Yankees’ woes make it clear Torre wasn’t the problem

NEW YORK - Last October, the Yankees made Joe Torre an offer he couldn't accept, the chance to be a lame duck in the shooting gallery known as Yankee Stadium.

They came with 6 million bucks in one hand and brass knuckles in the other. Torre walked away because he knew that, even at that kind of money, he wasn't going to be a manager, just a punching bag.

Can you imagine how hard and fast the fists would be flying in the Bronx today if Torre had accepted the deal, only to find himself 9 ½ games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, of all teams, and five games out of the wild-card race with fewer than 40 games to go?

For a guy dubbed Clueless Joe before his first day on the job, it was an incredibly shrewd and prescient move by Torre.

And for an organization that prides itself on its baseball judgment, it was an incredibly weak and shortsighted play by the Yankees.

They thought they needed a new voice in the clubhouse, when what they really needed was a new pitching staff. Meanwhile, Torre got a change of scenery and believe me, the view of Chavez Ravine is a lot nicer than the Grand Concourse.

Today, Torre's Dodgers sit atop the NL West in a first-place tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And in the Bronx, Joe Girardi — New Joe — struggles to find a way to keep his $209 million roster alive in August, let alone October.

In one sense, it is clear the Yankees owe Torre an apology, because clearly, he wasn't the problem with this team last year any more than Girardi is the problem with it this year.

In another sense, it is Torre who owes a hearty thank you to the Yankees, for showing him the way to the door just before the roof fell in on the rest of them.

Nearly a year later, the ugly public divorce between the Yankees and Torre turns out to have been a blessing for one but a wash for the other.

It probably would not have mattered who managed the Yankees this year, what with the rash of injuries to key players such as Jorge Posada, Chien-Ming Wang, Hideki Matsui, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, the lack of production from the likes of Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera, and the undeniable effects of aging on Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and yes, even Derek Jeter.

Throw in the unreliability of the bullpen and the appalling thinness of the bench and you have a mess Miller Huggins couldn't have managed to win with.

Torre, of course, would have loved to stay here under the right conditions — i.e., minus the threat of "Win the World Series or else" — but was smart enough to realize that taking a job simply for the money is a sure road to misery and failure.

Last week in Los Angeles, as the Dodgers were about to embark on a four-game sweep of the Phillies — by the way, while we're thanking and apologizing, don't the Mets owe Torre a box of cigars or something? — Torre wore the peaceful air of a man who knew he was having the last laugh but had too much class to actually show it.

"They've had a rough go over there," he said of his former team. "They've been banged up real good, and they're starting to run out of games."

Torre did not mention that his own team had its share of injuries, to Rafael Furcal and Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Schmidt and, most recently, to Brad Penny, or that they had made a free-agent blunder with Andruw Jones that not even the Yankees could approach, or that his clubhouse had just added Manny Ramirez and his famously subversive hairdo. He was simply being charitable to an organization that did not afford him the same courtesy.

"I'm not worried," Torre said before the opener of the Phillies series, when the Dodgers sat a game below .500 and 1 ½ games behind the Diamondbacks. "Maybe I should be worried, but worrying is not going to do me any good. Besides, the team's playing hard. I'm not defending our record, I'm just defending the effort. I think this team's getting better."

A week later, Torre's patience seemed justified. The Dodgers swept the Phillies, took two of three from the Brewers, and Manny trimmed his dreadlocks. Simultaneously, the Yankees were losing five of six to the Angels and Twins, and Hank Steinbrenner was polishing up the old concession speech.

While he's at it, he should draft an apology to the man he turned into a scapegoat and a martyr. But really, what would be the point?

Thanks to the Yankees, Torre is once again looking like the smartest man in baseball.