On the Yankees beat

Just as Joe Torre joked Sunday about how players from his era would never have agreed to use pink bats in a game, the Yankees manager said today’s umpires are different, too. “It used to be if you cursed an umpire, you’d get thrown out. Now, there really isn’t any specific thing [that can get you tossed].”

As an example, Torre cited his own misadventure from April 30 when he got ejected by rookie umpire Adam Dowdy. “I got a letter [from MLB] saying I’m getting fined for getting thrown out. I argued balls and strikes from the bench. I thought you couldn’t go out [of the dugout] to argue balls and strikes. There’s a new wrinkle every time you turn around.”

In Torre’s case, the wrinkle was that he held up three fingers to indicate how many pitches he thought Dowdy missed. That got him tossed. “Well, one finger gets you thrown out,” Torre said, cracking up a crowd of reporters in the dugout before the game. “I thought three fingers was safe.”

Torre recalled a humorous incident he had when he was managing the Mets in the 1970s and tried to get ejected at Shea Stadium by plate ump Bruce Froemming to fire up his team. “I went out there and he said, ‘I’m not throwing you out.’ That’s what I went out for, so I said I might as well take advantage. I called him every four-letter word I knew. We knew each other from the minor leagues, so he just smiled at me.”