How it should end

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

Joe Torre has had 12 exceptional years as Yankees manager, and he deserves to go out on his own terms. This is one blueprint for how his departure should be handled:

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman should call George Steinbrenner and his sons today -- if he didn't already call them Monday night -- and ask them whether they want to make a managerial change. If the answer is yes, Cashman should drive to Torre's home this morning -- they don't live far apart -- and tell him that it appears that his time as Yankees manager is over. And he should suggest that Torre announce, on his own, that he is leaving the team, now that his contract is expiring.

 
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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