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October 18, 2005
Torre: A-Rod & Big Unit Too Uptight
Today, on WFAN, Joe Torre mentioned that Alex Rodriguez needs to enjoy himself more while playing. With this, I'm assuming that Joe is saying that A-Rod is too tense.
Torre also said that Randy Johnson's issues this year were the result of him not anticipating the "New York" factor as much as he should have this year.
Torre said that it was not an issue of Unit being unable to handle New York (like a Whitson) - that it was more that Randy didn't realize the level of distractions that New York can cause.
Joe added that a "throw away line" in Arizona or Houston or Seattle dies in the air whereas in New York, it's a headline. And, that Randy was too sensitive to this. Torre even hinted that Unit's problem in Game 3 of the ALDS was that he was being too shy, and worrying about results, than just letting it fly.
Somehow, without question, the Yankees need to get these guys on chill-pills next season. Anyone know where Manny cops his loosey goosey tablets?
Posted by Steve Lombardi at October 18, 2005 04:34 PM
Comments
it would help if the organization discovered that the following also cannot play in New York (or most other places): Wayne Franklin, Ruben Sierra, Felix Escalona, Alan Embree, John Flaherty, Tino Martinez, Matt Lawton, and the battered remains of Jaret Wright. (there are more but I digress...)
Posted by: JohnnyC at October 18, 2005 05:35 PM
Years ago I set out to establish the fact that there was no such thing as "THE NEW YORK PRESSURE"...after finding so many free agent/traded flops in cities other than NY, my head began to swim...I gave up and drank heavily the remaining years of the century.
Posted by: Repoz at October 18, 2005 05:55 PM
Manny goes behind the door to the green monster to pee, that's sets him up for several innings.
Reality is that it took Clemens even a year to become acclimated to NYC. Johnson will get it. A-rod will get it even sooner.
We really are set with addition of an athletic CF and some younger, more athletic bench players. I don't know if they come from within or from without, but we need to get younger and more athletic. And we need to give these "kids" more than 2 games to show what they have. We've screwed Crosby and Phillips, yet we gave Cano a full season. I love Tino, but why hire him back? Give Andy Phillips the job and let him learn to hit MLB pitching. He hit the cover off the ball at 3A and even Jeter said the kid can hit. Oh, I've talked too much, sorry!
Posted by: Scott Coulter at October 18, 2005 09:55 PM
Repoz, good to hear from you again. Where ya been? BTW, I agree totally that the "can't play in NY" excuse is just lame. And I'm disappointed that Torre would continue to feed that myth. Of course, it covers up a lot of...ahem...mismanagement, both in the front office and by Torre and his "staff."
Posted by: JohnnyC at October 19, 2005 10:17 AM