NEW YORK (AP) – Joe Torre made it home – just long enough to get his daughter to school, pick up his car keys and drive to Shea Stadium.
He didn’t drive past Yankee Stadium, taking the Whitestone Bridge instead of the Triborough on an unusually sunny Thursday afternoon.
“Not purposely. That’s the quickest way here from my house,” he said.
Still, Torre’s former baseball home is never too far from his mind. When Derek Jeter was hit on a hand by a Daniel Cabrera pitch May 20, Torre was watching on television at Dodger Stadium. He picked up the phone and immediately telephoned his old clubhouse back in the Bronx.
“It sounded ugly,” Torre said. “I called the training room just to see how he was. He got on the phone and said he was OK.”
Torre looked tan and relaxed Thursday before his first game back in New York since resigning as manager of the Yankees last October after 12 stunningly successful seasons, four of which ended in World Series titles. The Dodgers plane landed at 4 a.m. following a game in Chicago, so he went to the team hotel in Manhattan, then got up early to head home to suburban Westchester.
At 4 p.m., he walked into the visiting clubhouse, older brother Frank right along with him. A short while later, Yankees clubhouse manager Lou Cucuzza Jr. came in to great his former boss.
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