Dejected Yankees Brace for Wrecking Ball

Speculation Rampant On Future of Torre And Several Players

NEW YORK, Oct. 9 -- Across East 161st Street from Yankee Stadium, where a handful of grim-faced New York Yankees trickled in Tuesday morning to collect their belongings and review offseason workout plans with the team's medical staff, giant cranes reached high into the gray sky, the groan and clank of construction on a new $1.3 billion stadium plowing forward with cold disregard to the events of the previous night across the street.

Yankee Stadium is literally condemned, due to be demolished and converted into parkland when the New Yankee Stadium, as the new building is being called, opens in 2009. On Tuesday, the whole Yankees empire felt the same way, as lockers were cleaned out and equipment bags were rolled into awaiting trucks, and the whole place sagged and seeped.

The wrecking ball may not be swinging yet at the House That Ruth Built -- there will be one more farewell season, including the 2008 All-Star Game -- but the Yankees themselves are bracing for their own destruction following Monday night's ignominious exit from the playoffs, a 6-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians in Game 4 of the American League Division Series.

The sense of dark foreboding that gripped the stadium Monday night as the Yankees slumped back to their dugout in defeat, while the Indians celebrated their berth in the AL Championship Series -- where they will face the Boston Red Sox beginning Friday night -- had not lifted by Tuesday. If anything, the silence from above made it worse.

There was no immediate word on the job status of Manager Joe Torre, whom owner George Steinbrenner publicly threatened to fire if the Yankees lost to the Indians. Steinbrenner's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, issued a statement saying the Boss was heading home to Tampa and was not ready to make a public comment. Hank Steinbrenner, the owner's son and a senior vice president with the team, told the Associated Press: "There's nothing decided yet. . . . I really do like Joe a lot. I have a lot of respect for him."

"It's a process," General Manager Brian Cashman told reporters. "The process first and foremost is going to be sitting down with ownership and all the relevant people. Have some patience. Things take time."

However, around Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, the end of the Torre era -- after 12 years, 12 playoff appearances and four World Series titles (the last in 2000) -- felt like a formality. The New York Post, on its back page Tuesday morning, ran a full-page photo of Torre's on-the-verge-of-tears face with the headline, "Beaten Man."

"Joe Torre is the best manager in baseball," catcher Jorge Posada said late Monday night, voicing the overwhelming support the manager had within the clubhouse. "It's not his fault. . . . He didn't hit, catch or throw."

Torre stayed away from the stadium Tuesday, as did all of the most significant players, with the exception of Chien-Ming Wang, the right-handed pitcher who absorbed two of the Yankees' three losses in the series.

"Sad," Wang said when asked to describe his feelings.

Speculation is already rampant about who would replace Torre, the popular, avuncular figure who arrived on the scene in 1996 -- a hiring that, incidentally, was roundly criticized in New York -- and took the Yankees to four World Series championships in his first five seasons.

Ownership is believed to favor Don Mattingly, the fan favorite who was hired to learn the ropes under Torre in 2004 but who has no managing experience at any level. The front office is said to favor former Yankees catcher and current TV analyst Joe Girardi, who was named National League manager of the year in 2006 for keeping the low-budget Florida Marlins in contention until the final weeks of the season.

"It's like following John Wooden or something," Mattingly told reporters Tuesday, when asked about the manager's job. ". . . It's pretty much a no-win situation for someone coming in here, to be able to live up to the expectations."

However, the sudden availability of Tony La Russa, who is free to leave the St. Louis Cardinals if he wishes this offseason, has added a new dimension to the question of who succeeds Torre -- one the Yankees are believed to be exploring. Hiring La Russa would steer the Yankees' clubhouse in a completely different direction, since he is as intense and polarizing as Torre is laid-back and calming.

Beyond Torre's status, the Yankees must also deal with major roster issues on their bloated $210 million payroll, all the while trying to determine why a team that consistently ranks among the best in baseball in the regular season suddenly stops hitting and pitching capably in October.

Among the Yankees' free-agents-to-be are 45-year-old pitcher Roger Clemens, whose hamstring injury in Sunday night's Game 2 most likely spelled the end of his career, and presumptive AL most valuable player Alex Rodriguez, who is expected to exercise an opt-out clause in his 10-year, $252 million contract and seek a new deal that would pay him $30 million or more annually.

The Yankees have exclusive negotiating rights with Rodriguez on an extension for roughly another month -- until 10 days after the World Series ends -- but have vowed not to negotiate with him if he opts out, a stance Cashman reiterated Tuesday. A logical alternative landing spot for Rodriguez is the Los Angeles Angels, whose lopsided loss to Boston in the other ALDS exposed their desperate need for a middle-of-the-lineup bat.

"I love New York," Rodriguez said late Monday night. "For me, as a player, to come full circle in New York, it's the most comfortable I've felt. Hopefully, things work out."

Three of the other four links to the 1996-2000 dynasty -- Posada, closer Mariano Rivera and lefty Andy Pettitte -- are also pending free agents (although Pettitte holds a $16 million option to return). If all three were to depart -- and all are close enough to Torre that his firing could push them over the edge -- it would leave shortstop Derek Jeter as the only Yankee to have won a World Series ring in the Bronx.

So it goes with progress in baseball. Nothing is spared, not even the Yankee dynasty, not even its headquarters. At one time, even this old building, Yankee Stadium, was gleaming and new. Now it is full of cracks and the smell of decay, as it waits for someone to come along and knock it down.