CHICAGO (AP) -Joe Torre expects little to change when he manages his first game in New York since leaving the Yankees last fall.
When the Dodgers play the Mets on Thursday at Shea Stadium, he’ll still be in the visiting dugout on the third-base side.
“The Met fans are different than the Yankee fans, that’s for sure,” Torre said. “I don’t really anticipate anything different in that regard. I’m just wearing somebody’s other uniform other than the Mets, so I’ll still be the enemy over there.”
Torre returns to New York after rejecting a one-year offer from the Yankees worth $5 million, a cut from his previous deal which paid $7.5 million a year.
Two weeks later, Torre signed a three-year, $13 million contract with the Dodgers.
“It’s going to be crazy, there’s no question,” Torre said. “It’s not Yankee Stadium, so, it won’t be as significant as if I were to go back there.”
The Dodgers visit Shea Stadium during a tense time for Mets manager, Willie Randolph, who has been heavily criticized since last season’s late collapse. Randolph coached under Torre in the Bronx for many years.
“I certainly feel for Willie,” Torre said. “Anybody who has managed in New York has been exposed to what he is being exposed to right now. The fans have been angry, and that seems to be a product of last year. We got a little taste of that in ’04 after we lost to the Red Sox.”
Torre amassed one of the most successful managerial careers in Yankees’ history. He led the Yankees to four World Series championships in his first five season – but none in the following seven. He became the second-winningest manager in Yankees history with 1,173 victories.
He has a good read on the fans in the Big Apple.
“If you like one, you don’t like the other,” he said of the divide between Mets and Yankees. “They hate the Yankees and it gets to the point where they pull for the Red Sox.”
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