The Los Angeles Dodgers have decided to fire manager Grady Little and replace him with former Yankees manager Joe Torre, The Journal News has learned.
Torre, 67, could be named manager as soon as tomorrow, according to two sources close to the situation. Don Mattingly is expected to accompany Torre to Los Angeles as his bench coach. Torre is also interested in hiring Kevin Long, his hitting coach with the Yankees.
The Dodgers were 82-80 this season under Little and were beset by clubhouse unrest. Owner Frank McCourt, a Boston native, decided Torre is best suited to quell that situation.
Torre turned down a one-year offer to remain as manager of the Yankees on Oct. 18. He had been with the Yankees 12 seasons, winning four World Series championships. [lohud]
There's a great little story about Roger Clemens and Joba Chamberlain courtesy of the Omaha World-Herald (hat tip: Baseball Prospectus). Chamberlain joined Clemens at the Texas-Nebraska game over the weekend. Joba spent the weekend with Clemens, and stood with the Rocket on the Texas side of the field before moving over to his preferred Nebraska sideline.
Clemens is quoted: "We had this date circled on the calendar. Joba came down yesterday. We've a good time. He's probably going to drag me to Lincoln next year, so that'll be fun." The World-Herald points out that Texas doesn't go to Lincoln until 2010, but we're not about to argue with the Rocket.
: I lost Ed Truck A-Rod... and it feels like somebody took my heart and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears... and at the same time, somebody else is hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer... and then a third guy walks in and starts punching me in the grief bone... and I'm crying, and nobody can hear me, because I'm terribly, terribly... terribly alone.
The sad but seemingly inevitable forced departure of Buck Showalter from the Yankees should cause even the most diehard fan to question his loyalty and support. Showalter, who was arguably the most talented manager in New York since the era of McCarthy, McGraw and Huggins, is better off without the headaches of working for George Steinbrenner. He will survive and thrive elsewhere. The Yankees and their fans, however, are doomed to another long period of mediocrity.
A boycott of the Yankees is the only way to bring an end to this madness. [ny times, 1995]
"imitation of juneh," or, "in which i react, schoolgirlish, to a fjm excerpt"
10.19.2007
And let's take a step back. Again, we're all sad. Torre is leaving. Stand-up guy. Might be a bad decision for the club. But we're talking about a situation where you're feeling misty-eyed for a guy who's turning down a five million dollar base salary because it is a fucking insult to him. Five million dollars. And he's not hitting 97-mph Josh Beckett fastballs or spearing Curtis Granderson laser beams. He's not doing something that only a select few hundred human beings have the physical and mental capacity to do. He's choosing what order to write down names in a lineup (sometimes poorly). He's deciding when to put a relief pitcher in a game (often incorrectly).
actually, i don't have time to write a proper swooning response right now so i'll instead rely on google image search to express my crushitude:
i don't know what's going on there. i think the heart's being impaled by one of those things you light on fire to keep bugs away. i probably could have written something by now. or at least made a blingee. oh well.
Our spy in the lobby of the Shore Club in Miami early Sunday morning spotted "two scantily clad women screaming at the front desk because they had spent the night at Jeter's penthouse and were then charged for parking."
"The girls were wearing what looked like the same clothes they wore the night before - a tight cocktail dress and a mini-skirt. They were making a huge scene because they were asked to pay for parking.
"Obviously, they'd spent the night there," giggled the onlooker, who noted that one of the overnight guests was screaming into the phone, "After last night, he'd better [bleep]ing take care of it!" [page six]
ooooo that doesn't sound good. does his unclutchness continue?
in other news, how much do i love that eric byrnes made the last out of the nlcs? on a stupid headfirst slide, no less? a whole fucking lot.
i've had some family stuff going on lately and haven't had much extra energy or brainpower to spare for pondering the state of my yankees. i did take a minute just now to skim fjm for the arod scuttlebutt, and my brain was all "mmhmm, mhm, mhm..." til i got to this quote by jack curry: "Alex Rodriguez's brown eyes were moist and bloodshot, obvious evidence of how he had reacted on a gloomy night." i snapped out of my fog long enough to get all indignant and yell at the screen, a la that chick in the coors light commercial, "HIS EYES ARE GREEN!" send ativan please.
While you may have heard that Yankees Joba Chamberlain, Tyler Clippard, Ian Kennedy and Jeff Karstens were hanging at The Plumm last week celebrating Joba's 22nd birthday, the best part was left out: The fellas were having such a good time, they took turns giving each other lap dances.[rush and molloy]
: I lost 
