I really think Pedro and Varitek will stay. Everything we're hearing is a bunch of nonsense. They've gotta work something out with Jason, and I think he wants to stay. And nobody's gonna offer Pedro something so much better than what we've offered, that he'd absolutely have to bolt. (Notice I haven't mentioned any other names.)

Today, Joe Torre was on the Michael Y2Kay show. Kay asked how Joe felt about having to go into Fenway and watch the Sox raise the flag on Opening Day. The world's handsomest manager went into a story about being in Florida, and running into a Red Sox fan. He told the guy how the Sox did a good job, and the yanks had a chance but couldn't come through, bla bla bla (Torre actually used the words "bla bla bla"). Then he said that the guy told him, "Now we have nothing to be agitated about." Kay laughed and said, "Yeah, they lost their reason to live!" That piece of crap. Totally not what the guy said. Anyway, Torre just kind of ignored the comment. But then Kay, getting back to Opening Day, said, "Don't even have the team in the dugout, just leave 'em in the clubhouse." (when the flag is raised). Torre said something to the effect of, "No, we'll be out there, we're a proud team, and they deserve to do that." Kay gets shot down! Good for Torre. It was so pathetic the way Kay was sure Torre would agree with him. He said it like he thought he and Joe were both yankee fans from the old neighborhood. "Yeah, we won't even be on the field, screw them, right? Right?" Wrong. It would have been funny if Joe had worded hs response, "No, Micheal, we're not going to wuss out and hide like YOU apparently would."

Torre also said he didn't watch the World Series, but wasn't surprised by the results. And that he's "over" the choke. And he called Steinbrenner five or six days after, and asked if the boss was over it. Boss said no, so Torre "lied" and told him he wasn't either so poor George wouldn't feel all alone.

I'll say this about Torre. I hear him interviewed a lot--he does a segment with Mike & the Mad Dog every week--and he's so comfortable talking on the air, I get the feeling he's in his kitchen in his robe, cooking eggs while he's on the phone. And compared to most other athletes, it's good to hear someone just speak in a normal, real-life, conversational tone, instead of, "Yeah, my teammates came through for myself, and myself gives them all the credit in the world."

Okay, I've said my nice thing about a yankee for this decade. In fact, I better say a few bad things about Torre to make up for that. Let's see, oh right, he's not that great at managing, as he proved with the other teams he managed that didn't have a huge payroll. Also, he came out and said Schilling was faking his injury. Terrible job, Mr. Torre. Oh, and when he comes out to the mound to take out a pitcher, I imagining him saying "Need...to...eat...brains!"