'Retaliation Watch' is over as Torre's Dodgers buzz one near Victorino

October 13, 7:52 AMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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Joe Torre and Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda. Photo: LA Times

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre understands rules to keep order in his clubhouse. He is savvy in the ways of having surrogates take care of unruly players to maintain the sense of discipline he favors. During his years as a manager in New York, Torre bought into the Steinbrenner/Yankees' grooming rules and serenity in the club house.

But when the going got tough on the field and fighting or threats of nastiness were necessary to comply with the unwritten rules of baseball he didn't care for that. During the years that pitcher Roger Clemens stalked the mound, Torre realized that part of what you bought with the Rocket was his flaming temper and his sense of supremacy on the baseball diamond. Thus you had the famous scene between Clemens and then Mets catcher Mike Piazza. Torre was uncomfortable when all that came down.

But in Los Angeles he has had to let go of a lot of the control factors he thought he'd just bring west with him. When Manny Ramirez arrived Torre realized that whether he liked it or not Manny was going to be his surrogate and not in the usual way. Ramirez took a team that was still struggling to find consistency and a true identity and gave it one. Torre let go of the ban on music in the clubhouse and the short hair rule and the rest in history.

During the NLCS the Philadelphia Phillies pitchers threw too close to the Dodger hitters for both the team's and the sportwriters' taste. When Manny got a fast ball whizzed behind his neck in the second game the cries of retaliation bubbled up but didn't break through until after the Dodgers lost that game.The city's sportswriters demanded that Torre protect his players and got sound bites from interviews with the players to put the pressure on Joe. When Manny said he'd like to have the Phils' pitcher on his team the city rose up and said: get those suckers.

The game 3 "retaliation watch" was on from the moment Tim McCarver started his rambling pre-game comments. But McCarver wasn't just advocating a one time activity. He was harkening back to the day's of old when Bob Gibson was patrolling the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals and the rest of baseball was in synch with him. The inside pitch, the knock down throw and the fast ball under the chin were all weapons that pitchers on every team used to intimidate hitters. McCarver touched a nerve for Dodger fans when he rhapsodized about former Dodger great Don Drysdale who McCarver said would have known how to handle this situation.

But in a surprise move Torre didn't give in right away. He waited until his catcher was hit in the knee and then brushed back on his next at-bat. Then the only question left was who on the Phillies would get plunked or put into the dirt. It happened to be Shane Victorino, the Phils centerfielder who got a ball thrown behind him up at the head level rather than the back. That set off the usual chain of events that amounts to nothing in baseball. Men coming out on the field and not throwing punches but yelling as if they were in a school yard. After that there was no need for Cialis or Viagra on the Dodgers bench last night as they won the game 7-2.

So here's my point: if everyone knew the pitch was coming and Victorino indicated he expected it isn't it a yawn? Why did the Phils feel the need to poke the Dodgers with a stick until they got poked back? Victorino showed how ridiculous it all was when he gave instructions to pitcher Hiroki Kuroda about where that ball should have been thrown. Isn't it all really just a charade?

Well thank goodness that is over and game 4 looms large for the Dodgers' hopes of winning this series. In the end it's about how many runs cross the plate, not where a statement pitch lands.  Check out our Dodgers Examiner's take on the game and this whole situation.