Here's the thing about telling all about your former players, as Joe Torre did in his book, "The Yankee Years." In the war of words that follows, you're always going to be outnumbered.
Former Yankee and Country Buffet enthusiast David Wells gets his licks in on Tim Montemayor's show on Sporting News Radio recently. Let's listen to the fun.
Joe Torre should be called J-Fraud. He managed guys like Jeter — guys that were very easy to manage — those everyday players. But when there were guys under the bubble that were struggling, or basket cases like me I guess, he didn’t want anything to do with us.
Joe, he wasn’t tough on guys, he just treated you like crap. If you weren’t in his little circle — the circle of trust — then he could care less about you. I’ve had quite a few confrontations with him. It’s like guys get to fly early … I had to fly with the team — it’s stuff like that. If you’re going to do it for one guy, you might as well do it for the rest, and that’s what he didn’t do with the majority of guys.
Among Torre's boys, according to Wells, were Paul O'Neill, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens.
Then, on "The Mason & Ireland Show," 710-AM ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, Wells talked about the line in the Torre book in which he wrote "The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to."
"I'm kind of like blown away because of the fact that he's coming out and he's bashing," Wells said. "I found out last night that he was bashing me and Kevin Brown. He bashed Kevin Brown as a player, when he said he tried to make his life miserable. Nobody tries to make anybody's life miserable out there on the diamond. You're there for one reason and one reason only, and that's to win. If I was trying to make his life miserable, I would have succeeded.
"What we do as athletes, that's our problem, our business, and a lot of guys have come out and destroyed that," Wells said. "That's why they don't have any friends. You just don't do that, and that's what Joe did. When you break the code, you're a punk."
No telling where this will end; I'm just hoping it doesn't end soon. Any bat boys or security guards who have a Yankee story they'd like to relate? New York cabbie: "Torre was a lousy tipper." That book, co-written by me, will be out in May.
David Wells Calls Out Joe Torre: J-Fraud [Larry Brown Sports]
Wells Comments On Torre's Book [MLB.com]
David Wells: Joe Torre Had His 'Boys' [Newsday]