Joe Torre

Joe Torre is out as manager of the New York Yankees. I respect the way Torre handled the situation.

I think Joe really wanted to come back as the manager but he did not want to come back if the offer was insulting to a man with his accomplishments and if the offer was such that he'd be dangling from a string every game of the season. Joe has accomplished plenty and has nothing to prove. In the end - he just didn't need the aggravation.

You have to hand it to Joe. Easily he could have had his agent call the Yankees and give them the news. Instead Joe got on a plane and told the Yankee front office the news in person. Classy right to the end.

I see Joe taking next year off and honestly at his age - he's probably done as a manager. Joe can spend next year in Hawaii enjoying himself. He's got plenty of money and if he feels the need to do something then he can write a book or doing speaking engagements (Torre would get top dollar on the lecture tour circuit). I don't think he'll come back to do any TV work for the YES Network because that wouldn't be fair to Don Mattingly or Joe Girardi. Torre wouldn't put those guys in the position where people would be calling for Joe's return all the time simply because he was so nearby.

You would have to think that ESPN is already thinking about offering Torre a Bill Parcells type deal to work on Baseball Tonight. Maybe ESPN could offer Torre Joe Morgan's spot doing the color on the ESPN Sunday night game. That would be great.

As fa as the Susan Ward picture at the top of the post - Joe Torre is many things but good to look at is not one of them (besides I've been looking for an excuse to post that picture all day).