HA! Torre Tells Steinbrenner To Suck It!

After letting him twist in the wind for a week or so, the Boss offered Joe Torre another year, at a pay cut.

And it seems Joe figured he's had enough aggravation.

I love this because Torre made it clear that old George's money can't buy everything. In my mind, the former skipper unloaded on the old man the way George Bailey told off Mr. Potter in "It's A Wonderful Life":

"You spin your little web and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money! Well, it doesn't Mr. Steinbrenner. In the whole vast configuration of things I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider."

And then he turns to Cashman, "And that goes for you, too!"

After acting like a puppet-master contolling Joe Torre's destiny, Steinbrenner looks pretty stupid right about now.

With Torre not returning, it'll be interesting to see how many free agents - ARod, Rivera, Posada - decide to pack it up for greener pastures. His departure could be the linch pin the sets the dominos falling. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

UPDATE:
Cheddar Ben at Yankees2000: Promote The Curse declares "The Yankees are f*****!"

UPDATE DEUX:
MSNBC's Mike Celizic points out that this speaks volumes about who's really in charge of this organization now:

There is no surer sign that Steinbrenner is no longer calling the shots. If he were, Torre would have been packing his bags by Tuesday afternoon; Wednesday morning at the latest. Instead, after three days of meetings, team president Randy Levine — not Steinbrenner, not his sons Hank and Hal who are taking over his role and not general manager Bryan Cashman — announced that Torre had turned down the deal and it was the time for the Yankees to move forward.

The challenge for whoever succeeds him will be dealing with a team that’s now being run by Machiavellian committee that needed three days to decide that the best way to get rid of the manager was to let him fire himself by offering him a pay cut and then building in a $1 million dollar bonus if he made the playoffs and an additional million-dollar for each round of the playoffs he advanced to.

There’s no reason to expect that personnel decisions will be made differently. And the problem there is that you can’t have committees deciding on which free agents to sign and which players to offer in trades.

That’s how Congress operates, and you can see how well that works.