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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Thursday, October 26
Frozen moment: The managers' special
By David Schoenfield
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- When Bobby Valentine managed the Texas Rangers, baseball writers referred to him as "Top Step."
It wasn't necessarily meant as a positive description, but rather some snide commentary on his intense, aggressive style of managing.
In the bottom of the seventh in Game 4 of the Subway Series, however, Valentine wasn't on the top step of the Mets' dugout. He was pacing back and forth, chewing his gum, like he had been the entire game. A few steps in one direction, a few steps back, a little nervous twitch of a walk.
Over in the Yankees dugout, Joe Torre surveyed the scene. Lenny Harris was on first base after a walk from Jeff Nelson on a full count with one out. New reliever Mike Stanton was warming up to face pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell.
Torre sat still, arms folded across his chest, looking like he was trying to keep from nodding off. A World Series game on the line? Torre acted as if he were back in his Brooklyn boyhood, sitting through a Sunday sermon.
When the television cameras panned in on Valentine, you could see the worry wrinkles on his face. He knew he had made the right move, getting the power-hitting Trammell up against the left-handed Stanton. All he could do was watch -- and pace.
Torre had made his move as well. Surely, his gut was churning as much as Valentine's. But while Valentine acts as if he wants to burst on the field and do the hitting himself, Torre sits back like a Buddha, a man in calm serenity.
But while we take a snapshot of the two managers, it does come down to the players on the field.
Stanton delivered his first pitch. Trammell took a mammoth swing and fouled it back. Stanton took a deep breath. He stepped off the rubber. Trammell stepped out. Stanton pitched ball one. Bobby V. paced, Torre sat. A fastball at the knees for strike two. Stanton then got Trammell to chase a high fastball for the strikeout. Another pinch-hitter, Kurt Abbott, then fanned on three pitches to end the threat.
Valentine grimaced, like a small child sent to his room after knowingly doing something wrong. Torre? He may have blinked a nod of satisfaction if you watched closely enough.
After the game, Valentine met the media. The Mets had lost their third one-run game of the World Series -- the types of games that make a manager's insides twist and turn with every pitch, every at-bat.
"I don't know if it's any easier," Valentine said of losing the tight games. "Just the fact that we know we could hit a little better than we've hit. A lot of times those things come in bunches. We're going to need to bunch some of our hits."
In those postgame press conferences, Valentine answers the questions calmly and honestly. But he wants out of there, especially after a loss. The last thing he wants to do is relive those moments like the bottom of the seventh. After all, you can't pace back and forth when you're sitting at an interview table.
Torre also answers the questions, always deflecting his answers to his praise in his player and belief that his guys will come through. Perhaps that's part of the reason he can sit quietly as Mike Stanton warms up.
"No, they don't amaze," Torre said after game. "I expect it. ... Tonight, they were a determind group. Again, that doesn't guarantee you're going to win, but the pitching is what go us there tonight."
Not to say Torre doesn't ever show emotion. When Mariano Rivera struck out Matt Franco looking to end the game, fans at Shea Stadium could see Rivera punch his fist in the joys of victory. They could see the high-fives slapped a little harder than usual, especially as Rivera greeted his line of teammates.
What they couldn't see was Torre's reaction in the dugout. He turned to interim pitching coach Billy Connors and gave a little knuckle-to-knuckle congratulatory salute. He also showed a fleeting smile.
Hey, he may expect positive results from his players, he doesn't always know if his guys will do the job.
Although they always seem to in October.
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