Carl Pavano is looking to resurrect his professional baseball career in Cleveland. Most Clevelanders don’t know (or care) how deep the wreckage was in New York before Pavano left. Just in case Pavano had slipped under anyone’s radar, Joe Torre’s new book aims to make sure you don’t miss it. According to Torre and other sources, Pavano was not only hurt most of the time, but his teammates hated him.
According to multiple sources (I haven’t read the book) Joe Torre allowed the Pavano situation to culminate into a planned confrontation in the spring of 2006. Torre reportedly invited Pavano to join the team on its last trip of that spring training so that all the players would have an opportunity to confront Pavano about how much they didn’t like him and thought he was milking his injury time. According to Torre, the Yankees teammates didn’t even care enough to confront Pavano at that point.
Bullpen catcher Mike Borzello recounted this gem about Derek Jeter giving Pavano the proverbial business.
“Guys on that team despised him. One day Jeet walked by him and said, ‘Hey, Pav. You ever going to play? Ever?’ Wow. That was a damaging comment, coming from Jeter. He didn’t say a whole lot, but when he said something like that, it was pretty piercing.”
To his credit, Pavano has released a pretty mature reply to the criticisms through his agent.
“I am extremely disappointed that someone I had a lot of respect for would make these type of comments in his upcoming book,” said Pavano, in a statement released to 1050 ESPN New York through his agent, Tom O’Connell. “I wish nothing but the best for Joe Torre and my former Yankee teammates, but with that said it does explain why I haven’t received any Christmas cards from Joe the last few years.”
And that is really all I need to hear. Regardless of how Pavano pitches this year, I am happy to give him a shot to reclaim his career in Cleveland. If he is somehow able to pull off here what he couldn’t pull off in the Bronx is fine by me too. I hope he comes back strong, claims the third spot in the rotation, and helps the Indians take out the Yankees in the playoffs.
Not to say that Joe Torre’s book is typical of the New York experience, but it just goes to show why there are major risks associated with playing in a major market under the microscope all the time. No matter how long he had been injured in another city, other than maybe Boston, you can bet Pavano wouldn’t have been treated nearly this harshly.
Welcome to Cleveland, Carl. Now just relax, go out there and play catch with Victor and Kelly. Occasionally you can have a chat with Paul Hoynes, Sheldon Ocker, and Terry Pluto. It won’t hurt at all. Oh, and I don’t think there will be much market for an Eric Wedge tell-all even if the Indians start winning World Series rings.