| Scott Essman. 8th November, 2007 - 12:31 pm
 Can Joe Torre really bring the Los Angeles Dodgers out of a 20-year slumber? Could anyone? Is Torre really a magician or just another manager who fell into good fortune?
Under the ownership of the O'Malley's the Dodgers were one of the most successful National League Franchises of the last 50 years. After winning the unlikely title in 1955 in Brooklyn, the Dodgers came to LA and were an immediate commercial success to say nothing of an on-the-field sensation. The formidable Dodgers won World Series in 1959, 1963 and 1965, three titles in their first eight seasons on the West Coast. Then, miraculous titles arrived in 1981 and 1988, giving them five titles in their first 30 years in LA.
But a funny thing followed. In the 1990s, the Dodgers amassed the most impressive run of Rookies of the Year that was ever bestowed upon any franchise: Eric Karros in 1992, Mike Piazza in 1993, Raul Mondesi in 1994, Hideo Nomo in 1995 and Todd Hollandsworth in 1996. But that team failed to gel and despite other talented team members, and they never won a playoff series in that span. Then Peter O'Malley sold out, literally and figuratively, passing the reins to Fox and Rupert Murdoch, who quickly disassembled the underachievers in the late 1990s. In a way, the Dodgers have never recovered from that fiasco.
Now, almost ten years after the sale, having been sold again to strip mall real estate king Frank McCourt, the Dodgers have tried all manners of signings and trades to keep the team afloat. Alas, it is the young players at the core of the new team, that has fans excited again, despite any playoff successes and few appearances.
Featuring several 25-and-under players, the new blue crew has the possibility of cohering under its newest manager. Names like James Loney, Jonathan Broxton, Chad Billingsley, Russell Martin, Andrew Ethier, and Matt Kemp might be unknown names to most of the world, but these players, all with enormous potential, will likely anchor the franchise into the next decade. Contrarily, the more familiar names of Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, Brad Penny, and Derek Lowe will be either retired or considerably aging by that time.
Which leaves us with Joe Torre. When the core Yankee team of Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Paul O'Neill started clicking in the mid-1990s, Torre was brought in to meld those players with his veterans on the team at that time, including pitchers Jimmy Key and David Cone and position players such as Tino Martinez. The result was that the core of youth with older players in key spots brought the Yankees into six World Series and won them four of those.
Coincidentally or not, the Dodgers are in a similar if not equal position to the mid-1990s Yankees. Their six young stars have the ability to blossom into superstars while Lowe, Penny and the other key veterans can be put into crucial leadership roles. One of the reported problems in the Dodgers' late September collapse in 2007 was that the veterans and younger players clashed on a certain level. Whether that alone was responsible for losing seven consecutive must-win games and 10 of 11 in the home stretch is doubtful. But the team was clearly not responding to manager Grady Little, whatever the reason.
With Torre, who fortuitously joined the Yankees in 1996, the Dodgers have the chance to come together as a squad. Certainly, picking up more sure-fire hitting will help this team. They also need a third basemen and a guaranteed closer - this year's Takashi Saito was superb, but he's 37 and an unknown for the next or future seasons. As a likely bonus, it appears that Torre is going to be involved in player personnel decisions.
Surely, the Yankee mystique had run out in the last five years. In each, the Yankees did indeed make the playoffs, but they were a curious exit every time. They were the overwhelming favorites to win the 2003 World Series only to be outplayed and outpitched by the young and unknown Florida Marlins. In 2004, they famously had the Boston Red Sox down three games to none in the LCS only to lose four straight games in which their formidable hitting virtually dried up. The last three seasons saw the Yankees lose in the division series, each to teams who most believe were less talented. This brought possibly unfair scrutiny on Torre for failing to even actively compete in division series where he used to win titles.
Of course, a strong argument can be made for a manager only being as good as his team, and Torre's 2001-2007 Yankee teams were ultimately inferior to the bulletproof 1996-2000 teams. However, baseball is littered with managers who have gone to World Series with vastly different teams in different times.
Sparky Anderson won two World Series with the Reds in the mid-1970s and won again with the 1984 Tigers.
Tony LaRussa won titles with the A's in the AL and the Cardinals in the NL, 17 years apart.
Whitey Herzog went to three World Series in the 1980s, winning one, with nearly distinct squads.
Tommy Lasorda went to two 1980s series, with wholly different players, winning both, and then won an Olympic Gold Medal in baseball after retiring from the Major Leagues!
Can Joe Torre work such wizardry? Can he bring in key personnel built around the core young Dodgers? More importantly, can he restore the Dodgers to greatness as he did with the Yankees after an 18-year absence from a title? That much and more remains to be seen. A bigger question might be, at 67, how much Torre has left in his tank to do so. |
