I thought you’d like to know!

[21] My favorite part of Wells’ book was when he and Cecil Fielder, while with Detroit and playing in the Fall League, slept with the roaches. Bugged the hell out of Wells literally, while Fielder took it all in stride.

I surely hope we here at Banter are somewhat within the vacinity of the pulse of all that is Yankees Universe! I mean my wife and I have our shirts from Sloan-Kettering… don’t you?

Think of it this way…if someone sends you a 10-page letter, included in which is an excerpt explicitly insulting you, do you really need to read the whole thing to be insulted.

As for Arod, I doubt he’ll care much or even be surprised by this book. Torre already sold him out to Verducci in an SI article during the season! If Torre was willing to do that to a player while still managing, why wouldn’t he do the same in a book?

That’s not unusual. Publishers generally send out advanced reader copies of books (usually the unproofread galley pages bound together) in advance to review sources so that they can publish reviews just prior to the book’s release.

[17] All things considered, if the worst thing that can be said about A-Rod is that he’s insecure and likes to bring attention to himself by parading around with older women, then I can deal with that. The alcohol can hurt a lot more people than the broads, in a manner of speaking…

And as for A-Rod’s insecurities, that’s well know, heck it’s already out there that he sees a psychologist. It reminds me of another Yankee who had insecurities: Billy Martin, who treated it by fighting and drinking. I’d rather Alex want to be liked by Jeter than to become an alcoholic.

Mike Francesa is going to have either Hal or Hank on his radio show at 1:05 P.M. EST today!

While I hope most of the time is devoted to the ’09 Yankees and the signing of Pettitte, which is really all I want to hear about, we all just know the 800-pound gorilla in the room will be discussed as well!

Stay tuned!

I’m still wondering if Cash has another trick up his sleeve to settle the CF question; I don’t think they want to go into Opening Day with Melky or Gardner as their starting CF, both having achieved next to nothing offensively. I am curious to see how well Melky has developed as per Kevin Long, but the trust is still an issue.

I mean this aside from if you just think in principle the book shouldn’t exist, or shouldn’t exist now, anyway. Personally I lean toward the latter, if just for the sake of “classiness”.

[5] I think there’s a difference beyond the fact Phil is still coaching the Lakers and Kobe… Phil had a quite different coaching experience than Joe when the book was published. Having won a handful of rings with Jordan and Chicago, then 3-peating with the Shaq in his prime, Phil had the cache to criticize his own team and star player, who had in effect broken the championship tandem and assumed the mantle of superstar all for himself (and I’m guessing here, but was Kobe already in a lot of hot water for the incident in Colorado?), so who was gonna step[ to Phil and say, “Wow, that was so wrong” when his record implies he may be right?

Joe has a smaller cache to back up his credibility; yes he came in a won on his first year with the Yanks and then after missing the WS, proceeded to 3-peat before losing out on a four-of-a-kind by an error and a hit. But after that, it was a slippery slope to losing his job, especially after the meltdown in 2004 and the brain freeze in 2007. Torre rode out on bad terms with the organization and a lot of good will from the fans after the way the Yanks handled the process (badly as usual), and fairly or not is perceived as having an axe to grind because he’s not there anymore.

Torre’s exalted status comes from his victories with one team, the Yanks, and to come out with a book that is perceived as bashing the organization and active players from afar (and in third-person) is to me a bit different from being with the team, already having made your reputation elsewhere and continuing the winning there. And confronting any controversies head-on.

I have questions like these roiling in my mind that can’t be answered objectively until the book comes out, and by then I’ll have already formed a biased opinion about it. And I can’t pretend that none of the information is out there about the book’s contents because all of it is so “IN YOUR FACE!!!” in print, the TV and radio. It’s like hearing that awful song with the catchy hook everywhere you go.

This is what bothers me more than anything else; if the book had dropped seemingly out of no where, I would be more inclined to see what the hubbub was all about, but the cynical marketing that has pushed this book along the dirty gutters of curiosity have disgusted me nearly enough not to be bothered at all >:’

The stuff about Wells’s book that Olney brings up is damning for Torre. I hate to see a person I respect be a hypocrite, but I’m afraid that is how Torre is coming off. The September ’07 SI article was bad enough; this is worse.

And while you are right, OYF [3], that context is important, for now I’m not talking about what’s actually in the book. I’m just saying that the book is clearly Torre’s as much as it is anyone’s, and for Torre or Verducci to claim otherwise, given all of the stuff Olney points out, is just plain disingenuous.

This whole thing makes me very sad.