N.Y. Sun: Goldman: Yankee Fans Nervously Anticipate Life Without Torre

Thankfully, Girardi still has the CCC (Cano, Cabrera, Chamberlain) young men relief program going strong…

At one stop, this was phrased as “Do you think the Yankees will survive without Joe Torre?” which seemed to imply that some possibly fatal event might await the team without the guiding hand of the old master. One was reminded of the feelings of disorientation that supposedly gripped some Americans after the sudden (though not wholly unexpected) death of President Roosevelt in April, 1945 — not because the president or his policies had universal approval but because, with almost 13 years in office, he was the only president that many had ever known. Joe Torre, the reassuring manager of the Yankees from fall of 1995, when he was hired, to the fall of 2007, when he and the club parted ways, had become the FDR of New York baseball — sometimes effective, sometimes not; sometimes wise, sometimes misguided — but as familiar and dependable as a piece of old furniture. When Torre went, it was as if God had moved the refrigerator.

Having in some cases gone from cradle to college with Torre, or from callow youth to marriage and parenthood with Torre, his moves fit like a glove, even if they weren’t always right. Girardi, having spent most of his major league career in Chicago and New York, is miscast as the provincial Harry Truman in this scenario, but he is being greeted with a serious case of nerves nonetheless. What if he’s a humorless disciplinarian who alienates his team? (Could be, but frustration probably won’t take hold until next year if he wins now.) What if he burns out his young pitching stars? (A better question is, given the composition of the pitching staff, what choice does he really have?) What if he’s a crazy activist manager who bunts the power-hitting Yankees out of their biggest rallies?