BOSTON – Joe Torre heightened what is both a personal and Yankee-wide battle against ESPN yesterday by belittling the network during postgame interviews following the Red Sox’ 5-4 triumph.
ESPN reporter Bob Holtzman asked Torre whether Alex Rodriguez’ offensive slump was due to “pressing or confidence?” Torre looked incredulous and said, “What would he not be confident about?” Torre then touched the identifying logo on the microphone and said, “ESPN, yes, that’s a question you would ask.”
Torre is normally gracious and does not react with hostility even when he fields awkward or challenging questions following tough losses. But his disdain for ESPN is now overt.
He has not liked a lot of things the network has done during his Yankee tenure, but he was particularly irritated with what he felt was the relentless replaying of Roger Clemens’ 2000 beaning of Mike Piazza to hype a Yankee-Mets game that was to be broadcast on the network. Torre felt it unreasonably fanned the emotions for the game.
Recently, many Yankee players and management reacted with outrage that ESPN would hold a mock trial about whether the Yankees were good for baseball on the day of the team’s home opener.
And Torre was not alone in showing contempt for ESPN yesterday. The Fenway Park visiting clubhouse is particularly cramped, so the postgame routine is often to have TV do a first wave of interviews before Yankee media-relations head Rick Cerrone clears out that group to allow the print media closer access. Cerrone did that with Derek Jeter after the loss yesterday.
When Holtzman and one of his producers lingered among the writers, Cerrone singled them out, barking at them to move.