Steinbrenner decides to stick with Torre next season

NEW YORK -- The Mets, not the Yankees, are the New York team still alive in the postseason, but the team from the Bronx has refused to yield center stage.

While the Mets quietly worked out in Queens in advance of tonight's first game of the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the high drama was taking place in the Bronx, where Joe Torre announced to the assembled media that owner George Steinbrenner had just informed him only minutes earlier that he would be back to manage the Yankees for a 12th season in 2007.

The Boss, if the tabloid front pages are to be believed, had blinked. Just hours after the Yankees were ousted by the Detroit Tigers in their American League Division Series, there were reports that an enraged Steinbrenner had decided to oust Torre.

Encountered by reporters after emerging from lunch in midtown Manhattan Monday, Steinbrenner said he had not yet made up his mind, then flew back home to his bunker in Tampa, where he consulted his top lieutenants and also talked by phone to Torre for 15-20 minutes.

Torre said he told Steinbrenner, ``If you feel in your heart a change has to be made, go ahead and do it."

Torre said he felt more optimistic after the call that he'd be back, and indeed, George King in yesterday's New York Post reported that Torre would be retained. But speculation that Torre would be replaced by a Steinbrenner favorite, Lou Piniella, did not abate until yesterday's gathering, one Torre traditionally has held a day or two after the end of the Yankees' season.

``Let's just say that [Steinbrenner] echoed support and commitment to having me go on in this job," Torre said. ``I felt comfortable with the conversation."

Steinbrenner gave his own version of what he told Torre in a statement he issued through spokesman Howard Rubenstein.

He said he told Torre, ``You're back for the year. I expect a great deal from you and the entire team. I have high expectations, and I want to see enthusiasm, a fighting spirit, and a team that works together. Responsibility is yours, Joe, and all of the Yankees.

``Yes, I am deeply disappointed about our loss this year. We have to do better, and I deeply want a championship. It's about time."

In another segment of How The Bombers Turn, general manager Brian Cashman, who had been unwavering publicly in his support of Torre, announced that he has no intentions of trading Alex Rodriguez, who has been singled out as the No. 1 reason for Yankee postseason failure since putting on the pinstripes at the start of the 2004 season.

``I fully expect him to be here," Cashman said yesterday. ``We're going to figure this thing out together."

Rodriguez has a no-trade clause, and has declared his intention of remaining a Yankee, even in the face of withering criticism and the humiliation of being dropped to the No. 8 spot in the batting order for the final game of the Division Series. Despite Cashman's pledge, a trade cannot be ruled out. Rodriguez's previous team, the Rangers, made a show of naming A-Rod captain at the New York baseball writers' dinner in late January, then traded him on Valentine's Day to the Yankees.

Cashman acknowledged yesterday that he'd fielded numerous inquiries before the July 31 trading deadline, and that one club had contacted him just hours after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs.

``I wanted to message back: `Buzzard,' " Cashman said.

The general managers' meetings are scheduled for Nov. 13 in Naples, Fla., with baseball's winter meetings to begin less than a month later in Orlando, Fla.. Cashman said he expects more offers will be forthcoming, but he intends to turn them down.

``I know there would be interest in him. There's no denying that. He's a very talented player," Cashman said. ``Despite the difficult times that he's experienced here, people see the results and know that he's fighting not just the pitcher on the mound, he's fighting a lot more than that at times."

Rodriguez is still owed $95 million in the last four years of the record 10-year, $252 million contract he signed with Texas, but the Rangers are paying $28.4 million of that, which would make his acquisition more appealing to other clubs. But Torre, too, expressed support for Rodriguez yesterday.

``Alex Rodriguez is one of the important pieces to this puzzle here," Torre said. ``He is a human being and there's a lot of times that he's not perceived that way. The fact of the matter is that he'll never be able to be compared to other people because, probably, [of] the enormity of his ability."

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.