Joe Torre Manages LA Dodgers For Final Time
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — On his final day managing the Los Angeles Dodgers, Joe Torre went old school.
He wrote out the lineup card Sunday, just as he did 29 years earlier on his first day managing the New York Mets, instead of typing it on the computer.
Torre expected his final game against the Arizona Diamondbacks to be nostalgic rather than sad since he's the one who decided to call it a career on the bench.
"It has been an incredible honor to wear the Dodger uniform and I will always carry with me some very special memories from the past three seasons," Torre said on Sept. 17, when he announced his decision to step down. Hitting coach Don Mattingly already has been hired to succeed Torre on the bench.
"This was not a decision I took lightly but I believe it's the right one for myself and my family, and I'm truly thrilled that Donnie will be the one leading the Dodgers," he added.
Torre's career includes managing the Mets, Atlanta, St. Louis, and most memorably, the New York Yankees, whom he guided to four World Series championships before leaving in 2007.
Torre's players trickled into his office in recent days to bid personal farewells to the 70-year-old, who guided them the last three years.
He led the Dodgers into the playoffs his first two seasons in Los Angeles, but no matter the outcome Sunday, they were going to send him off with his first 162-game losing season since 1984, when he managed the Braves.
Torre's future includes a brief Hawaiian vacation and then getting busy selling tables for his foundation's dinner honoring Derek Jeter in New York on Nov. 11.
He says it's safe to say he's definitely retiring from managing, although he couldn't resist joking that all the farewell fuss "is really going to go right out the tubes when I manage again next year."
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