Torre Dodger’s Secret Weapon Against LaRussa, Cardinals
In Los Angeles, stedy, Zen-like coaches seem to win. And that is JoeTorre with the Dodgers.
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A pitcher, a pitcher, my kingdom for a pitcher.
Steady, Zen-like coaches win in
It works for the Lakers. And it works for Joe Torre and the Dodgers, who are back in the playoffs for the third straight year, last year going farther in the post-season then they had since 1988.
For all the talk about whether or not Manny Ramirez starts hitting (it matters) and if the Dodgers starting pitching holds up (it really matters), it is Torre’s steady hand that may be the Dodgers secret weapon. Simply put, his teams win in the postseason because of it. And that’s not always the case for the manager in the opposing dugout.
Torre is taking his team to the playoffs for the 14th consecutive year. In that time, he has six trips to the World Series and has won it four of those times. That means 43% of the time he has made it to the World Series and he has won it 29% of the time.
Tony LaRussa, the Cardinals manager, is no slouch. In the last 14 years he has gotten the St. Louis Cardinals to the playoffs eight times. But his teams have made it to the World Series twice and won it just once.
And for a guy often labeled a genius, he makes some rather odd moves come the playoffs that have cost his team. Even as far back as 2001, his Cardinals were up 2-1 late in game three against the Diamondbacks when LaRussa went with a rookie left-handed pitcher named Mike Mathews late in the game, then stuck with him when he struggled because the odds said he should do better, and the result was a 5-3 Arizona win. Arizona went on to win the series in five games -- a fifth game that should not have happened if not for game three.
That pattern continues with him through the playoffs. LaRussa is from the school of managers that gets a lot of information and plays the numbers. That can work over 162 games, but sometimes in the playoffs you have to go with your gut (say, using an injured Kirk Gibson as a pinch hitter), and in a short five-game series one managerial misstep can cost a team a series. Torre is not perfect, but his steady hand game to game is a perfect fit for a Dodger team with Manny and a bunch of kids.
In the end, Torre may be the difference for the Dodgers. Zen wins in
