Pettitte Managed to Stay Around, Thanks to Torre

When Andy Pettitte takes the mound for the Yankees tonight in Game 4, he will be pitching not only for his town and team, but specifically for his manager.

If it wasn’t for Joe Torre, Pettitte would have been traded by now.

George Steinbrenner wanted to dump him at this year’s trading deadline.

A couple of days before the July 31 deadline, Pettitte lasted only 3 1/3 innings in Chicago against the White Sox, giving up eight hits and three runs.

At the time, he was 7-8 with a 5.65 earned-run average. Being left-handed, he had much value in other places. The Yankees had other pitchers who could replace him.

“They talked about me being traded every year . . . but this year, I really thought I might be gone,” Pettitte said.

But then Torre and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre kept reminding each other that this was a guy who was 2-1 with a 3.50 ERA in two World Series, a guy who has always pitched well in big games.

“Mel and myself could not shake the memory,” Torre said. “It got to the point where Steinbrenner said, ‘It’s going to be your decision.’ So he stayed.”

But not until Torre and Stottlemyre convinced Pettitte that he would have to forget the distractions and just pitch.

“Andy was not the same pitcher, he was tentative, he said trade talk had nothing to do with it, but I think it had something to do with it,” Torre said.

Pettitte worked with Stottlemyre on his aggressiveness, and proceeded to go 7-3 during the rest of the regular season, then win a game in the division series against the Texas Ranger.

Torre is going against conventional wisdom by starting a left-hander in Fenway Park--where right-handed hitters tee off against the Green Monster left-field wall--but the manager says it doesn’t matter.

“This is the way it fell, and I have confidence in Andy anywhere,” he said.

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The Red Sox have gone surfing. But it is their season-ticket holders who could drown.

Club officials have been checking the Internet for playoff tickets being scalped--or “auctioned”--on sites such as eBay. If the original owners of those tickets are season ticket holders, they will lose their season tickets for good.

“Anyone who has resold even a single ticket to these playoffs will have their season tickets taken away permanently,” a Sox official told the Boston Globe.

The search began when news broke of somebody selling four tickets to Saturday’s Game 3 of the American League Championship Series for $12,100.

Even at $260 for the four seats combined, that’s a markup of $11,840.

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The Red Sox’s victory Saturday ended their 10-game AL championship series losing streak--Boston’s r last win was over the Angels in Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS--and ended the Yankees’ record-tying playoff win streak at 12.