Joe Torre 'definitely interested' in working for MLB

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. (AP) - Recently retired manager Joe Torre says he is "definitely interested" in working for Commissioner Bud Selig.

Torre says he and Selig have had several discussions in recent weeks and expect to talk again during the two-day owners meeting that began Wednesday.

The 70-year-old former skipper of five major league teams, including the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, was a major league player for 17 seasons. He says he has known Selig for decades and the commissioner has told him that when he's "had enough of managing" to give him a call.

Torre said Wednesday that he and Selig had met a few times to talk about the job and the talks had grown more specific recently.

"I'm definitely interested," Torre said. "Bud knows me. We first met when I was like 16 years old back in 1956-57, so we've known each other a long time."

Torre said no job offer has been made and he thinks Selig is talking to others.

"I'm not sure he's totally made up his mind, either," Torre said.

Although Torre declined to say what particular duties the job would entail, several reports had him taking over as executive vice president of operations, a post previously held by New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson.

One condition apparently would be that Torre could do it from Los Angeles, where he and his family live, rather than at MLB headquarters in New York.

"I don't plan on it," Torre said of a possible return to New York. "My daughter's in school and I certainly don't want to uproot my family. I've enjoyed L.A."

Asked what attracted him to a job in the commissioner's office, he said, "just the connection with baseball."

"If I'm going to do something else, I don't want it to be sort of 'It's nice to have you onboard,"' Torre said. "I want to be useful. I think that's the intriguing part. Even though it could keep me busy, it could be exciting, too."

He said he knows it would be a full-time job but that wouldn't bother him since "I've never looked at a clock in my life in this game. We play by innings."

"I enjoy working but the managerial schedule and the mental part of that really took its toll to where I thought I'd had enough," he said.

Torre brushed aside any idea of returning to managing.

"I don't think I could be tempted into doing that again," he said. "I just thought it was time for somebody else to do it."

Torre was at the owners meeting as part of the special committee formed by Selig a year ago to examine possible changes in the sport. That group is to meet Thursday afternoon.

When he stepped down as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers after last season, there was some talk of him joining the Dodgers front office. But he said, except for a couple of broadcasting jobs he has turned down, he has no immediate job prospects.

He said whatever he does, he wants it to be something of significance.

"The one thing I know I want is to be active," he said. "I don't want this retirement stuff. It was basically retiring from managing."