Fastball Fans

Should we really be shocked by this?

In his first interview since excerpts of The Yankee Years became public, Joe Torre told Larry King that he’s shocked by the uproar his new book has caused.

Torre said the book, due out Tuesday, is merely an honest account of his time managing the high-profile club. Fair enough, but the book has not been released yet, so I obviously cannot add any more; however, does anyone take into account he worked for George Steinbrenner and his family — not exactly the most harmonious workplace you could be in.

Finally, Jason Varitek and the Red Sox came to a deal to end a long standoff.

Boston and catcher Jason Varitek reached a preliminary agreement on a one-year, $ 5 million contract.

The deal contains a $3 million player option and a $5 million team option for 2010.

This morning, MASN announced that former major league reliever, Rob Dibble — currently on XM radio — will join their staff as a color commentator, replacing Don Sutton.

Sutton — a Hall of Famer and former longtime Braves broadcaster — who held the position at the network, asked to be released from his contract presumably to rejoin Atlanta, more than likely on the radio.

Boy, has Jason Varitek — captain of the Red Sox — overplayed his hand? Once eligible in getting $10-11 million in arbitration, he took a gamble on wishing for a big deal and he lost.

Now, he could either take a contract with the Red Sox, or perhaps find himself in early retirement.

Boston has given catcher Jason Varitek until Friday to accept or reject a one-year, $5 million contract offer with options for 2010, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press.

Varitek, who turns 37 in April, is coming off the worst of his 11 seasons with the Red Sox. He hit .220 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs.

Ah, with little going on before Spring Training, could be the Bronx Zoo be back in effect?

If Alex Rodriguez has his way — no.

According to the AP, Alex Rodriguez has yet to comment publicly on the allegations of his unpopularity in the Yankees clubhouse made in the soon-to-be released book The Yankee Years, co-authored by former New York manager Joe Torre and writer Tom Verducci.

However, a Yankees insider who is friendly with Rodriguez told Newsday that the third baseman was neither troubled nor stung by the revelation that his teammates referred to him as “A-Fraud” behind his back, or that his former manager believes “when Alex came over, it became strained in the clubhouse … Alex monopolized all the attention.”

The source said: “Alex wasn’t angry about it and he wasn’t hurt. What he was, was surprised, by two things. One is that Torre, who’s as media savvy as anyone we’ve ever known, would come out with any of this. The other is, if he was going to come out with it, why didn’t he come out with even more stuff? He could have said a lot more than he did.”

Seriously, with the Steinbrenners as owners with their history — especially George — is anyone surprised by what is being said by Joe Torre?

Finally, I guess greed will not pay off in this economy — after wanting more than $10 million from the Yankees, Andy Pettitte agreed to a one year, $5.5 million deal. It’s sad, he would have been better off taking his first offer than trusting his ego.

In the Bronx and Los Angeles, there’s a saga taking place right now and it has nothing to do with what’s going on with the Hot Stove. Just today, various media outlets have reported the former Yankee and current Dodgers manager, Joe Torre has a tell-all book about his tenure in New York titled, “The Yankee Years,” and it isn’t good.

Joe Torre — who has been classified as a manager who was nothing short of dignified through the toughest all challenges — lashes out against his former employers and Alex Rodriguez.

In an explosive new book called “The Yankee Years,” Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called “A-Fraud” by his teammates after he developed a “Single White Female”-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.

Torre, who left the Yankees and became manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2007 season, says Cashman never told the brass that the manager wanted a two-year deal and instead remained silent during Torre’s tense final sitdown with the bosses.

The book also reveals that, during spring training in 1999, team doctors revealed to owner George Steinbreener hat Torre had prostate cancer - even before informing the manager himself.

The 477-page tell-all, which The Post purchased from a city bookstore last week, is written by co-author Tom Verducci, a longtime Sports Illustrated reporter.

I figured that Joe Torre might have left this all in the past (or the writer Verducci would have); however, nothing sells better than anything with the word “Yankees” affixed. I’m sure Torre’s book is a great & tawdry read, but the answer you have to think about is why was this written?

Happy trails, Sean Casey.

One of the nicest and most gregarious guys in the game has called it career after twelve seasons. According to MLB.com, he has signed on with the MLB Network for role that has not been defined yet.

Casey, despite his size was known more for his ability to make contact than hit for power, left the game with a .302 career average with 130 homers and 735 RBIs.

The mayor was always nice to fans, and had universal respect amongst his peers in the game. Good luck in your future endeavors, Sean.

Meanwhile, has one player ever done more to shoot himself in the foot than Jason Varitek?

On Wednesday, the Baltimore Orioles held a press conference to announce the signing of Nick Markakis to a 6 year/$66 million extension at the Warehouse. Obviously, now a Baltimore mainstay and one of the best right fielders in all of baseball, Markakis will now be expected to be one of the faces of the franchise and keep up his progress.

Now, with the huge contract, a marriage, the 25-year old can now only focus on baseball until 2014 and be a cog in the rebuilding of the Baltimore Orioles.

Although there are some fans that have mixed reviews on the Baltimore offseason, it’s almost universal that fans are happy about Markakis finally signing an extension with the organization. Despite needing pitching, a shortstop, and perhaps more power when the 2008 season, Andy MacPhail — president of baseball operations — made extending Markakis a priority.

Prince Fielder has been miffed for a good while because he’s gotten paid; however, this week it’s all changed.

He and the Milwaukee Brewers reached a preliminary agreement on a two-year, $18 million contract. Fielder was eligible for arbitration for the first time in 2009, and he can become a free agent after the 2011 season.

With a new president in office, some things have not changed over the months — the economy is in a tailspin, and families are having trouble making ends meet. More often than not, when times are tough, people stop going out and attending sports events.

However, one team is trying to curb that tide — even if it includes giving fans sort of an interest-free loan to purchase season tickets.

According to the AP, the Washington Nationals have come up with a recession-friendlier way to pay for season tickets — with an installment plan.

They announced the creation of the Grand Slam E-Z Payment Plan, which allows fans to pay off their season tickets in monthly installments on their credit cards over six months. The move is the latest among several measures the team, who finished with the worst record in baseball last season at 59-102 which hopes will attract fans to Nationals Park during the tough economic climate.

In September, the Nationals announced they were lowering season-ticket prices for 7,500 seats, and Thursday they lowered individual-sale ticket prices on 14,000 seats.

Jonathan Papelbon got a record breaking one year deal for a first-time arbitration eligible reliever as he will get $6.25 million. While happy with the victory, he did not sound like he’s loyal to the Red Sox — in fact, if a deal cannot be done long term, he might leave for greener pastures.

From MLB.com: In his first public comments since becoming the richest first-year arbitration relief pitcher, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon told Comcast SportsNet in an interview on Wednesday night that he’s just fine with signing his one-year deal, which will be worth $6.25 million.

“I like rolling the dice a little bit,” Papelbon said, in quotes provided by The Providence Journal.

“You have to weigh so many different things [when negotiating a long-term contract], and it’s so hard to put it in perspective.”

But Papelbon did admit, “You do want that security as a player, and you do want that feeling that everything’s going to be OK.”

While speaking on a conference call regarding the Papelbon signing on Tuesday night, Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer said the club explored the idea of a long-term deal with its closer, and will continue to do so. Papelbon confirmed that, too.

“We did discuss [a multiyear deal], but I don’t think we were able to see eye-to-eye on that — which is fine,” said Papelbon.

Papelbon, who said the negotiations with the Red Sox “went a lot smoother than expected” this time around, was also asked if he’d want to stay with Boston — the team that drafted him in the fourth round of the 2003 First-Year Player Draft — for the remainder of his career. And he didn’t sound too committal.

Hot Stove

“Obviously, that’s a tough question,” Papelbon said. “It is a business, and that’s the nature of it. But if I feel like the Red Sox treat me fairly, and I’m in a good family environment with the Red Sox, I’d love to stay with them. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. That’s the way it is, and you have to move on. But we’ll see. We’ll see.”

Although Mark McGwire denies ever using drugs in baseball and could be paying for it by being shut-out of the Hall of Fame, there’s one person who has no trouble throwing him under the bus: his own brother…

The youngest brother of Mark McGwire has written that the former Major League slugger used steroids, according to Deadspin.com.

In a proposal for a book called “The McGwire Family Secret: The Truth about Steroids, a slugger and Ultimate Redemption” that he is shopping around to publishers, Jay McGwire said his brother began taking steroids in 1994 and that he personally injected Mark with performance-enhancing drugs.

“Mark is a man I think most would like to forgive because his reason wasn’t nefarious — it was for survival,” the proposal says, according to Deadspin. “My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom — which is the only way to live.”

Jay McGwire could not be reached for comment Thursday by the Associated Press, which reported that telephone numbers for his home and fitness center in California were disconnected.

If this true, this does not help McGwire at all. At some point, you have to wonder if it would be better served for the slugger to just say whether or not if he did it. America, for the most part, is a forgiving country, and at some point, people just have to move on from this.

Ryan Howard is a beast at the plate — ok, so he strikes out a lot — but now he wants to get paid big time.

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard asked for $18 million in salary arbitration yesterday, the third-highest figure submitted since the process began in 1974.

Philadelphia offered $14 million to the 2006 National League Most Valuable Player, a raise of $4 million. Howard hit 48 homers and had 146 RBIs last year, helping the Phillies win their first World Series title since 1980.

Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens set the record for highest request in arbitration at $22million in 2005. New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is second at $18.5 million in 2001.

Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder had the second-highest request this year at $8million. In arbitration for the first time, he was offered $6million, up from $670,000 last year.

Either way, he’ll get his money; however, Philadelphia needs to lock him to a long term deal badly, or risk losing him. He’s close to 30; thus, it will be interesting to see what happens with Howard the closer he gets to free agency.

Can this case ever go away?

According to the AP, Roger Clemens’ former personal trainer Brian McNamee was questioned for five hours yesterday by federal prosecutors and investigators building a perjury case against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner.

McNamee did not speak to reporters, only shaking his head when asked whether he would comment, when he arrived yesterday morning at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington accompanied by his lawyers, Richard Emery and Earl Ward.

McNamee has told federal agents, baseball investigator George Mitchell and a House of Representatives committee that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

Emery would not say what was discussed and declined a request to interview McNamee. Emery said he has not been told when McNamee, a former New York police officer, will speak to the grand jury.