A pitcher with six career appearances in the majors in part led to the destruction of Joe Torre and Brian Cashman’s relationship.
The “falling out” with Cashman that Torre mentioned in his 2009 book, “The Yankee Years,” happened during Yankees spring training in 2006, when then-pitching coach Ron Guidry’s oversight of rehabbing relief pitcher Colter Bean caused a “major blowout” between the GM and manager
It was the culmination of built-up tension, according to the new book, “The Yankee Way: The Untold Inside Story of the Brian Cashman Era,” by Andy Martino that comes out on Tuesday.
According to an excerpt posted Monday by SNY, Torre and Cashman were at odds over the hiring of Guidry, the legendary Yankees pitcher, due to a lack of experience and difference in philosophies.
Guidry told team brass that spring that the team’s pitchers would throw “whatever they want” with respect to the number of pitches and innings per appearance, not wanting to use pitch counts but instead by minutes.
This worried the Yankees front office, and things came to a head when the right-hander Bean, then a 29-year-old rehabbing from knee surgery, threw 80 pitches during a 15-minute bullpen session, according to video captured by cameras Cashman had just installed so the team could track drills.
Mike Mussina threw approximately 30 pitches during the same timeframe.
The daily pitching sheet the front office received early that spring said every pitcher was throwing 30 pitches, which raised eyebrows since Guidry said he wasn’t planning sessions based on pitch counts.
Cashman confronted Torre and questioned if he could trust his word, and Torre believed he was being spied on.
“I can’t honestly say I even remember this issue,” Guidry says in the book. “I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I’m not saying I wasn’t there. I cannot remember. But if I was there I probably was not privy to what went on after the session. If they had something, it probably occurred later on. I don’t recall anything about that going on in my presence. I like both of them. I loved working for Joe. He’s a great friend. Cashman has always been great to me. He invites me to come to spring training every year.”
Bean wasn’t sure how many pitches he threw.
“Maybe I did throw 80 pitches,” Bean says in the book. “I didn’t have a count. No one told me, we’re going 25 or 30 today or whatever. As a guy who was trying to make it, your adrenaline is a little higher, so you would probably throw pitches quicker than a Mike Mussina, who was out there just trying to get through the day or get back and play golf.”
This was a breaking point for Cashman and Torre, and it did not come as a surprise to Bean.
“I do know that Cash and Joe, they weren’t fond of each other, and I think I might have been a prime example of why,” said Bean, whose six appearances with the Yankees were spread out between 2005-07. “Cashman called me before ‘07 and told me that he had shared a bunch of numbers with [Torre and Guidry], and the way I took it, he was kind of fighting for me. I said, ‘You’re the GM; don’t you make the decisions?’ And he said, ‘It’s not that easy.’
“At that point, I could tell there was more to it than meets the eye. I could tell there was strife going on. Obviously Brian had one way that he wanted to do the club, and Joe had another. I think Brian’s way proved to work after Joe left. One thing I noticed, just the chemistry in the clubhouse when I was there versus when they won the World Series [in 2009] when they had [Nick] Swisher and all those guys, it was night and day.”
