Brenly Really Appreciates Torre, Yankee Attitude

Bob Brenly will look across the field in the World Series and see a man to admire in New York Yankee Manager Joe Torre.

“Joe is a master of putting his attitude onto his ballclubs,” the Arizona manager said Thursday. “Joe is always very much in control, very confident, very relaxed.

“That’s something we’ve tried to sell our ballclub all year. That’s how you succeed in anything you try to do in life.”

When Brenly was working for the Fox network as an analyst, he got to see Torre up close in the World Series.

“Because of the way Joe carries himself, I think it’s very easy for his players to reflect that same attitude as well,” Brenly said.

Asked how his work in television--for Fox and the Diamondbacks--helped prepare him to be a manager, Brenly singled out his access to managers before each game.

“Just the opportunity to sit in the dugout with Bobby Cox for a half-hour before a Tuesday night game and talk about any number of subjects,” Brenly said. “Same thing with Tony La Russa, Bobby Valentine, Joe Torre in the postseason.”

*

Brenly was asked how he was preparing for an opponent the Diamondbacks have never faced.

He ran down the usual sources--extensive, detailed report from his scouts and recollections from Arizona players who have faced the Yankees.

Then he added another unexpected source of information.

“We’ve had a lot of unsolicited offers from other teams to volunteer some of their scouting reports on the Yankees,” Brenly said.

Were those American League teams?

“Some were and some weren’t,” Brenly said.

Did he use the information, and why would the teams make such an offer?

“Yes,” Brenly said with a smile, “and I don’t know.”

*

The Yankees landed in Phoenix on Thursday, dropped their bags at the team hotel and went to Bank One Ballpark for a practice.

The stadium was empty, except for a few dozen fans who watched the workout from a restaurant balcony above the left-field wall.

Many of them yelled, “Let’s go, Yankees!” and “Go, New York!” and the shouts echoed throughout the ballpark.

Bernie Wiliams hit a couple of shots into the restaurant and David Justice and other Yankees took turns throwing souvenirs to the restaurant crowd.

Derek Jeter, however, wasn’t sure those were all Yankees fans.

“No, I think they just wanted to get a ball,” he said. “I don’t know if they’ll be rooting for us on Saturday night.”

*

Former Tampa Bay manager Larry Rothschild was hired as the Chicago Cubs’ new pitching coach.

He replaces Oscar Acosta, who resigned under pressure Oct. 3 over personality conflicts with Manager Don Baylor.

Rothschild, a Chicago native, has had his greatest success as a pitching coach, winning a World Series ring with the 1997 Florida Marlins. The Marlins’ staff had a 3.83 earned-run average that year and gave up only 131 homers, lowest in the majors.

*

Wade Boggs, one of baseball’s best hitters, resigned after one season as hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Tampa Bay finished last in the American League in runs scored and home runs and next to last in batting average. The Devil Rays’ 62-100 record tied Pittsburgh for baseball’s worst.

“I’m in a point right now in my life where my family needs me to be around much more than baseball allows me to be,” said Boggs, 43. “But I am going to leave the door open to return to the game sometime down the road.”

*

Houston Astro first baseman Jeff Bagwell and two teammates will have surgery today.

General Manager Gerry Hunsicker confirmed that Bagwell will have the partially torn labrum in his right shoulder repaired. Bagwell, 33, hit .288 with 39 homers and 130 runs batted in this season.

Bagwell reportedly played the entire season with the injury, which the team managed to keep private until recently.

Reserve outfielder Glen Barker will have similar surgery on his left shoulder.

Pitcher Ron Villone, who split time between the bullpen and starting rotation, will have a torn meniscus repaired in his left knee.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

World Series

New York Yankees vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

All games on Channel 11

Game 1: Saturday--New York (Mike Mussina) at Arizona (Curt Schilling), 5 p.m.

Game 2: Sunday--New York (Andy Pettitte) at Arizona (Randy Johnson), 4:45 p.m.

Game 3: Tuesday--Arizona (Brian Anderson) at New York (Roger Clemens), 5:30 p.m.

Game 4: Wednesday--Arizona at New York, 5:15 p.m.

Game 5: Nov. 1--Arizona at New York, 5:15 p.m.-x

Game 6: Nov. 3--New York at Arizona, 4:45 p.m.-x

Game 7: Nov. 4--New York at Arizona, 4:45 p.m.-x

x-if necessary; all times Pacific