Please No More Joe Torre

On July 8, 2000, Roger Clemens threw a fastball directly at the head of Mike Piazza. The ball would hit Piazza rendering him unconscious, and the Hall of Fame catcher would suffer a concussion. As detailed in the New York Times, Joe Torre would come rushing in to defend Clemens:

Yankees Manager Joe Torre defended Clemens, saying he has encouraged him to pitch inside. ”To hit somebody in the head — we don’t do that,” Torre said. ”Why? Mike hadn’t had a hit in the series, and we’re not going to stir that up.”

As if that wasn’t enough, in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series, Clemens would throw a bat at Piazza. Once again, Torre would come rushing in not only defending Clemens but getting nasty with reporters. Both he and Clemens would make the absurd claim Clemens thought the bat was a ball. Of course, even if true, you’d have to wonder how a 37 year old pitcher who played 17 years could confuse the two and why he thought it best to throw a ball at a player.

Fast forward a few years, and even after the events of 9/11, Major League Baseball would not allow the Mets players to war the First Responders caps like they did in 2001.

In 2011, Torre defended the decision saying, “We just felt all the major leagues are honoring the same way with the American flag on the uniform and the cap. This is a unanimity thing.” Fast forward to 2019 when Pete Alonso forced the issue with the cleats, and Torre would this time defend the decision saying, “If we allow one team … you wind up able to do stuff everywhere. That’s the only issue.”

Of course, that wasn’t an issue with the Houston Astros wore commemorative caps honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing. But when it comes to the Mets and 9/11, uniformity is demanded.

Then, there was last night. Home Plate Umpire Sam Holbrook made a controversial and wrong call in ruling Trea Turner interfered with Yuli Gurriel‘s ability to field Justin Verlander‘s throw. While all the hysteria was happening Turner noted how Torre was ignoring him and the Nationals. Hearing Torre post-game with Ken Rosenthal, we had an idea as to why:

Not only would Torre back-up what was the wrong call on the field, he would go so far as to say Dave Martinez “was out of control.” Mind you, this is the same Torre who thought Clemens was in control when he threw a ball at Piazza’s head and a bat at Piazza’s body.

Of course, when it was Clemens hitting Derek Jeter in 1998, Torre had an issue bemoaning how Clemens gets away with stuff other pitchers don’t and noting how it was “strange that after we tied the score his control got bad.”

That is Joe Torre in a nutshell. He is a complete shill without an ounce of integrity. He walks into every situation and finds a way to make it worse. He does that by not just offering nonsense explanations, but he also goes on the offense attacking someone. Piazza should’ve gotten out of the way. Reporters are trumping up a story. Martinez was out of control.

Mets fans are well aware of all that Torre is, and they no longer want to hear from him on anything. After last night, you can suspect Nationals fans feel the same way. Really, after last night, every baseball fan should have had enough of him. While we can fall short of demanding he be fired, no one should ever want to hear him speak on anything baseball related ever again.

 

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