David Wells joined BT and Sal on Monday afternoon to talk past and present Yankee topics, and when the discussion shifted to former manager Joe Torre, the former Yankee lefty and BT debated Torre’s managerial pedigree.
Wells feuded with Torre during the dynastic Yankee years, which both have openly admitted, and Wells came out and said on Monday that he didn’t believe the Hall of Fame skipper was a “great manager.”
“I don’t have any resentment now,” Wells said. “I like Joe, but as a manager, I don’t think he was a great manager, because he didn’t treat everybody the same way.
“That’s why Sparky Anderson was a great manager. He treated every player the same way. Bruce Bochy, the same way…don’t worry about what I do. Just worry about if I win.”
BT pushed back on that criticism, believing Wells had plenty to do with the complicated relationship between Wells and Torre, which went back to 1998 when Torre suddenly pulled Wells from a start because he didn’t like the lefty’s “body language” on the mound.
“I gotta defend our boy Torre a little bit,” BT said. “You brought half the problems upon yourself. You showed up late, you were a pain in the ass to Torre, come on.
“It doesn’t seem like you accept any responsibility when it comes to the Joe Torre stuff, like it’s all Joe’s fault. Nobody else says that stuff about Joe Torre but you.”
Wells, admittedly upset when he was traded to the Blue Jays for Roger Clemens after the ’98 season, hinted that other players felt the same way he did about Torre.
“I can get a handful of guys that feel the same way that I do about Joe,” Wells said. “But that’s the thing, I went out and won…but when you have to take a team flight and a day game the next day, but then you get Andy [Pettitte] and [Roger] Clemens fly two days earlier ahead, what does that tell you? You don’t know the inside stuff. You only know what the writers write.”