Did Joe Torre violate confidentiality in his book?

March 2, 2009

By DailySkew

Part of the fallout of The Yankee Years was players and front office members coming out of the woodwork to either dispute the content in the book or say that Joe Torre violated confidentially.

After reading the book, I can now give you a clear answer on if Joe Torre and Tom Verducci “crossed the line”: No.

Part of writing a “complete” or “true history” of your professional career means that you have to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Doing this without mentioning names (or silly code names) would be distracting, frustrating, and poor writing for a baseball book.

Knowing Joe, he felt compelled to speak the truth, and no longer provide cover (and be an apologist) for players or ownership. Although the players themselves may feel betrayed, Torre and Verducci were more concerned with chronicling a Yankees history and how the clubhouse changed after 2001.

The reason why there is a lot of outrage and complaining is because a lot of the scenes in the book were personal one-on-one conversations between a player and Joe. If I was the player, I would feel betrayed or cynical that personal conversations are now a matter of public record. But…it is what it is. Joe doesn’t owe anybody anything.

Every baseball book contains anecdotes and quotes about players, about how contracts are negotiated, and how crazy owners are. It’s not that Joe Torre’s book is different in that respect, it’s just surprising to many people that worked with him because they always expected him not air out their dirty laundry.

I personally would feel uncomfortable writing a book using the real names of my former co-workers or current co-workers. I remember when David Wells did it, and how embarrassed he felt. Not only from the legal standpoint, but most of the time people come to me and speak “off the record”, or it is implied it is “off the record”. I’d probably looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life if I wrote about all the stuff I’ve seen or heard at work or after work.

Yeah, there is a major outcry- Johnny Damon said he was shocked, Brian Cashman was hurt, Carl Pavano said it’s wasn’t true, the Steinbrenner Clan will not be having “Joe Torre Day” any time soon, and even Mariano Rivera doesn’t know what to make of it…but history will absolve Joe Torre.

Again, Joe’s book is not a gossip “tell-all” book, but it just seems like it when people talk about it. Part of it is all the little tidbits, but another part is how other people with strong opinions are interviewed in the book. For example, the ex-bullpen catcher talks about how he used to hang around with A-Rod after work and all the things he saw (mostly good, but…), and a trainer discusses Roger Clemens’ odd pre-game ritual (hot cream on the testicles), Brian McNamee of all people is the designated steroid guru in the book, and Mike Mussina gets a lot of time discussing what went wrong with the modern teams.

Park of writing and marketing a book is to give fans something to chew on. If Joe and Tom teamed up and wrote a book that was pulling punches or did not paint a complete picture, they would be letting us down.