Torre's Value To The Yankees -- Not Just Winning

NYTimes columnist Harvey Araton adds Torre's burnishing of the Yankee image to the reasons why the team may keep him a final two years.

Beginning with Torre, they have over the last dozen years achieved the wildly improbable, somehow drawing a genial face on a bully franchise that for years was best known for belligerence, bombast and buying.

How much has that delicate balancing act been worth to the Steinbrenner family fortune? How exactly would striking Torre’s pride and paternalism from the picture as the Yankees close down one stadium next season and open another in 2009 enhance the business?

This is an adjunct to my comment on the posting below about how crazy it would be to consider trading Melky and Cano. Setting aside on-field victories, I think the Yankees have benefitted hugely in the last 12 years from having a core group of players who began their careers with the Yankees and grown up with them. Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and (mostly) Andy Pettitte - we've watched them grow and mature alongside Torre all these years. I think a LOT of baseball teams would be wise to see how loyalty to a core group of players can inspire loyalties in fans. I would much rather go down swinging with guys I've followed all their careers hen go a little farther with hired guns who come and go every few years. I think that core and Torre's calm, positive image, have been a big reason the Yankees have doubled their attendance in the last decade. I want to watch Melky and Cano and Joba and Hughes for the next ten years, too.