You really have to wonder about the effectiveness of Steinbrenner's motivational abilities. You would think that a businessman with his experience would realize that threats almost never produce positive results.
BTW, the Red Sox completed a sweep of the Angels tonight to go to the American League Championship Series, and the Patriots beat the Browns to go 5 and 0. It's nice to be a Boston fan.
Steinbrenner isn't good enough to own the Yankees.
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NEW YORK (AP) -Win or else! That was George Steinbrenner's message to Joe Torre before the New York Yankees played the Cleveland Indians on Sunday night.
With the Yankees trailing 2-0 in the best-of-five, first-round playoff series, Steinbrenner reverted to the blustering boss of old and said Torre likely wouldn't return as manager unless New York reaches the AL championship series for the first time in three years.
"His job is on the line,'' the owner was quoted in Sunday's editions of The Record of New Jersey. "I think we're paying him a lot of money. He's the highest-paid manager in baseball, so I don't think we'd take him back if we don't win this series.''
Torre was hired before the 1996 season and led the Yankees to four World Series titles in his first five years but none since. New York last reached the World Series in 2003, wasted a 3-0 lead against Boston in the 2004 ALCS, then was eliminated by the Angels and Detroit in the first round the last two years.
"You're not surprised by whatever comes down the pike,'' Torre said. "You don't always get used to it, but you understand if you want to work here - and there's a great deal of upside to working here - that there are certain things you have to deal with. We've had ultimatums during the season, early in the season. This obviously is down to a game we need to win, and you'd like to believe everybody's trying to pull in the same direction.''
