Playoff Fixture Torre Looks to Enhance Already Rich Legacy

It's October, which means Joe Torre is managing. The Dodgers manager is about to embark on his 14th consecutive postseason, looking for a fifth championship.

In one sense, though, this may be the big one.

"If you think about legacy, for him to have a championship in L.A. would solidify that," Dodgers pitcher Randy Wolf told FanHouse. "There is always the argument about the payroll in New York and the whole deal there, and it may not be fair, but to do it here would really solidify his place."

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Believe it or not, Torre may be the rare Hall of Fame manager who is somehow underrated. Torre took the Yankees to the playoffs 12 years in a row, and he won the Manager of the Year Award outright exactly once, in 1998, winning 114 regular season games to do it. Torre shared the award with Johnny Oates of Texas in 1996. In the 10 years since, he's received only 13 first-place votes, including last year in L.A.

While the writers who annually pick the Manager of the Year may have always found someone they felt more deserving, and while fans may have even discounted him because he was driving George Steinbrenner's $200 million machine, people inside the game have always appreciated Torre.

"I think it's harder to manage a team that's [expected to be] successful," said Jason Giambi, who spent seven years under Torre in New York. "It's tough to keep a team good year after year after year. It's like with Pat Riley when he was winning with the Lakers. People say 'Oh, it's easy to win with the Lakers.' It's not true. Sometimes you have a great team, but if you can't get that team to play together, it doesn't matter."

Dodgers GM Ned Colletti said flatly: "There is no such thing as a push-button team. Even those great teams there, he had to keep the edge on the team and keep them going all the time."

After reaching the postseason 12 consecutive years under Torre, the Yankees finished in third the first year he was gone. The Dodgers finished fourth the year before Torre came, and they have now won the division two years in a row under his watch. It wouldn't be accurate to attribute that simply to him, but it also wouldn't be right to discount his contribution.

"The thing Joe is underestimated about is he has a great baseball mind," said Giambi, now a pinch-hitter for the Rockies. "He works well with people and puts people in successful situations. The biggest thing I've noticed is when we were [in New York] there was this aura about him where people feel comfortable."

Eventually, Torre was the one who was uncomfortable in New York, which is why he left. When Torre first turned down the Yankees' low-ball one-year offer after the 2007 season, he said he was ready to give up managing. Colletti and the Dodgers then came calling with one of the few situations appealing enough to get him, then 67 years old, to cross the country for an unknown challenge.

"There were some people, friends of mine, who when I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, told me I could only lose," Torre said.

Would Torre become the managerial equivalent of 42-year-old Willie Mays stumbling around in the outfield for the Mets in the 1973 World Series? He likely wouldn't have done enough to ruin his reputation, but a failure in Los Angeles, coupled with his earlier rough years with the Mets, Braves and Cardinals, certainly could have left the impression that Torre was a product of the Yankees' success, rather than vice versa.

Torre helped the 2008 Dodgers to a division title and their first victory in a postseason series since 1988, winning the Division Series before losing to the eventual champion Phillies in the NLCS.

This year, Los Angeles had the best record in the league every day but one since late April. Torre has not exactly manufactured victories with the Bad News Bears, but the Dodgers have not been a team without issues.

Like Manny Ramirez.

The Dodgers' best player, the focal point of their lineup, was suspended for 50 games in the heart of the season because of a violation of baseball's drug policy.

"Joe helped keep the clubhouse steady and helped keep Manny steady," Colletti said. "He talked to Manny a lot during that time. I think they have a great trust with each other. When the team met with Manny in Florida, that was a lot of Joe making sure that Manny was OK. He was in a tough spot. [Ramirez] was embarrassed, thought he let his teammates down. Joe ends up being in the middle of that. That's a pretty big thing to survive."

The Dodgers actually increased their division lead by one game while Ramirez was out.

Aside from the Ramirez issue, the Dodgers have proven to be far from a "push-button team." They've had issues.

• Every one of their starting pitchers has missed at least one turn because of injury or ineffectiveness.

"There is no such thing as a push-button team. Even those great teams [in New York], [Joe] had to keep the edge on the team and keep them going all the time."
-- Ned Colletti • Three of their everyday players, Russell Martin, Rafael Furcal, and Orlando Hudson, have slumped badly at times. Even Ramirez has been in a slump, by his standard, for much of the second half. Hudson, an All-Star this year, was essentially benched in September.

• Chad Billingsley, the Opening Day starter and an All-Star, pitched so poorly that he was temporarily knocked out of the rotation in September.

• Juan Pierre, a career everyday player who signed a $44 million deal, has been relegated to the bench much of the time since Ramirez was acquired at last year's deadline. Pierre accepted his demotion, stepped back into a starting role when Ramirez was suspended, and returned to the bench when Manny came back from his ban.

• Vicente Padilla, one of the most volatile pitchers in the majors, joined the Dodgers rotation in August and has managed to avoid incidents with his teammates or opponents.

"What Joe does day in and day out is deal with issues as good anyone I've been around," said Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly, who was also on Torre's staff in New York. "He doesn't let anything go. I think in New York people might have felt he wasn't tough enough on them, but that wasn't the case. He was on every issue that happens. ...

"That's as important as anything I learned from him, you can't let issues go. You have to address them right away and keep moving."

Wolf said when the Dodgers were showing signs of slipping in August and September, Torre was quick to call short pick-me-up meetings. The Dodgers' NL West lead, which was nine games at its peak, shrunk to as little as one game, but they were never overtaken.

"If he sees things going astray in any way, he'll call our attention to it very quickly," Wolf said. "He doesn't usually let things go more than a day. He's on it right away. He's a calming personality. He doesn't get all worked up. He's probably the most even-keeled guy I've been around."

Torre said the calm, even-keel approach is one of the adjustments he's made over the years. ("I'm a little embarrassed about some of the stuff I did in my early years.") As business-like as he appears on the outside, Torre said the years have not extinguished the desire inside to win. No amount of championships is enough.

"After we won in '96, my wife said 'You did it. That's what you wanted your whole life. Let's go,'" Torre said. "I said, 'Let's see if we can do it again.'"

He did it a second, third and fourth time. Now it's been nine years since Torre was left as the last manager standing. He said he wouldn't have left New York if winning a championship was all that mattered. He left because he wanted to enjoy managing again.

"I took this job because I wanted to find out if managing was still fun," he said. "But once you jump into the thing, your only motivation is winning. That's all you want to do. That's way you are bred."