Updated 10:30 PM
From ESPN NY, more comments from Joe Torre.
“I apologize. He is right that I shouldn’t have said that, and I don’t think I did. Somebody asked me if I would take a call from Fred Wilpon. I have known Fred Wilpon forever. I won’t be managing the Mets, and I thought I made that clear yesterday. It was about taking a call as opposed to looking for a job. I went to New York to pay tribute to George Steinbrenner. If I was looking for a job, I probably wouldn’t have gone to New York.”
After that, he was asked “Then why did you say you were keeping your options open? Are you officially closing the door on the Mets?”
“I guess you can call me a liar in that regard. I am closing the door on managing the Mets and probably everybody else. The only thing I’m trying to do is that I don’t want to mislead anybody. My intention is that when I finish here as a manager a week from Sunday, I am anticipating that will be my last game as a manager.”
In closing…
“I apologize to Jerry Manuel and all the other managers. I don’t blame them. I know they don’t want to get stepped on I know in answering questions Monday and having a press conference, I know what my intention was. Unfortunately, I can’t get on the other side of it and see how it’s received. I would doubt very seriously if there would be anything that would entice me to manage again.”
Original Post 8:30 PM
Before tonight’s game, Jerry Manuel had harsh words for Joe Torre who has been openly lobbying for the Mets manager job in the last 24 hours.
“I don’t know [Joe Torre] on a personal basis. But when things like that come out or are said, you question integrity. That’s what comes to my mind…I don’t know him on a personal level to say whether he’s that or that, and I did not see, or I have not read, exactly what has been said. All I know is what I hear, and I don’t go to look for it.”
Now according to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times (via MetsBlog), Joe Torre has issued a public apology to Jerry Manuel.
“I had no intention of making people believe I wanted to manage the Mets. I would doubt very seriously if there would be anything that would entice me to manage again. I’m closing the door on managing the Mets and probably everybody else.”
Well, I’m glad Manuel got an apology. I’m not a big fan of him as a manager, but Manuel didn’t deserve to have someone dancing on his grave before he was buried.
Hopefully, whatever the Mets do decide about replacing Omar or Manuel or both, will not drag on for weeks and weeks. Otherwise expect more chapters to this never-ending soap opera that is the 2010 season.
