soooo… Does This Mean Joe Torre is a Fraud?
George Steinbrenner’s checkbook just won a championship. That’s not a loser’s lament; just a simple statement of fact. And honestly, I don’t begrudge the Yankees for it. When you play in a city of 8.6 million people and manage to fleece the taxpayers to build you a billion dollar ballpark in the middle of a crippling economic collapse, you should spend $200 million to buy yourself a championship. It’s the least you can do. And I’m not by any means diminishing what they accomplished. I don’t care if a team buys a championship, steals it, cheats to get it or pulls out a miracle win. Winning is all that matters. You can put a footnote on the Commissioner’s Trophy or an asterisk on the Lomabardi, a French accent on the Stanley Cup or an upside down question mark on Copa Mundial, they all still look the same as every other team’s trophies.
But one thing this does prove is that given an unlimited payroll, anyone can win a championship. Which wouldn’t be such a huge revelation but for the fact that for 16 years, we kept hearing out of the Bronx that the reason the Yankees won was due to Joe Torre’s unparalleled leadership, his bottomless well of class and his uncompromising dignity. So what do the Yankee ballwashers say now that an empty uniform like Joe Girardi just won a championship. A guy who before coming to the Bronx managed one year in the bigs before getting summarily fired? The Steinbrenner family wanted to prove the point that given the unlimited budget they gave Torre, anyone can and should win a championship and they proved their point. It’s exactly analogous to what Jerry Jones did in the early 90s. He got sick of hearing what a genius Jimmy Johnson was so brought in a laughable buffoon like Barry Switzer in to replace him and won a Super Bowl. Look, Girardi got the job done and no one can take the ring off his finger. But what does this say to all the New Yorkers who groveled at Torre’s feet all these years? Who sold us this bill of goods that Torre was a genius, his example brought peace and love to the world and his tears cured cancer? The Suzyn Waldman’s who wept openly when he left New York? It says that either the Yankees found their second god-like manager in a row, or any monkey can win with a $200 million team, and I know what my money is on.
Too funny. Look at the first 5 contracts alone – each entire teams. Dead on though, the best team won, regardless of the fact that they bought an all-star team to “compete” for the championship.
http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/new-york-yankees_111398168678860040.html
Baseball managers do absolutely nothing. That’s why they are called “managers” and not “coaches”. The key is finding a guy who can handle the 25 head cases in the locker room and keep everyone happy with their playing time/role. I can’t stand reading about stupid shit like how great Ron Gardenhire is or Mike Scoscia. What exactly does Ron Gardenhire do? He plays the guys that are on his roster. And that’s it.
They did buy it. Just like the Sox bought there’s in ’04 and ’07. Any time a team in the top five salaries wins, they bought it. Pedro and Manny and Schilling and Ortiz and Damon nd the rest of them weren’t cheap.
And don’t give me “the Yankees spend so much more.” That’s weak. That’s like saying Michael Bloomberg is poor because he only has $17 billion while Bill Gates has $60 billion.
Same can be said about any “great” coach.
Phil Jackson, put him in the Knicks team that Riley took over and his triangle wins 25 games, maybe. He rode Jordan, Shaq and Kobe to titles with teams that were just heads above the opposition. Although he might be insane i’ll give credit to Riley for NY and Miami. He changed his teams style in every place he wen’t, that’s coaching. Not to mention the Knicks were filled with players nobody wanted (outside of Ewing) and they had sucked the previous year. Hell, he even won some games with Bimbo Coles as a starter.
Any coach will win the title if his team is good enough. Perfect example : Doc Rivers.
Red Sox 2007 payroll: $ 143,026,214
Rockies 2007 payroll: $ 54,424,000
Red Sox 2004 payroll: $125,208,542
St. Louis 2004 payroll: $75,633,517
Looks like the red sox have bought themselves a couple of championships too.
The Yankees still have us covered by almost double so u shouldnt be posting #’s unless you post the yankees as well
I have one problem with this post…yes the Yankees bought a championship, but you can not tell me Joe Girardi did not help the team. They posted 103 wins, the most since St. Louis in 2004. A team that started horribly, and casued rumors to surface about Giradi being fired, and what does he do? And if Mike Scioscia and Ron Washington did not have such great years with the Angels and Rangers, Girardi would be line for his SECOND manager of the year award.
well maybe the yanks payroll is higher than boston’s, but bostons is around $50million higher than 14 other MLB teams.
red sox fans crying about payroll is like listening to Oprah bitch about how much money Bill Gates has.
JT: Your argument makes no sense in two different ways. First off, if you look at the championships won by Torre you’ll see that the rosters of those teams were not the same as they are now. Paul Oneil, Posada, Pettite, John Wetland, Bernie Williams, Jeter, these guys werent making the type of money ARod and CC make. Are you kidding me comparing the teams Torre coached to this 2009 team?! Thats unbelievable. Torre won because he had guys who went to war for him. He had guys and he knew how to manage them to win. It wasnt until late 1990′s that they started spending, and still, they spent on Chuck Knoblach and Scott Brosius, hardly Arod or Texeira type players.
The other problem with your argument is that Girardi is a bad manager. Yes, he managed 1 year before being fired, but he wasnt fired for being a bad manager. He took the MARLINS, a team that was by all accounts expected to finish in last place, to a winning record and near post-season birth. He was fired because the owner of that team is incompetent.
Look at what Torre has done to the Dodgers, 2 straight post-seasons after they had missed the playoffs the year before. And with a team that, although they had high expectations, is not that good on paper.
Im as big a BoSox fan as any guy, but there is no denying that Torre is a legend.
I like the fact that 3 sentences in any post, I can tell that it’s either Jerry or Dave. Multi-syllabic words seem to elude el pres.
JT and the rest of you bitch ass queers that love those shit sox one thing you have to consider… NY is a better city, with better fans, and that is why we can afford to have the players we want. Same could happen in Boston but your owner spent his money on a young wife. Fuck him and fuck you!
Also while you are thinking we have more homegrown players that we keep because, you know what, we can. Cry about, but in the end, Jeter is a Yankee, Mo is a Yankee, Pettitte is a Yankee, and Jorge is so much better than your shitty capitan that it is not even fucking funny!
How does that 8 & 0 feel now?
I know this too… I’d take Giardi or Torre over Francona and those homo glasses and the cute act he put on this year. You had talented palyers and you looked like a bunch of weak bitches come playoffs. All that planned rest, to the point where he is pitching Nick Green for two innings… give me a break he, and your team are soft.
I’m thinking of giving-up on MLB until there’s a salary cap.
Jankees ruined baseball. And not as a fan of the Sox…but as a fan of the game.
How many of those new luxery boxes are filled by bailed out companies that should be extinct? The stadium, the players, the city – all floating on a sea of taxpayer money. Bailout Nation wears pinstripes.
Hey Pedroialovescock, the Yankess are $80 mill over the Sox. What does that say? Shave the $80mill off the Yanks salary and Boston bury’s you. Actually, give Theo the extra $80mill on top of what he deals w/ and Boston would break your regular season record of most wins.
the Yankees are the team of the decade, having won more regular-season games (965) and playoff series (10) than any other team, and joining the Boston Red Sox as the only teams to win two Series titles.
Red Sox 2007 payroll: $ 143,026,214
Rockies 2007 payroll: $ 54,424,000
Yanks 2007 payroll = $189m.
Sox + Rockies = $199m.
I love how douche bags say that “the Red Sox spend a lot too!”
The Yankees 2009 Payroll was $201m. The SECOND highest was $135m. The Red Sox were 4th with $122m.
Let me do the math for the NY mental midgets. The Average Team Salary for the 30 teams was $88,336,286.63.
What number were the Red Sox closer to – $88m or $201m?
I will give you donkey dicks a few minutes to grab your calculators. Math is fun.
“I don’t care if a team buys a championship, steals it, cheats to get it or pulls out a miracle win.” Jerry Thornton
Its a good fucking thing you dont care JT because it would invalidate two of three Patriot SB wins and the last Celtic championiship.
you fail to mention that Girardi won manager of the year in that one year as manager and was fired because Loria is a egotistical maniac.
but i guess getting the story straight is hard to do when blinded by rage.
27
players win the championships not managers or coaches -ie: doc rivers and his $86mil payroll (mind you the salary cap is $58mil) won a championship and he was the same coach without KG… but they couldn’t make the Finals
The Yankees had the team with the 25 best baseball players – and they proved it against everyone the played in every way you could win – the payroll is what it is – wont be changing, they have tons of young homegrown talent and some old legendary ones that we pay a lot but have enjoyed watching for years -i’ll pay for that
but then who knows Torre’s payroll was significantly different in the 90′s (the big $ came since ’01) but after reading that Giradri helped an injured woman from her car last night on his way home after winning the WS, maybe we did find another god-like manager to wear pinstripes… feels good today!
That Girardi story is bullshit. There’s no way he happened to be driving, then ran across 4 lanes of traffic on the highway at 2:30AM to save anybody. There are no photos and no videos to prove it. I’m calling complete bullshit, the whole thing is more of a hoax than Falcon and his fuckin balloon
quest4-27 is hung like a field mouse
Zinger you clown shoe,
The yankees bookended the decade with titles in 2000 and 2009. how does that make them the team of the decade when the red sox won their titles smack in the middle of the decade, going on to 4 ALCSs from 2003-2008? especially considering they won one of their titles after embarrassing your “team of the decade” by beating them after being down 0-3?
because they were good at the beginning of the decade and then at the end of the decade, they had a better decade then the team that was much better thru the bulk of it?
1) can’t deny torre is great. he did have a much different team in the 90′s, and he’s done good stuff with LA
2) girardi you can say is terrible. baseball managers can’t help a team win, but they can make them lose with poor pitching decisions, etc. girardi made some flat out awful decisions.
3) only sport where coaching really matters is football, that is not even up for debate. if it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have lost to the giants in the super bowl. we were the better team, but Bill made a rare fuck-up and had a bad gamplan
4) agree about mlb going downhill. it’s really hard to enjoy the sport when it just ends up being an auction every year. thank god the sox are halfway decent, but try to think about the loyal fans of pitt, KC, etc, where they can’t do anything to get better cuz they lose more and more fans, and just can’t afford it. if there’s no salary cap in 10 years, baseball is going to be facing dire circumstances and just no fans.
5) if you’re a yankee fan, you have nothing to be proud of. 9 years of embarassing losses, until ownership gets pissed enough to keep buying and buying until they find a combination that works. where’s the fun in that?
Your remark is interesting J.T. “And I’m not by any means diminishing what they accomplished. I don’t care if a team buys a championship, steals it, cheats to get it or pulls out a miracle win.” That’s interesting because cheating was the only way the steroid laced Red Sox of 2004 could beat the curse of the Bambino.
It’s funny to hear you get all pious about high dollar free agents. Don’t you recall courting A-Rod before the Yanks? But the genius Theo screwed up the deal with the MLB! Too bad all the good players want to play some place other than disfunctional Beantown. Oh well, I guess all the Red Sox must play for free now. All you low salary, well managed, baseball purists have fun shooting juice with Big Poopy!
Why are Boston fans so incredibly bitter?
I love the red sox fans bitching. Hey the yanks didn’t win it the “right way.”Not like the sox, just look at all the homegrown talent that got them their titles…..Schilling, Becket, Papi, Manny…….oh wait, nevermind.Bottom line is red sox outspend about 85% of other teams, and when they sign the big free agent to win the world series you are cool with it. But the yankees are in a handful of teams that outspend you, so now you cry aboutit.you can’t have it both way.bottom line, yanks care more. thats why they’re the best. Steinbrenner is willing to take a loss on the team to win. HE doesn’t give fuck about making the money. can your owner say that?
Welcome to America you commie bastards.
And congrats to Chris Slade for most retarded post of the year. 9 years of “embarrassing losses”? I wouldn’t go that far, yanks are world series contenders every year……but it sure as shit beats 86 years of being synonomous with losing I guess.