The media has been making a big thing of this recent "threat" by George Steinbrenner to axe Joe Torre if the Yankees failed to advance. I think this had been blown WAY out of preportion, and everybody is making it sound as if Torre is as good as dead.
Here's the thing -- George Steinbrenner isn't in a very good condition right now. Senility, alzheimers, lobotomy, whatever... he is unsound and not able to make the major Yankee decisions he's been known to make. For goodness sakes, he's rarely at Yankee Stadium anymore, and when he is he looks vacant and unawares up in that kingly box of his. The Yankee organization, much too valuable to be placed in such brittle hands, is now run by businessmen and is no longer subject to the knee-jerk whims of Steinbrenner. George is merely the symbol of Yankeedom and has no more power over the roster than the Queen.
And now there's this quote floating around that Steinbrenner is going to fire Torre if the Yankees don't advance. I don't know if George said what he said in a moment of clarity or while in a dementious haze, but regardless of whether or not he meant it he has no authority to act upon it.
But here's the funny thing: now that the media has latched on to this errant quote, now that they've repeated it in papers and television enough times to convince themselves it's fact, the Yankees organization might just dismiss Torre to save face. The Yankees have taken great care to retain the kingly image of Steinbrenner, and Torre may have to go just to prove that Steinbrenner still pulls some weight around.A soap opera, for sure, but it's the New York Yankees. All you can do is shrug your shoulders and tune in next week.
