Anyway, empathizing with the family is all well and good but I’m not gonna use that as my measuring rod for whether the book is effective or not. It’s not for me to judge whether they should or shouldn’t have hurt feelings because of it, but their particular subjective view of things is just that: very particular.

* “Steinbrenner sat slumped in his chair with dark glasses covering most of his face. Occasionally he would take them off, put them back on, take them off, put them back on … He contributed virtually nothing to the meeting except for occasionally repeating the last sentence of what someone in the room had just said.”

* “It’s not quite the same (as) when Don Corleone was shot and was recovering and was sitting in the garden. At least he was talking to his son in a very lucid way, explaining what was going to happen. I don’t think George had those capabilities.”

I kind of doubt they’re saying to themselves, “Oh hey, for a book of its kind, it’s very well done.”

This will all be moot February 3 and we can dissect the contents fairly and openly then, but as long as there are excerpts, there will be speculation, which benefits the publisher more than anyone else.

As far as how the Yankees are reacting, I didn’t say they are reacting strongly. I am referring to the many reactions on their behalf from the peanut gallery. That’s why I’m saying “if” in regards to the Yankee reaction, as in “if” they are as sensitive as some make them out to be they need to grow a pair. It’s maybe more a comment on those that ascribe the reaction to them, absent the actual reaction. I guess we’ll see how it plays out.

I don’t think playing or watching baseball is silly, but calling a book you haven’t read high treason is. Which fits nicely into my original point. You don’t know what it’s in the book, just parts of it. I suppose if there’s something in the excerpts that is so horrendous and unforgivable that no context might soften the blow, maybe you can prejudge it. But this is an almost 500 page book, most of what I’ve seen of which has been paraphrased, and I haven’t read anything THAT bad (okay maybe the Clemens thing, hahaha – though that wasn’t a Torre tidbit). The only things I’ve heard or read about it by people who’ve actually read it describe it as not a “tell-all” or “hatchet job”. The propriety of any book of this sort might be questionable, but my impression is that of its kind, it’s very well done.

As usual, Professor Goldman nails it.

http://pinstripedbible.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/01/foresight_proved_2020_with_tor.html

But seriously, I went over to DT to get their point of view since Joe is their first-person issue now, and the sentiment there seems to be that patience is a virtue; head-scratching over the NY tabloid furor and their own papers saying it’s not as bad as made out to be, which may or may not be a pre-emptory strike at any bad reaction by LA fans when the book hits the shelves. Tony Jackson reported that the players mentioned in the book were given a heads-up about the contents before it went public and were okay with it (I dunno about that, given Wells’ reaction), and as I mentioned before this may all be a tempest in a teapot.

Still, you have to wonder what the motivation for publishing a book about your recent past in an industry that you still actively participate in actually is, and given the public reaction to the excerpts you can’t help but feel that there are still enough raw nerves about the content that this would definitely affect the people mentioned in a negative way on some level. That’s not an issue we shouldn’t be aloud to discuss until the book comes out, because the publishers and writers didn’t give us that option at all by publishing the excerpts. No one is putting a gun to my head and saying I have to read the excerpts, but the same applies to the book and and given what I’ve seen so far, to me I find it funny and sad at the same time, but no dollar from me.

[30] If I’m the Dodgers, my biggest concern would be that while the organization is gearing up for Spring Training, my manager will be doing a book tour. Joe was never all that engaged in the off season, but it would be nice if he was focusing his energies on his current team instead of his former club.

How do the denizens of Dodger Thoughts feel in regards to the reception/reaction to the book affecting Joe’s relationship to his current players (when not taking into consideration the merits of ghostwriting/third-person accounts and the American Civil War, which I would have loved to participate in discussing…) ? Has he compromised himself with the team and/or fans, or will this blow over since it’s not about any of them for now?

Also, I don’t think it was a good idea for this book to be published now, but jesus, people are acting like it was a crime of high treason that resulted in 10,000 puppies being run over. The idea that this would somehow ruin his “legacy” etc, etc is pathetic – the Yankees really need to grow a pair if something like this is going to cause such hurt feelings.

As I’ve said before, I cared about that a year ago.

I think Torre’s damaged his reputation a lot. I also think the Yankees should stop talking about putting a non-derogation clause in contracts. Let Joe be the one who looks petty and vindictive.

This past year, I think Torre took a lot of heat from unnamed sources within the organization, no real mention of him, and Hank’s ripping/diminishing of Torre probably pissed him off too. I wish Torre would have gone off on his superiors (Yanks FO) versus talking badly about the players that played for him, but what’s done is done and he gets to say why he did it tonight on Larry King.