Yankees Book Club Should Skip Torre’s Tell-All

The New York Post has an explosively hilarious book report on the new Joe Torre tome, co-written by SI’s Tom Verducci. The Post apparently found a copy in a local bookstore, even though the book doesn’t come out for another week. Sounds like a good yarn, though ... ↵↵⇥In an explosive new book called “The Yankee Years,” Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called “A-Fraud” by his teammates after he developed a “Single White Female”-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him. [...]
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↵⇥The book also reveals that, during spring training in 1999, team doctors revealed to owner George Steinbrenner that Torre had prostate cancer - even before informing the manager himself. ↵↵I have no idea what a “Single White Female”-like obsession looks like, especially between two multi-millionaire ballplayers. Frankly, I don’t think I want to know what that looks like. But I do know that Yankees fans will turn on Torre in the blink of an eye. There’s little love lost for A-Rod or The Boss in most corners of the N.Y. fan base (I’d guess), but there’s the whole thing about airing dirty laundry sports fans get defensive about.
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↵If Torre ripped Rodriguez while Yankees manager, he would have been made a hero. But when you’re coming at the Yankee as the manager of another team, it’s going to come off more as sour grapes than whistle-blowing. We defend our own, even if we despise them. But of course the rest of Western Civilization will herald Torre, and turn these dispatches from inside the Evil Empire into endless heckling. Me, I’m going to go watch “Single White Female” again so I can figure out how best to pillory A-Rod the next time this subject arises.↵