* Torre update

Now begins the backpedaling.

Torre and Cashman are still pals, says this article by Jack Curry in today’s NY Times. And Richard Sandomir contributes this thoughtful column on the style the author’s used (third person): “a hybrid in the sphere of celebrity autobiographies, in which a star hires a writer to render his or her life, thoughts, antics and deeds in a first-person narrative.”

The book has something of a split personality: part Verducci’s reporting, part Torre’s words. The book’s credit line could be “by Tom Verducci with the extraordinary cooperation of Joe Torre.”

Bill Thomas, Doubleday’s senior vice president, editor-in-chief and publisher, said the merged structure was envisioned from the beginning, back in 2007.

“It was designed to be a full-fledged narrative of baseball in those years, the Yankees and all of baseball, so a first-person narrative would have been clumsy,” Thomas said in a telephone interview.

Sandomir notes that readers might find the format a bit odd:

If the structure is not confusing (Torre’s quotations are all over the place), readers may occasionally wonder: what did Torre say that does not appear in quotation marks? When, if ever, did Torre (or Verducci) mute the manager’s strongest views to let other characters voice them? When Verducci asserts that some Yankees called Alex Rodriguez “A-Fraud” (which you don’t doubt because of Verducci’s great reputation), is Torre’s concurrence implicit in more tempered assessments?

On yesterday’s Pardon The Interruption, Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discussed the situation as their second story (after the Super Bowl).

“It’s very smart to create an environment where you can sell a book and to leak stuff where Joe Torre allegedly says of Alex Rodriguez he’s A-Fraud instead of A-Rod and he’s critical of Brian Cashman and then is able to back away from it,” said Kornheiser. “Nothing I have heard so far seems unreasonable [as far as Torre’s taking “shots” against A-Rod].”

Wilbon agreed, “There’s nothing inflammatory in here,” although a lot of people — especially New Yorkers, he said, — probably wish there was. “Joe doesn’t do that,” said Wilbon. Kornheiser concluded the segment by adding that based on the past collaboration between Torre and Verducci, he believed that “everything that’s in there Torre has said and resaid.”

Here’s an audio sample from their first book:

and an excerpt.