Torre Backs Clemens...Kind of

Joe Torre has been out of the limelight for the past month due to knee replacement surgery. In addition to giving him more mobility, the surgery allowed him to avoid questions concerning Roger Clemens' alleged steroid use. But Torre is to be the honorary starter at this weekend's Mercedes-Benz Golf Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii, and the predictable question arose during a tourney conference call. Torre took the opportunity to pretty much play the role of Switzerland and remain neutral.

"I'm very close to Roger. When I say close to him, he was a great competitor for me. Andy the same way. And I certainly know they're two proud individuals that only like to do the right thing," Torre said. "I'd just like to leave it at that."

Torre was more than willing to speak to the specifics of the Mitchell Report, however, feeling there is a much bigger impact on the league than the investigation indicated.

"It made it look like a lopsided report," Torre said. "Plus, don't forget, the Yankees have so many people coming through there on a year-to-year basis. We changed over quite often, whether it would be a player for the month of May, a player for the month of September. But I think the big part of it was the access, where these two people were both based in New York."

"When you're talking about 80 players that supposedly were using one thing or another, to me it may be an incomplete report," he said. "The only thing I do know is that the most important thing for us in baseball is to make sure that when we take the field, that the fans trust us. So whatever we have to do to make that happen, I think that's important."

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