Talkin' Baseball
The normal reaction to a sports fan seeing a Learning Annex ad for "An Evening with the Yankees Manager" is probably "sounds like fun." Less normal, even amidst the drought between the Super Bowl and spring training, is shelling out $29 to actually attend. Then there's plunking down $99 for a VIP seat, and $199 to enter Joe Torre's "Golden Circle."
About 700 people packed the auditorium at the New York Society for Ethical Culture to spend the evening with the Yankee manager, and nearly all stood and applauded as the man of the hour and a half strolled out flanked by a pair of bodyguards in charcoal suits. Torre took a seat, crossed his legs and eased into some folksy baseball chat. He joked about hitting into four double-plays in one game, the eternal flakiness of Bernie Williams and the time some Boston fans phoned to say, "We found the 2004 World Series ring you lost."
After a 30-minute pitch-and-catch with host John Walters, the floor was opened for questions from the audience, dozens who lined up behind a pair of microphones. Several fell into the "Holy shit I'm talking to Joe freakin' Torre!" trap; two dropped business cards on Torre-one tool named Josh who hoped to sell apartments to new Yankees, and another who mumbled something about having a bottle of wine for him.
A kid asked about steroids, whereupon Torre shifted into Uncle Joe mode, equating steroid use to using aluminum bats. Another said it was "unconscionable" that he wasn't in the Hall of Fame, until Joe reminded him you have to be retired for five years to be eligible. A flustered fellow in a Yankee cap and tweed jacket then asked what number Giambi would wear this year, prompting muttering throughout the room and an expression on Torre's face like he feared he'd missed a whopper on the FAN during the drive over.
"You mean Tino!" someone yelled, and the guy shrugged sheepishly and shuffled back to his seat.
"Why didn't you try bunting on Schilling in Game 6?" someone asked.
"We didn't buy into the fact that he was hurt," said Torre. "There may have been some blood on the sock, but so what?"
When it was over, the Golden Circle members followed Torre backstage, and the $30 scrubs filed out. (Tuition went to Torre's Safe at Home Foundation.) One woman clutched a Yankees book to her chest, Torre's signature next to Rudy Giuliani's. I asked Gail, a self-described "Yankee addict," what she learned tonight-it being the Learning Annex and all.
"I learned about integrity," she said, near tears. "If you're integrous, success will follow."
And few in attendance would argue that there's ever been a more integrous Gotham sports figure than the Yankee skipper.