Jose Contreras (above) was so baffling to his former team, they were jumping off the Upper Deck at Yankee Stadium last night. And speaking of leaping before you look, it was just another episode of “How To Undermine The Manager”, courtesy of The Boss, as recounted by the New York Daily News’ Roger Rubin and Ebenezer Samuel.
An irritated George Steinbrenner blistered Yankees manager Joe Torre last night after seeing his $200 million club fall, 2-1, to the Chicago White Sox.
“I’m not pleased with the manager,” Steinbrenner said as he made his way to his sedan about 40 minutes after the game.
Steinbrenner was second-guessing Torre’s decision to go with lefthanded reliever Alan Embree against righthanded cleanup hitter Paul Konerko at the start of the ninth inning. Steinbrenner said he’d been impressed with the way Embree got through the eighth inning, but not the way he surrendered Konerko’s home run.
That homer proved to be the margin of victory.
“I don’t know about why they left the lefthander in,” Steinbrenner said, dressed in his vintage blue blazer. “He had a good inning and they kept him in there. He should never have pitched to Konerko – he’s their best hitter.”