by Stephen Jones
Joe Torre
Made his way
To Cooperstown
Because he showed
His greatest stat
Was to listen
To what was said
So, he quietly led
By example
Showing patience
And humanity
In the dugout
On the field
And before any camera
Reviving the Art of Baseball Doggerel
Nice tribute to someone formerly known as “Clueless Joe” by some headline writer for the Post or the Daily News….one critique: the past tense of the verb “lead” is spelled “led.” One more thing about Torre: as good a manager as Billy Martin may have been, I still prefer Torre’s manner and style to Martin’s constant frenzied flair for drama, entertaining as they may have been. Torre brought forth the calm of assurance and confidence to a franchise that had been through some turbulent years….and I do believe that some of that has even rubbed off on Joe Girardi.
I stand corrected –
It’s “led”, not “lead”.
I committed a hasty swing –
No, it was dumb fielding.
With myself I was angry.
Then my manager reminded me:
It’s baseball, Honey.
Everyone makes an error.