We’re set up with two entertaining matchups in baseball’s league championship series, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies facing off in the National League and the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels in the American League.
But even before the two series begin, with the Dodgers and Phillies set to begin play tonight and the Yankees and Angels tomorrow, there is only one outcome anyone’s really hoping for. No offense to fans of the Phillies and Angels, but how could any neutral observer not be pulling for what would be one of the greatest storylines in the history of the World Series: Joe Torre making his first appearance in the new Yankee Stadium, the place he helped to create with his incredible 12-year tenure as manager, on the sport’s grandest stage?
Things ended about as badly as they could for Torre in New York – or, at least, as badly as they can for someone who wins four championships, reaches six World Series and goes to the playoffs in each of his 12 seasons as a team’s manager. But after a third straight exit in the American League Division Series in 2007, this time to Cleveland, the Yankees brain trust met with Torre at the team’s compound in Tampa and basically gave him an offer that he only could refuse.
The Yankees then went with the younger, more intense Joe Girardi, while Torre took his laid-back demeanor across the country to the most laid-back atmosphere in the country, Los Angeles. And while Girardi led the sputtering Yankees through a disappointing final season in Yankee Stadium, a season in which they missed the playoffs for the first time since the early 1990s, the Dodgers under Torre reached the NLCS before losing to the eventual champion Phillies.
This season, the Yankees and Dodgers have been the two best teams in their respective leagues for practically the entire year. Torre skillfully handled Manny Ramirez’s steroid issues – something he learned first-hand in dealing with Jason Giambi’s similar troubles earlier this decade in New York – and has coaxed dramatic improvements out of young players like Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw, much like he did back at the end of the last decade when the Yankees were led to championships, in large part, by young players like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte.
While the Yankees have gotten back into the playoffs this year, they had to go out and spend just under half a billion dollars on CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixiera to do it. On top of that, the intense Girardi seemed to gain some of Torre’s qualities this season, mellowing out and giving his veteran players more of the leash that they used to have under Torre, including when Girardi himself was there.
Now the two historic rivals are seven games away from yet another clash in the Fall Classic, but this one could potentially top them all – even the Dodgers finally breaking through against the Yankees back in 1955. Joe Torre coming back to the Bronx would be the biggest story of the year, of would be in many years, really.
After two years spent as far away from his old home as he could be, Joe Torre could soon be back in Yankee Stadium on the sport’s biggest stage. Unless you’re in Philadelphia or Anaheim, you’ll have trouble finding someone who won’t be interested in watching that.
The only question left is if we will. Over the next week-and-a-half, we’ll soon find out.
