According to John Nadel of the Associated Press: Torre gave the Angels credit, but wouldn’t say they were a better team than the Yankees.
“I’m too proud to say that,” he said. “We were beaten by a team that played a whole lot better than we did this week.” Full story here.
Why? The Yankees won 103 games thanks much to a schedule that had them playing meatballs like Tampa Bay, Toronto and the Tigers. They were lucky to beat the Red Sox 10 times out of 19 games. Why in the world Joe Torre would ever think this Yankee pitching staff was the best he’d seen in years beats me. They’re all old, tired, and familiar. Mike Mussina is a quiet head case, El Duque and Clemens worn out; that left the still young Andy Pettite (having an off year) and geezer David Wells with his skin head haircut that’s supposed to make us forget he’s about 40 lbs. overweight….