The SF Gate article only further cements my opinion.  All the talk from Verducci to say this is 3rd person etc. is BS.  Buster Olney had a great post today that Torre cant hide behin the author and pointed out that Torre himself blasted Wells for his book which aired dirty launry.  Buster points out:

Verducci said in a radio interview on WFAN on Monday that all this is not really new, that everybody has known for years that Rodriguez has had difficulty assimilating with the Yankees’ veterans.

 Here’s what’s new about it: The stories are in a book authored by Joe Torre.

 This is hardly a new concept. The fact that former first lady Nancy Reagan could be difficult was hardly a new concept, but when Ronald Reagan’s former chief of staff, Don Regan, published a book detailing that, well, it became a very big deal. The suggestion that the run-up to the Iraq war included misinformation was something posed by many reporters — but it became something very different when posited in a book by former White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

The point Buster was making, is that Torre was, in many circumstances a prick.  When he was faced with a question he didn’t like or didn’t like it when a player did something dumb or missed a sign, Torre would invoke “The Stare”.  We have all seen it flashed when someone gave Joe a particularly irksome question  (kind of like the stare Clinton gave the reporter during the Monica scandal when he shouted out “Are you going to resign?” as Clinton strolled away from the press on the White House grounds).  You have to think that A-Rod was the victim of a stare or two.   Anyway,  Torre did this for one reason only… Spite.  He did it to tick of the Yankees.  That’s it.

In my opinion, Torre never made A-Rod comfortable.  The snippets we have heard seem to further that opinion.  He told A-Rod he had to change to fit in.  Why?  Why can’t A-Rod have someone get his coffee?  He’s freakin A-Rod!  Sheffield acted like a jerk.  He never changed.  Wells was his own person.  Why did A-Rod have to change completely to fit in?  Ok.  A-Rod is image obsessed – unlike Sheff and Wells who probably just told Torre to F.O. and then got to work.  The problem with A-Rod is he probably focussed too much on Torre’s request that he fit in, instead of just telling him to F.O.  and playing the game.  Maybe there was more to Kenny Lofton and Sheffield’s stories about how Torre’s favoritism.    

Again, I had been lobbying for his termination since the end of 2004.  So no love lost here.