They would be wrong. Zimmer was a great baseball guy, but was not a very good field manager. He was dull, unimaginative and too much by the book. His Red Sox and Cub teams were slow and uninspired.

While credit for the Yankees' success can be shared by quite a few - it's always a team effort -, Torre gets the lion's share of credit among the staff and front office as he injected the 1990s National League animated running style of play into the Yankee team. With Torre they hit behind runners, stole, advanced runners, hit and ran, coaxed walks, and would often grab the extra base. The American League since the advent of the DH and end of the early-70s A's, was a slow, plodding league that took one base at a time and wait for homers.