I would be shocked if Pettitte didn’t come back. It would just be so fitting for him to pitch with the young guys and be there for the last season of Yankee Stadium, he would be honored by the Yankees properly and it would be a moment you could never take away from him. Why would he go out like this? Last game he pitched was a gem, but lost to the “bugs”! don’t think so!

Agree with you, he got his star here (and he thanked Steinbrenner again for that in the middle of all that Dodger blue-ness) but he has definitely taken it with him.

Thanks for the insight. I love the Lakers, so of course I stumbled across Simers because he had some kind of beef with Kobe. He also used to have some kind of radio show with his daughter, right? Timers Squared or something? And all the people on the Lakers blog at the LA Times wanted him fired from the paper because of incompetency. JA Adande used to say some dumb things, too, but I noticed that as he goes more mainstream (i.e. Around the Horn, etc.) he’s much smarter and more pleasant.

Someone said that Torre would be star-struck in LA. I don’t think so, Torre is a star who handled super-stars. His personal friends include Belichik (I can never spell it right), Charlie Weiss, and probably the Dalai Lama. Even Phil Jackson was asked about Torre and he refererred to him as “Joe”. That struck me that they know each other personally. I think he’ll make a bad team good and a good team great. Just listen to the man speak, he’s almost hypnotic. Some New York writer wrote how the lazy days of Joe’s (Torre) 45-minute pre-game sessions are gone. They’re definitely not expecting that from Girardi.

I still maintain that being the Yankee manager for as long and successfully as he was made Torre a star. In no other city would he have become such an icon. Well now, in the illustrious words of Reggie Jackson, Torre’s taking his star with him. I’m happy for him, and it will put the Dodgers back on the map. Why’s that a good thing? Because they’re baseball royalty who’s crown became a little tarnished. And more Dodger talk means more Yankee talk and less Red Sox talk.

As for reception of Torre in LA, judging from reports from Dodger beat writers and Dodger blogs, relieved and hopeful seem to be the main themes.

Dodgers/Angels are the Yankees/Mets of LA. The big brother Dodgers are the old respected franchise with the larger fanbase while the Angels are the younger brothers racing to catch up and hoping to surpass their elders. Familiar dynamic to New Yorkers.

wow. this makes sense.

but i probably should have stopped reading after the words “sign Eric Milton”.

the only problem with signing milton is that he’s horrible. besides that, it’s a pretty good idea.