Is Joe Torre a reluctant Dodger?

With the Yankees in town this weekend in first place and a better-run team than the Dodgers, the LAT's Bill Plaschke observed that Dodgers' manager Joe Torre looked a little older. As if, Plaschke wrote, he realizes all he lost by leaving New York for a team owned by the McCourts. And this was before the Yankees took 2 of 3 from the Dodgers, with the locals blowing a 4-run lead in the ninth inning of Sunday's ugly loss.

He left the most well-funded, championship-minded body in professional sports for a team that cannot even buy him a winning arm. He traveled to the other side of the baseball world in hopes of closing a gap that has only grown larger....

He is not the manager of a team that currently has title aspirations. He is not the manager of an organization that always spends whatever it takes. As he approaches his 70th birthday next month, he is not in a place where it would be graceful to grow old.

If the Dodgers' management doesn't use the rest of the summer to prove otherwise, why on Earth would he want to come back?

Before Sunday's game, Torre was approached on the field by the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez and the former teammates shook hands. That's noteworthy because Torre co-authored a book last year that blasted Rodriguez about a dozen ways.