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| Yankees Decide Not To Allow Live
Airing Of Torre’s Press Conference |
Yankees manager Joe Torre’s announcement yesterday that he was returning to the team for the ’06 season, was “blacked out” from live radio and TV coverage, according to Bob Raissman of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. WFAN-AM Program Dir Mark Chernoff: “The Yankees said no live coverage for Joe. They said we could sit and listen and record it, but couldn’t broadcast it live. ... They just said it was their policy (not to allow the live broadcast).” YES Network Dir of Communications Eric Handler said that the net “also wanted to broadcast Torre live.” Yankees Senior Dir of Media Relations Rick Cerrone, who made the final decision for the conference not to be covered live, said that there is “no set ‘policy’ for these types of occasions.” . Cerrone said of why live coverage was not allowed, “One reason was to make Joe feel comfortable in the setting, where he could be as candid as he could possibly be. The other was to protect the (beat) writers to some degree.” Raissman adds if the conference was carried live, “it could have been seen in Tampa. There’s a good chance [Yankees Owner George] Steinbrenner might be watching” (
N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/19). Cerrone added that no one had carried Torre’s end-of-season press conference live before and he “felt uncomfortable telling Torre that his words would be carried live.” In N.Y., Richard Sandomir notes Torre, who has a contract with WFAN, gave a phone interview to the station’s “Mike & the Mad Dog” show. Cerrone said that was handled by Torre individually, not the team. ESPN VP/Communications Mike Soltys said that ESPN “was originally told it could not go live, but that the ban was later removed,” a claim Cerrone denied. But ESPN decided not to air the conference live since Torre was not resigning (
N.Y. TIMES, 10/19).
QUESTIONS FROM ABOVE: The N.Y. TIMES’ Sandomir writes the “subtext to this is the whispering that Yankee officials, in the Bronx and in Tampa, route questions through YES to rile Torre.” YES President of Production & Programming John Filippelli said that he “does field calls from team executives, sometimes during games.” However, Filippelli said, “I don’t work in a vacuum. I hear what they say, but they let me take it where I need to take it. It’s left to me” (N.Y. TIMES, 10/19). In N.Y., Tyler Kepner reports during a meeting with Steinbrenner Monday, Torre “raised the issue of Steinbrenner funneling questions to him through reporters” for YES. Torre said that he “asked for no guarantees that Steinbrenner would change, but he encouraged Steinbrenner to call him more often if he had a problem” (N.Y. TIMES, 10/19).
