JOE TORRE has always prided himself on doing what was best for the whole roster, no matter the powerful connection to an individual.
So if Tino Martinez had to be benched during the NL games of the 1996 World Series in favor or Cecil Fielder or David Cone had to be reduced to a seldom-used reliever in the 2000 postseason, Torre did it regardless of his steep affection and admiration for Martinez and Cone.
Yet turning Bernie Williams into a bench player turns Torre’s stomach, even if Torre knows in his baseball gut it is the right thing to do. It is not just that Williams is a core player from the Yankee dynasty. So were Martinez and Cone. It is not that Williams is his favorite player; that is almost certainly Derek Jeter. It is more about an emotional tether that connects the two men.
Williams is sensitive and Torre is fatherly, and a familial bond has been formed. Torre can simply look at Williams’ pensive expressions and know it is time for a paternal chat, and Williams willfully seeks the counsel. That only makes it tougher now, when the manager has to devise batting orders that no longer regularly include Williams.
So afternoons like yesterday at Shea end up holding particular joy for Torre. The Yankees won and Williams
starred, and yet it was so much more than that in a 5-3 triumph over the Mets.
It was that the Yankees, of all things, embodied the underdog spirit. Torre had to concoct a lineup that evoked Rudy, not Ruth. Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Gary Sheffield were out with injuries, and Tino Martinez was rested. That left a starting nine to face Pedro Martinez in which Alex Rodriguez had 14 homers and the other eight players had nine. It was A-Rod and the eight dwarves. This was paying Broadway prices and getting dinner theatre.
And these days Williams is one of the dwarves, a star-turned-bit player. His diminished range in center and inability to prevent any runner from advancing first to third on a single – the main reasons he lost his everyday job – were evident Saturday in a Mets’ 7-1 rout in which he also started due to injuries.
But in those paternal chats, Torre has told Williams to stay positive, to recognize Tino Martinez hit his way from the bench into a regular role and that possibility still exists for Williams.
Williams did hit a go-ahead grand slam last Tuesday in Seattle and yesterday he came up with Hideki Matsui at first, the score tied 3-3 with two out in the eighth inning and a game that felt like so many others he had played against Pedro Martinez in his career.
The Yanks made a habit of winning when Martinez started for Boston by hanging around, getting him out of the game and enjoying a strong start. Carl Pavano, hit hard early and undermined by an A-Rod error, resolved his way through seven innings and kept the Yanks within 3-1.
Still, the Mets were in control, outplaying the Yanks in every phase. But with Martinez out of the game, eighth-inning errors by David Wright and Jose Reyes opened the door for a two-run single by Matsui that tied the score.
Against Roberto Hernandez, Williams drove a one-hopper off the right-field wall. Matsui scored with an excellent fade-away slide. Williams had a double. The Yankees had won this version of the Subway Series.
By the end, after Jeter had scored as a pinch runner and Russ Johnson had played third and A-Rod had moved to short, Torre gathered his team to tell them that this was the fighting spirit he wanted to see.
A-Rod called it the best regular-season win since his arrival and said it was possible that in October “we will look back at this particular game as meaningful.” Torre does not have to wait until October.
The Yankees won and Bernie Williams mattered. For the manager, that is more meaningful than ever.
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Bernie’s Day
A look at Williams’ four at-bats yesterday at Shea:
FIRST INNING
Ball, Ball, Ball, Strike looking, Strike looking, Foul, Foul, walk.
FOURTH INNING
Fly out to center.
SIXTH INNING
Ground out to second.
EIGHTH INNING
Ball, pickoff attempt, double to right, Matsui scores, Williams to third advancing on throw.