I just got a Google alert about someone out there asking if Joe Torre and Roger Clemens were snubbed by the Yankees’ pre- and -postgame ceremonies commemorating the final game at Yankee Stadium.
The answer is: no.
Torre works for another team now. It would be improper to include him, despite his unmistakable contributions to the team. There’s no way to overlook what he meant to the Yankees. He was exactly what they needed ... calm, composed. He let the p layers play and he handled the rest, including Derek Jeter’s bat.
Torre undoubtedly will be honored, his number retired, a plaque hung - he deserves a monument - and so on. Yankees fans know what he did. We don’t need some scripted hyperbole from Michael Kay to remind us.
Clemens is another case. Yes, he meant a lot to those teams - he was a great pitcher, a lightning rod at times - but his connection to the steroids stuff is too strong to bring him to something that should otherwise have been a joyous stroll down memory lane.
Besides, the best clips of Clemens are him inciting the riot with Red Sox by throwing a pitch in the same time zone Manny Ramirez happened to be standing in; and again throwing, this time the sheared-off remnants of a bat, at a stunned (and some argue handcuffed) Mike Piazza. Not exactly family time stuff.
It’s unfortunate, but Clemens didn’t belong and Torre couldn’t.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment