Joe Torre Hired to Manage Dodgers

Joe Torre was hired Thursday to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers,
taking the job two weeks after walking away from the New York Yankees.

Torre moved from one storied franchise to another, getting a
three-year contract. He takes over a team that finished fourth in the
NL West this season and hasn't won the World Series since 1988.

The 67-year-old Torre becomes the Dodgers' eighth manager since they
moved west from Brooklyn for the 1958 season. Torre grew up in
Brooklyn, rooting for the rival New York Giants and detesting the
Dodgers.

"As a kid growing up, you didn't like them,'' Torre said on WFAN
radio in New York less than an hour before the hiring was announced.
"As a player, to me the Dodgers were the Yankees of the National League
because ... you either loved them or you hated them.''

Torre guided the Yankees to four World Series championships from
1996-2000, and they made the playoffs in all 12 years he managed them.
After New York was beaten in the first round by Cleveland last month,
the Yankees offered him a one-year contract with a paycut.

Insulted, Torre turned it down. Torre was hired by the Dodgers on
the same day the Yankees formally introduced Joe Girardi as their
manager.

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