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Torre says Dodgers remind him of 1996 Yankees
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More from MLBLOS ANGELES — With each Andruw Jones strikeout, each sign of Nomar Garciaparra's frailty, each feeble evening at the plate and each day that the distance between the Arizona Diamondbacks and his Los Angeles Dodgers grows a little bit farther, manager Joe Torre might find it easy to grow wistful for what he left behind.
Then he is reminded.
"Yeah, I don't miss that," Torre said of Hank Steinbrenner's declaration that Joba Chamberlain should be in the rotation instead of the bullpen.
After his less-than-amicable departure from the Yankees, Torre is settling into a new reality, attempting to restore credibility to a franchise that has won one playoff game in 20 seasons.
There is no fishbowl, no calls from Boss & Sons and no reason to avoid dropping off the dry cleaning yourself if you're not going to get inundated with suggestions for lineup changes.
On the other hand, there's no $200 million payroll. The Dodgers constitute the Little Engine That Could.
"This is more reminiscent of my first year there," Torre said of the 1996 Yankees, who won the World Series. "We were underdogs. I remember George (Steinbrenner) telling me in June, Are you doing this with mirrors?' We didn't have home run hitters. It drove him nuts because he liked to beat everybody by 10 runs."
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