Zim Puts Blame On

By GEORGE KING New York Post

May 1, 2007 -- General manager Brian Cashman says if you are looking to blame somebody for the Yankees being in last place and 61/2 games behind the Red Sox, he is your guy.
And Don Zimmer agrees with him.
“To me, Cashman is the problem,” Zimmer said yesterday without going into detail. “Four or five years ago, we were in the coaches’ room and talking about the club and he said, ‘Anybody can manage this team.’ Well, let him manage that team now with all those injuries.”
Zimmer is upset that his buddy Joe Torre had to spend the weekend answering questions about being fired. And he implored the Yankees to give Torre and Mariano Rivera contract extensions.
“The Yankees should show a lot of class and extend Joe Torre and Mariano Rivera for a year,” said Zimmer, who left the Yankees ticked at George Steinbrenner and works for the Devil Rays. “They are two of the classiest Yankees in the past 12 years. Why should Mo be in [a free-agent] situation? They give millions of dollars to guys who don’t pitch and this guy has been there every day for the past 12 years. They should take care of the good people.”
One of which, according to Zimmer, is Torre.
“I feel bad he had to through all that [garbage] again,” Torre’s former bench coach said of this past weekend when Torre’s job status overshadowed a three-game series with the Red Sox in The Bronx. “He had to go through it at the end of last year, too. It’s wrong. Joe Torre doesn’t need a pat on the back from me or anybody else because he is a tough SOB. But he has been there 12 years and he doesn’t have a contract for next year? That’s sad.”

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05012007/sports/yankees/zim_puts_blame_on_yankees__george_king.htm