Torre Says He’ll ‘Just Leave Memories’

By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer

AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

RYE BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — Joe Torre heard enough. He felt insulted. He felt unappreciated. He won’t even set foot in Yankee Stadium anytime soon, not even to clean out his office. “I walked out of there, I’m not going back,” he said. “I just leave the memories.”

A day after he turned down a one-year contract, convinced the team no longer was committed to him after 12 seasons and four World Series titles, he went out his way – grateful, yet defiant; respectful but hurt.

He didn’t say goodbye in Yankee Stadium. Instead, he spoke for 67 minutes – one minute for each year of his life – in a hotel ballroom near his home in suburban New York, close to the Connecticut border.

There was no Yankees logo, just a simple desk – appropriately draped in black – and a velvet background in the team’s navy blue.

News from The Associated Press.