Yankees legend Joe Torre fires back at ‘pain in the ass’ former player

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Eighty-four years young as of July 18, Yankees legend Joe Torre looked pretty darn good during his appearance Tuesday night at the Somerset Patriots’ Double-A game. He still has his hair and there’s not much age in his walk.

With a few thousand early arriving fans in their seats and listening in, the Hall of Famer sounded good, too, sitting in a chair along the first base line telling stories about his life in baseball and bad childhood memories that led to the start of his charity, Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation.

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Torre had everyone laughing when he climbed the TD Bank Ballpark mound to throw the ceremonial first pitch and started winding up before he stopped his delivery and walked about 10 big steps forward. Torre was able to reach the plate from there, and his lob that was a foot inside might have been a strike if Angel Hernandez was umping.

After that, Torre headed out of the sun to the Patriots’ indoor batting cage/interview room. There, NJ Advance Media and two local reporters were given 10 minutes to ask questions.

Torre addressed the Yankees’ long stretch of struggles, which extended to 21 losses in 31 games with Tuesday night’s 3-2 Subway Series loss to the Mets at Yankee Stadium. He had something to say about Yankees fans getting on Aaron Boone, next Tuesday’s trade deadline, Juan Soto’s free agency and David Wells.

Yes, Torre was given a chance to respond to Wells ripping him Monday on WFAN’s “The Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata Show.”

If you missed it, the outspoken left-hander was back in his playing-days form stirring up trouble with his mouth. He claimed Torre played favorites with players when they were together on the Yankees from 1997-98 and 2002-03. He also says Torre “wasn’t a great manager” even though he led the Yankees to four World Series, six pennants, 11 division titles and 14 consecutive postseason berths from 1996-2007.

In 1998, Wells was 18-4 with a perfect game in the Yankees’ 114-win regular season, 4-0 in their postseason run to a World Series and then traded to the Blue Jays the next spring. Wells doesn’t think fondly of Torre for wanting him off the team in a trade for pitching great Roger Clemens.

Wells’ critical comments didn’t seem to bother Torre. On the contrary ...

“I didn’t hear about any of it, but it puts a smile on my face,” he said.

After Torre said he and Wells “kid about stuff” when they see each other at functions, he punched back a little.

“David Wells wasn’t easy, but nobody guaranteed that these players were going to be easy,” Torre said. “David Wells is David Wells. He can pitch. We won with him. I loved having him around, but he was a pain in the ass. There’s no question.”

Torre finished his response by addressing Wells’ 1998 trade:

“I chased him out of town, but he came back. He left and he came back,” Torre said.

Torre has been paying attention to the current state of the Yankees. He knows fans are getting on Boone again, and he hinted that he thinks the criticism isn’t warranted for a couple reasons:

1. “To be honest, when the game got strong with analytics, I think there was a certain neutering of the manager.”

2. “Boonie, his father played. His grandfather played in the big leagues. He knows baseball. He knows his stuff.”

Even though the Yankees have played a lot of bad baseball since the middle of June, Torre still thinks they can be a World Series team. He likes their pitching and thinks their lineup is stacked beyond Aaron Judge and Soto even though it hadn’t showed it much. He also expects old boss Brian Cashman to strengthen the roster by July 30.

“I think if you go one by one with their pitchers, they’re all capable of getting them to the promised land,” Torre said. “It’s just a matter of they’ve stumbled around a little bit over the last few weeks. But knowing Cashman, he’ll make a deal if thinks he needs to shore up the pitching staff.

“I think offensively they’re tough to beat (with Judge and Soto). It’s really amazing. Soto, of course, we all noticed him when he came up with Washington and they won the World Series. He’s 25 years old, such a breath of fresh air with his personality. With the ability he has, you always hold your breath because you’re not sure coming to New York because it’s a little different animal. There are some players that have had trouble performing, but obviously, he hasn’t had that problem and I’m happy for the Yankees.

“And Judge, if you ever wondered if he was legit, he keeps doing it year after year. I think his ability has showed you that, plus he’s a terrific leader of that ball club.”

With Soto headed for free agency in the offseason, there’s more pressure on the Yankees to win this year.

“New York’s not easy,” Torre said. “Expectations are high. Playing the Mets in 2000 in the World Series, they may have had more talented personnel, but we were the Yankees. You keep looking over your shoulder and there’s George Steinbrenner. So, yeah, there’s a lot of pressure. But if you win there, there’s nothing like it.”

Win or lose this season, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner probably will be feeling pressure come wintertime to re-sign Soto, but it’s unknown if he’ll meet demands from agent Scott Boras that might be upwards of $550 million, perhaps even $600 million. What will the Yankees do if the Mets, Dodgers or someone else drives Soto’s price up to something they’re not comfortable paying?

Wherever Soto ends up, Torre says he’ll be under added pressure to live up to his big contract.

“If a guy doesn’t perform, sure there are going to be some media people that are going to allude to the fact that you’re not earning how much you’re making,” he said. “But that just goes with the fact that you’re making a lot of money.”

Torre will be watching. He’s been paying attention to the Yankees more this year after being part of their spring training for a few days last March. Initially, he didn’t want to accept Boone’s invite to show up and get in uniform, but he ended up greatly enjoying reconnecting with the Yankees and even making an in-game pitching change on his last day.

“I’m glad I did it, and with that, I probably have made more visits this year to the Stadium just to hang out,” Torre said.

Torre had fun again Tuesday night hanging out with the Somerset Patriots. He even left with a $20,000 check for his charity courtesy of one of the Patriots’ sponsors.

During his field interview for fans and later again with writers, Torre detailed growing up in a home in which his mother was physically and mentally abused by his father.

Torre still works in baseball as a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred, but his foundation is his passion.

“My whole baseball career, believe it or not, I still had the feelings I had when I was a kid growing up,” Torre said. “I thought there was something that made me responsible for what was going on in the house. It wasn’t until right before I came to the Yankees that we went to a seminar. My wife was eight months pregnant with our daughter and she had wanted to go to this seminar, which was in Cincinnati. That’s her hometown. At that four-day seminar, after day two or three, there was a speaker that struck a nerve. And it was a revelation, because all of a sudden, I wanted to talk about (my childhood).”

That led to the creation in 2002 of the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, which “provides services in schools to children exposed to violence in order to help them heal from trauma.”

Said Torre, “It’s been very gratifying that we were able to hit on something that worked. That’s why being able to raise funds is important because it takes money to open these safe rooms. The more we have, the more kids we can reach.”

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.