The Joe Torre Love Fest began Wednesday, when the former Yankee skipper called Derek Jeter to welcome him to Los Angeles. It continued Thursday, when Torre had breakfast with a Yankee trainer and clubhouse manager. It positively gushed over on Friday, when Torre?s old players paid their respects, Godfather-style, by the batting cage. One by one, they pumped his hand and gave him a hug, Except for Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod, who felt notably dissed by Torre?s book, ?The Yankee Years?, and chafed when Torre batted him eighth during the ?06 playoffs against Detroit, avoided his former manager pre-game, then let his bat do the talking once the game started, his first-pitch home run providing the difference in a 2-1 Yankees victory, in the first meeting between the two storied rivals since 2004. Thirteen years since its inception, the novelty of inter-league play has long faded, and few match-ups carry much historical significance. This weekend was a notable exception. With their 11 World Series meetings, Yankees vs. Dodgers is baseball?s version of Lakers-Celtics. No teams in any other sport have met as often for a title; no teams anywhere have survived a rivalry where one team relocated across the country. Billboards around L.A. touted this weekend series as ?Rivalry Renewed?, and the hype paid off: Friday night was the third Dodger Stadium sellout of the season, celebs showed up in droves, and a playoff atmosphere pervaded. Even if it?s been 29 years since they last met in the World Series, their legendary past, spanning six generations of baseball fans and featuring some of the greatest players to ever play the game, ensures lasting fascination. But this weekend was less about the rivalry than about one man: Joe Torre. If MLB had really been on the ball, this series would?ve been at Yankee Stadium, where the Dodgers have yet to play since inter-league started, and where Torre has yet to return. Still, the stage was dramatic enough. For the first time, Torre, who won four World Series titles and reached the playoffs in all of his 12 seasons in New York, had to face the great players he once managed, and let?s just say his former players, even in the twilight of their careers, are better than most of his current ones. Before the game, Yankees skipper Joe Girardi reminisced about playing for Torre. ?I used to be able to pick Joe?s brain about everything? now he can?t give me the answers,? Girardi laughed. (Said Torre in response: ?I picked his brain too. I took the temperature of whatever was going on in the clubhouse?). Asked about the lasting impact Torre left, Girardi spoke admiringly about his calmness. ?No matter how bad things got, whether it was on the field or off the field, Joe had a great way of making you feel like everything was going to be OK,? said Girardi. Earlier in the week, Torre had conceded to the NY press that he might have ?stayed too long? in the city, before his contentious departure in 2008, when the Yankees offered him a cut-rate contract that they knew he?d refuse. In the clubhouse, Andy Pettitte vehemently disagreed with the idea that Torre had overstayed his welcome. ?I loved him every day he was here,? he said. ?He didn?t stay too long for me.? Pettitte admitted it would be ?a little awkward? seeing Torre in the opposing dugout, and like Girardi, said no one handled people like Torre. ?He helped me fight a lot of battles.? On the Dodgers side, Torre emerged from the tunnel into a sea of media. ?We can?t get too emotional; we have a game to play tonight,? he said. Then he shook his hsead. ?This is far beyond me?, he said, gazing out at the swarm of TV crews and cameras. Asked what he looked forward to about tonight, Torre had a ready answer: ?Beating them and saying good-bye.? The mood was genial throughout, with Torre admitted that growing up in New York, he rooted for the Giants, and that there was no question, if the Hall of Fame beckons, that will go in with a Yankees cap. ?They put me on the map,? he said. I asked Torre if he felt bad about A-Rod?s refusing to discuss him when the subject had come up a few days earlier. (?Next question,? Rodriguez had snapped). ?Because he doesn?t want to talk to me, I don?t think it means he?s not gonna say hello or shake my hand,? said Torre. ?I don?t think there?s anything that should keep us from doing that.? Nothing except the ill feeling that Rodriguez still harbors from the publication of Torre?s book, which took equal shots at Yankees management. Torre took great pains to point out that nothing he said about A-Rod in the book hadn?t already been said by him publicly. ?I saw an L.A. paper attributing the term ?A-Fraud? to me, but I never said that,? Torre said. At around 5:20, the Yankees emerged from their dugout. Photographers crowded behind the batting cage. Everyone waited to see if A-Rod would make his way over to Torre, or if he would wait for Torre to make the first move. Torre walked over to the first base side and greeted Jeter, Posada, and Girardi. A.J. Burnett dropped by to say hi. Rodriguez remained on the grass, stretching. He didn?t look over at Torre, and a few minutes, he got up and jogged into the outfield. So much for the great reconciliation. Here?s how it looked, field-level. The sounds you hear are two members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers rehearsing the National Anthem. ?He was busy stretching and talking to other people, so that?s not what I call disrespect,? Torre said afterward. ?If we had come close enough, I?m certain that we would have shook hands. I wasn?t there solely for him to come over.? (Late update: they didn?t meet up before Saturday?s game either). Finally, it was game-time. The Dodgers did everything possible to put L.A. into the Yankees? heads. Lakers center Pau Gasol threw out the first pitch, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and bassist Flea played a wordless National Anthem, and a half dozen members of the Dodgers? 81 champs sat in a private box. 56,000 screaming fans waved white towels. None of it mattered. The Dodgers, losers of six of seven coming in, were futile against CC Sabathia. After a first-inning run, they never got a runner to second base. The first three batters in the lineup went a combined 0-10. Although Sabathia had some trouble spotting his fastball, he used his changeup to great effect, and with 75 strikes in 115 pitches, was in command all night. Whatever feelings Rodriguez had toward Torre, he took it out on the field. He doubled and scored the Yankees? first run in the second, then hit a towering home run to left on the first pitch he saw from Vicente Padilla in the sixth. Padilla, who came into the game with a 7.65 lifetime ERA against the Yankees, and was just six days removed from the disabled list, pitched an outstanding game, striking out seven and walking one over seven innings, and mixing fastballs with swooping curveballs as slow as 52 miles-per-hour. On this night, he ran into the hotter pitcher. ?You know when you?re going up against CC, there?s little margin for error,? said Torre. ?Giving up a home run to Alex doesn?t count as an error.? ?Just tried to slow my mechanics down, catch more of the plate,? said Sabathia later. ?I was up a bit too much early.? The only real drama came in the bottom of the ninth inning, when circumstances created the kind of showdown inter-league was made for: Mariano Rivera facing Manny Ramirez, tying run at the plate. It was no contest. Ramirez struck out, as did Matt Kemp, as did James Loney. Loney, however, wasn?t so sure. The last two strikes were borderline at best, and when Loney argued loudly after the final strike, he was tossed. It was the second time this week that a Dodger player was thrown out of a game after the final out, which must be some sort of new record for futility. ?I don?t understand why you would throw me out after the game was over,? said a subdued Loney afterward. Post-game, Torre was hot about it as well. ?I don't complain to umpires, but that was, I thought close to embarrassing for making those types of calls," he said. "I can tell you from personal experience that Mariano doesn't need any help. I thought that Phil Cuzzi called a couple of pitches that were terrible. I don't think James had a shot." On this night, neither did the Dodgers. How did Rivera feel about closing a game against Torre? The answer below: