Joe Torre: If I don’t manage Dodgers next year, it’s unlikely I’ll manage anywhere

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So if Phil Jackson is leaning toward not coming back, Joe Torre is leaning …

‘What inning is it?’ Torre responded.

Actually when broached again Wednesday about whether he wants to continue managing the Dodgers after this season, Torre continued to say he won’t make that decision until later in the year.

But he did say that the ownership situation with the divorcing McCourts won’t affect his decision. And that if he doesn’t manage here, he won’t manage. Well, almost.

‘No, no -- well, I’ll never say no, but I seriously doubt I would ever entertain going anywhere else to manage,’ Torre said. ‘I know I’ve done this a long time and had my share of success. That’s why I never dreamed of coming out here, because to me I had to start all over again.

‘I can’t go someplace and say, `Well, this guy is successful so automatically he should be complimented.’ You’re complimented because of what you do where you are.

‘If I go someplace else, I have to start from scratch again and I don’t think I’m likely to do that.’

Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal had reported last month that Torre’s friends don’t think he would return because of the payroll situation with the Dodgers, and Rosenthal listed the Cubs, Mets and Braves as his likely suitors.

Torre denied the report then, and Wednesday was more adamant about the ownership future not affecting his decision.

‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘I was in St. Louis during the replacement players thing and dealing with ownership at that time that felt they wanted to win the pennant with the replacement players. That was my job to manage. That’s what our job is as managers, to manage the team that’s on the field.

‘I don’t feel I have anything coming to me because somebody has a higher payroll than we do. If I want to manage, I’m going to continue to manage. If I decide I don’t want to do it anymore, I can’t see the fact that the ownership situation is going to change my mind.

‘If they’re willing to have me back and I still like doing what I’m doing, I’m going to continue to do it.’

Torre said that even if the court should somehow decide that Jamie McCourt owns the Dodgers and not Frank McCourt, he would not alter his decision.

‘Managing the Dodgers is what I do and it has nothing to do with the ownership’s name,’ he said. ‘I’m here because I was hired. If for some reason it changes ownership and they don’t want me, then I’m not going to be here. I’ve been fired a few times.’

-- Steve Dilbeck