World returns to its proper axis: Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez meet, embrace prior to Sunday’s game

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I love you more! No, no, I love you more!

OK, maybe it wasn’t to that extreme, but the much ballyhooed meeting between Dodgers Manager Joe Torre and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez finally took place.

Rodriguez approached Torre near the batting cage prior to Sunday’s game after the Yankees stretched and were taking the field.

They hugged, chatted and shook hands, Torre hanging on to ARod’s hand the entire time, which was a tad under a minute. Rodriguez smiled throughout.

They acted like a couple of guys who actually liked each other. It just took three days to come off.

‘It was just a convenience thing before that,’ Torre told a pair of reporters afterward.

‘He came over and he was who he always is. I was never uncomfortable with Alex. I just told him again, I said, ‘I hope you got my message about sort of getting that monkey off of your back.’

‘He’s a good kid. He’s a good kid and, to me, I think too much is always made of this stuff. I think we know in our hearts what goes on.’

Rodriguez had fueled the rift, however, when he refused to answer questions about Torre in Phoenix prior to the Yankees’ arrival in Los Angeles for the three-game weekend series.

Then on Friday, Torre almost made himself available to his former team by standing on the visiting side of the batting cage while they stretched. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and others all made the little pilgrimage over to Torre to greet him.

Rodriguez kept his back to Torre and never did acknowledge him. On Saturday, Torre was involved with his Safe at Home foundation prior to the game and did not take the field.

When ARod initially refused to discuss Torre, it rekindled speculation that he was still upset about having to hit eighth in a playoff game at Detroit in 2006 and possibly over some less than flattering passages about him in Torre’s book.

Rodriguez left to take infield after the summit and was not available again before the game.

Still, there seemed peace in our time.

-- Steve Dilbeck