By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv

 

As important as this month is to the eight remaining teams in baseball, it may most important to the Yankees and to Joe Torre in particular. This is supposed to be his month, after all, having spent his past 13 Octobers in a dugout instead of placing his feet up on a recliner somewhere in his house, and having won four championships in six trips to the Fall Classic. Those same rings earned him immunity from 2002 through 2005, but lost all their power last year after Detroit shoved the Yankees through the playoff exit door and tumbling down the fire escape.

 

Torre will go down as one of the best managers in Yankee history since Casey Stengel and Joe McCarthy. But even Stengel couldn't stave off his eventual dismissal, no matter how many championships he brought to the Bronx. When you're a manager of a professional sports team in New York, the clock doesn't count how long you've been here, but how much time you have left. We probably won't know the truth on how Torre's job was saved at the end of last season until that eventual departure, if Brian Cashman & Co. really did plead with George Steinbrenner, begging at the Boss' feet to give Torre one last chance. If it wasn't the GM that saved his job last year, it certainly has been the kids who have done the same this season. Notice how much differently the media treats Torre now? How none of the papers call for or speculate about his firing no matter how the Yankees do this postseason? Notice how they call for him to remain after the comeback they've mounted thanks to the youth movement? And did you notice, that about 11 years ago a dynasty was born with a bunch of kids under a beleaguered manager who was down on his luck? If not, maybe you should notice now.

Wanna argue with the Ref? Don't like the call? Go ahead and make your own!