Torre does amazing job to keep Dodgers together

LOS ANGELES

Here's something I learned Tuesday night: Joe Torre texts. "I texted several players and Joey and heard right back," Torre said, when asked if he passed along his congratulations to Joe Girardi and the Yankees after they advanced in the American League playoffs. "A lot sooner than I would have returned it — I know that. We haven't spoken, but we text back and forth." Torre is 69 but has picked up the preoccupation of teens and twenty-somethings. Maybe there is a little Hollywood to him at the end of this second season in L.A. Then there are the moments that remind you how the years are adding up for Torre: He has managed five major league teams for a total of 28 seasons. He has reached the playoffs for a record-tying 14 years in a row. And he's nearing the end. "I have one year left on my contract, I don't anticipate it being more than that," Torre said Tuesday, two days before his Dodgers opened the National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. "I'm pleased as hell, what's happened here this first two years. The players seem more comfortable this year, more confident. Really, that's the satisfaction a manager gets, when they improve and seem to buy in to what you're trying to sell them." Torre added later that he's talked about retiring before. He also qualified his statement with the well-worn phrase of a baseball man who can't walk away: "My wife doesn't believe me." Maybe he will change his mind at some point over the next 12 months. But if he doesn't, and the Dodgers have a disappointing 2010 season, could this be our last look at Torre managing in October? Torre hasn't won a World Series since 2000, the Dodgers since 1988. There is some healthy urgency on both sides. And whether Torre is about to win his fifth world title or not, a pause for perspective is in order. Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said in a Tuesday telephone interview that Torre "has been in more games of this importance, at this time of year, over the last 14 years, than anybody else." And he's right. The Yankees' run of postseason appearances ended last year — their first season after Torre left — but the manager's streak simply followed him west. And now we may be witnessing one of the finest seasons in a managerial career that began with the 1977 New York Mets. Despite Manny Ramirez's drug suspension, despite the presence of only one 200-inning pitcher in his starting rotation, the Dodgers led the NL in victories. Then they surprised many in baseball with a Division Series sweep of St. Louis. Ramirez's long absence threatened to define this team, but Torre's guidance made it a footnote in a season known for Andre Ethier's walk-off stylings. Torre doesn't have as many veteran leaders as he did in New York, but he unified the clubhouse just the same. Eric Karros, the former Dodger and current MLB on FOX analyst, said that Torre "was the best fit for this club, without question." On Tuesday, Torre flew to Arizona to watch Hiroki Kuroda face minor league hitters. Kuroda missed the St. Louis series because of a herniation in his cervical spine but has progressed enough that he's being considered for the NLCS roster. And Torre wasn't about to rely on a secondhand report. Doesn't sound like someone eager to walk away, now, does it? "You cheat your players if you don't have high expectations," Torre said. Torre has been around long enough that he's written lineups including Tom Seaver, 64, and Clayton Kershaw, 21. But by all appearances, his passion for the job is still there. "I think so," Scott Brosius, the gritty third baseman on those championship teams in New York, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "I don't think he'd do it otherwise. "I don't think he's doing this as some vendetta against the Yankees, or to prove he can still do it. I don't think he has anything to prove. He's financially comfortable, so he's not doing it for the money. He just loves to manage. He loves to compete. He still wants to be in the dugout." Torre arrived at Tuesday's news conference wearing jeans, a button-down shirt and a Dodger-Bluish hat bearing the logo of Maui's Kapalua Resort. He looked relaxed, in a way that an 82-48 postseason record makes a manager look relaxed. He seemed satisfied with Kuroda's outing and said there is "probably a chance he'll be on the roster." He wouldn't say it, but the Dodgers are likely considering whether Kuroda, who hasn't pitched in the majors since Sept. 28, would offer more as a Game 4 starter than erstwhile workhorse Chad Billingsley. Billingsley has had an uneven past 12 months. He beat the Cubs in the first round of last year's NL playoffs, then flopped in the NLCS against Philadelphia. A strong start to this season landed him a spot in the All-Star Game, but he had a 5.20 ERA thereafter. Billingsley didn't appear in the first round, and there's no guarantee that he will pitch against the Phillies, either. That says a lot about a Dodgers staff that quietly posted the lowest ERA in the majors this year. One struggling starter won't spoil the season, because Torre has so many more options now than he did in 2008. Vicente Padilla. Randy Wolf. Ronald Belisario. George Sherrill. Ramon Troncoso. Jeff Weaver. None pitched for Torre in the NLCS last year. "We have more options," Torre said, speaking about his position players, too. "Our bench has been much better all year. The late-season acquisitions have given us more depth. I think we're much better equipped this year. But so are the Phillies." "You can go back to Game 4, having to use Kershaw in relief," Karros said, referencing the turning point in last year's NLCS. "The bullpen was not defined. You were putting guys in positions they'd never been. They're better now, without question." Because of the added pitching — and additional experience for Kershaw, Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney, et al. — Torre has a much better chance of winning the pennant now than he did one year ago. And we all know what that could mean: Dodgers vs. Yankees, Joe vs. Joe, Manny vs. A-Rod. Colletti really didn't want to talk about a possible World Series. And Torre wasn't interested, either. "For me to come out here and try to dream about who I'd like to play — I've got to play Philadelphia," Torre said. "That's the club we certainly have to play well against. ... I just don't look past that." But Torre hasn't forgotten about his time in New York, either. He never will. When he mentioned those familiar names at different times on Tuesday — Jeter, O'Neill, Brosius — it sounded like he'd just seen them in the hallway. Brosius, now the head baseball coach at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., understands the feeling. He said the 2001 World Series seems like it was only a year or two ago. And what if his old manager were to meet his old team in the Fall Classic? "I would be a little conflicted," Brosius admitted. "It would be hard to watch in that sense. "But it would be great theater." Worthy of Broadway and Hollywood.