It never ceases to amaze me how bad celebrities are throwing out the first pitch at baseball games.

Case in point, Adam Carolla at a recent Dodgers game:

When told of Carolla’s performance during the first pitch ceremonies, Dodgers’ manager Joe Torre shrugged and said, “It couldn’t have been any worse than Juan Pierre’s throws home.”

According to a report by the New York Post, it appears that Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi’s job is safe for now.

At 13-14 after last night’s 4-3 loss to the Rays, voices in and out of baseball are wondering if Girardi, who is in the second season of a three-year contract, is safe.

According to several organizational sources Girardi’s job security isn’t an issue. Too many injuries too early in the season and slow starts by CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. And he hasn’t had cleanup hitter Alex Rodriguez play a game, lost Chien-Ming Wang early and Jorge Posada recently.

Though Girardi said he understands the attention that comes with managing the Yankees, he said he isn’t fixated on those who blame him for the pedestrian start and being dominated by the Red Sox.

“That’s not something I really focus on. I focus on the task at hand. Every day we do the best we can to prepare our club and every move we make is to win the game and that’s what I focus on,” said Girardi, who has been hamstrung by an awful bullpen.

As the article notes, Girardi can’t do anything about veterans like Sabathia and Teixeira getting off to slow starts, A-Fraud not being in the lineup and Wang forgetting that he’s not pitching in a home run derby contest every fifth day. Girardi will continue to catch heat because he replaced a manager in Joe Torre who should have never been fired in the first place, and the pressure to succeed will always be bestowed on Yankee managers because of how much the club spends to win. It just comes with the territory.

The manager is always on the front lines when a team is losing, but at some point the players are going to have to just step up and freaking produce. Girardi can’t manage situations that are unmanageable (i.e. the pitching staff turning the new Yankee Stadium into Coors Field).

Roger Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee is set to appear on the Howard Stern Show, but apparently plans on not discussing his former client.

Hardin will get to listen to more of McNamee’s statements. The trainer is scheduled to appear on The Howard Stern Show on Monday.

McNamee is not expected to talk about Clemens but he could react to being called a “gate crasher” and a “hustler” by former pitcher David Cone in The Yankee Years. The just-published book is by former manager Joe Torre and Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated.

“Brian is tired of walking on egg shells,” said Steve Cardillo, a friend of the trainer’s. “He won’t discuss the ongoing stuff with Clemens, but there is no reason why he can’t talk about Joe Torre driving the bus over him. He’s a little tweaked at that. He’s a little tweaked at (David) Cone, too.”

Does McNamee truly believe that Stern is going to have him on his show and not talk about Roger Clemens? Why even have Brian McNamee on a radio show (any radio show) and not talk about Roger Clemens?

Stern is going to pick this fool apart.

In the wake of Joe Torre’s new book set to hit the shelves on Tuesday, Wallace Matthews of Newsday writes that Derek Jeter should step up and publicly defend Alex Rodriguez as his teammate and captain.

No one, of course, tells Derek Jeter what to do, and I don’t presume to try. But it is my considered opinion that Jeter can hide for only so long behind his stock answer, “I haven’t read the book yet.”

The book is out Tuesday. Time to start reading. And he doesn’t even have to read it to come out and say, simply: “Alex is my teammate. Alex is our guy. Everyone in this clubhouse stands behind him.”

And that has to include the captain. Because that’s what captains do.

And it’s the captain’s job to have his teammates’ backs, every one of them, even if it means taking a stand against a former manager and mentor. Torre isn’t a Yankee anymore, but Rodriguez is. The Yankees can win without Torre but not without A-Rod. For the good of his team, Captain Jeter had better choose which side of this argument he is on in a hurry.

And there would be no better time for him to announce his position than today, when Torre comes to town to kick off a media blitz designed to sell whatever odd copies of the book haven’t already been pre-ordered.

Today would be a fine day for Jeter to make himself available’ to the media, just to let everyone – and one guy in particular – know he’s got A-Rod’s back.

I agree to a point. As a leader, Jeter should stand up and defend his teammates and back them whenever they’re publicly criticized like A-Rod was in Torre’s book. But nobody knows what has really gone on in the Yankees’ clubhouse over the years and therefore nobody has the right to tell Jeter whom he should and shouldn’t defend.

Maybe A-Rod is the ultimate prick and he has already pissed Jeter off too many times to count. Maybe Jeter has already made an effort to back the guy and it’s come back to bit him in the ass. The point is, we don’t know what happens inside a clubhouse or what Jeter’s motivation is behind backing or not backing a teammate. And Jeter is a consummate pro so I wouldn’t question his motivates either way in a situation like this.

Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post writes that Joe Torre has ruined his legacy in the wake of his new book, which trashes Yankee management and takes shots his former players like Alex Rodriguez.

This book of yours, “The Yankee Years,” is that classy, Joe? Does it dignify what those 12 remarkable years were to baseball, to this city and, not incidentally, to your career? Was it necessary to air the fact that his teammates call Alex Rodriguez – an awfully easy target, by the way, Joe, and also a guy who won two MVPs while playing for you – “A-Fraud,” or to liken him to the crazed Jennifer Jason Leigh character in “Single White Female”?

Seriously, Joe. Did you even see “Single White Female”?

Why would you take shots at Brian Cashman? All he did during that lengthy post-2000 time, when you weren’t winning championships, was defend you exhaustively – to fans, to the press, to fellow Yankee executives, to various and sundry Steinbrenners, to your old front-office pal Randy Levine.

You never much cared to admit this, Joe, but Cashman was your boss. He could have sold you out. He didn’t.

Cashman deserved better, Joe. So did the Yankees. And, most important, so did you. You transformed yourself as a Yankee, earned yourself a certain Hall of Fame plaque.

There were lots of people who thought you were exiled wrongly in 2007, who winced when you hinted at a possible grudge with the Yankees, who figured, no, Joe is bigger than that. Joe is better than that.

Were we really that wrong, Joe? Really?

If you wanted to hurt the Yankees, Joe, understand this: Yesterday at Legends Field in Tampa, workers were manicuring the field, watering the lawn, getting ready for another spring training once the Super Bowl leaves town.

At the minor-league complex just down Dale Mabry Boulevard, kids were working out. Jorge Posada was said to have taken some swings. Derek Jeter will be here this week.

The Yankees have moved on, Joe. Isn’t it time you did, too?

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – this doesn’t seem like Joe’s style.

I haven’t read the book, but already this doesn’t seem like a classy way to go about things. No matter how wronged Torre believes he was by the Yankees, you always take the high road. Most people in New York were going to remember Joe as the World Series-winning manager in pinstripes – and they still might. But this book definitely casts a shadow over Torre’s great career. Instead of remembering how great of a manager he was in the Bronx, people are going to point to when he called Alex Rodriguez, “A-Fraud” in his book. Is that how Joe wanted to be remembered?

Dodgers’ skipper Joe Torre decided to write a book. And then ripped his former employer and at least one former player in said book.

In an explosive new book called “The Yankee Years,” Torre gets most personal in his attacks against Alex Rodriguez, who he says was called “A-Fraud” by his teammates after he developed a “Single White Female”-like obsession with team captain Derek Jeter and asked for a personal clubhouse assistant to run errands for him.

Torre, who left the Yankees and became manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2007 season, says Cashman never told the brass that the manager wanted a two-year deal and instead remained silent during Torre’s tense final sitdown with the bosses.

The 477-page tell-all, which The Post purchased from a city bookstore last week, is written by co-author Tom Verducci, a longtime Sports Illustrated reporter.

Torre recounts his 12-year career in New York through interviews. It is being published by Doubleday.
Torre spent years trying to bring out a winning performance from A-Rod, the highest-paid player in baseball, which from all reported accounts included a lot of hand-holding and battling the insecurities and demons Rodriguez struggles with.

And while the Bombers would win four world championships under Torre’s watch by 2000, there were years of tension over management’s choice of players and the growing silence between him and Yankee brass.

Torre’s exit in the fall of 2007 came after a 20-minute meeting over his contract with Steinbrenner and other Yankee officials at the team’s Tampa, Fla., office.

At the time, the skipper was coming off a tough and highly scrutinized season. He was seeking a two-year contract with the possibility of a buyout.

Boy, how bad did the Yankee front office brass piss Torre off if he was compelled enough to write a 477-page tell-all? Joe doesn’t seem to be the type that would air secrets about his former club publicly, but this is a man that believes he wasn’t treated right in the end and obviously this is his retaliation.

And once again A-Rod gets blasted, although this has to be the worst. Having your former manager call out your love affair with Derek Jeter? Ouch.

Among all the moves, be they trades or free agent signings, the biggest non-signing of the MLB Hot Stove off-season has been that Manny Ramirez remains without a team. Actually he hasn’t even had an offer besides the Dodgers’ two-year, $45 million offer back in November. But last night, the Dodgers and beleaguered outfielder Andruw Jones (*) parted ways, freeing up some more money on their payroll to offer Ramirez. Manny fits well on that team and with Joe Torre’s easy demeanor. And he can loaf a bit more in between raking the ball all over Dodger Stadium. We’ll see, but with the Yanks signing Mark Teixeira, and the Angels focusing on their bullpen by signing Brian Fuentes, there are less attractive options for Manny other than remaining in La La Land.

In addition to the Teixeira Fuentes signings, Randy Johnson was inked by the Giants. This works out well for the Big Unit, who wanted to play in California and can easily reach 300 victories since he currently has 295. If only Barry Zito started pitching like Oakland Barry Zito, this staff would be looking damn good right now.

So one of the problems with the stalled Jake Peavy to Chicago trade talks was that the Padres wanted infielder Mark DeRosa and Cubs’ GM Jim Hendry balked at that. Well, Hendry had no problem shipping DeRosa to Cleveland for three minor leaguers, did he? I think there is more to that Peavy story than what we’re being told. I don’t know what, but somebody doesn’t like somebody somewhere, and my guess is there is an agent in that conversation.

So Derek Lowe doesn’t want to pitch for the Mets at three years, $36 million? Are you kidding me? How is that guy worth more than $12 million per season at 35 years old? Dude apparently wants a four or five year, $90 million deal. Good luck with that, Derek. Meanwhile the Mets are turning their attention back to in-house free agents Oliver Perez and Pedro Martinez, as well as less expensive options like Jon Garland or Randy Wolf.

* Omar Minaya, if you are reading this, DO NOT invite Jones to spring training. I know the Dodgers are paying his way in 2009, but the guy can’t hit his way out of a paper bag (the stats don’t lie…..158 batting average with 76 strikeouts in just 209 at-bats). Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The New York Mets covet _________. Those words have been uttered in every Hot Stove rumor out there, because they are more than just rumors. The Mets, who had a second straight free fall from first place in 2008, are apparently looking to fix more than their horrendous bullpen as they move into Citi Field in 2009. In no particular order, here are the players GM Omar Minaya has been talking to or about: Manny Ramirez, Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez, Huston Street, Kerry Wood, Brian Fuentes, Orlando Hudson, Jon Garland, Freddy Garcia (a reported shoulder injury may stall that one), Raul Ibanez, Kevin Millwood, Jermaine Dye, Rafael Furcal, Juan Cruz, Derek Lowe, Edwin Jackson, Juan Rivera and Javier Vazquez. The only one right now that appears close to reality is Furcal, as reports have filtered in that the Mets are offering a nice incentive-based deal. And Wood, who was not offered a contract by Arizona as expected, is at the bottom of the Mets’ wish list due to his injury history. Meanwhile, the Mets also do not think they can pay what Oliver Perez’ agent is asking, and there is a possibility the animated lefty could be headed to division rival Atlanta.

Jake Peavy’s on-again, off-again relationship with the Hot Stove League has continued, but now there is talk that the Cubs might make a move, along with a third team. That’s because the Cubs do not have the pitching prospect that Padres’ GM Kevin Towers is asking for.

Jason Varitek is not likely to accept salary arbitration by the Red Sox and could be headed somewhere else, possibly Detroit. Meanwhile, every team under the sun has been offering mediocre catchers to the Sox.

Andy Pettitte, who was rumored to be talking to former manager Joe Torre about pitching for the Dodgers, is talking now like he wants to stay in New York and play in the Yankees’ new stadium. Speaking of the Dodgers, they are also talking to free agents Trevor Hoffman and Randy Johnson, both on the far side of 40 years old, but both still effective.

While Aaron Heilman was as much of a disaster as a pitcher can be in New York, why is it that both the Rays and Rockies are looking to trade for him? The guy has good movement on his pitches, but proved last season that he can’t get anyone out, especially with a game on the line.

With rumors flying around (and let’s face it, they are true) that Lebron James will be traded to the Knicks or leave Cleveland as a free agent in a couple of years, there has been talk that James’ buddy CC Sabathia may take the Yanks’ offer a bit more seriously if that all happens. Hmmmm.

For the majority of the season, Joe Torre faced criticism for failing to move the Dodgers to the top of their division. His talents as a World Series-caliber manager were questioned: Was it Torre that got the Yankees into the playoffs, or the players alone? As he always does usual, Torre remained calm and optimistic. Then, Manny Ramirez came around and the Dodgers found themselves sweeping the Cubs in the NLDS. The negative remarks quickly quelled, and Torre was once again hailed as a genius. But after his decisions in Game 4 of the NLCS on Monday, that harsh criticism has resurfaced.

In street clothes and a blue cap bearing the name of the Safe At Home Foundation he created, Torre took the podium for a noon news conference and answered questions about the widely scrutinized decisions he made in Game 4 — from his call to pull Derek Lowe in the sixth inning to his choices about which relievers he used and when.

Torre said he didn’t second-guess any of his decisions.

“You wish the result was different,” he said. “If we all know the results, we certainly say, ‘Yeah, maybe I should have done that and done this.’ But with what I had at hand and knowing what I wanted to do, the only thing I’d like to change is the result.

“I have a two-run lead in the seventh inning, the game’s in my court and then the winning home run is hit off my closer.

“I don’t know what I could say to myself that would change what I would do, to be honest with you.”

The only change Torre said he envisioned making today would be to re-insert Matt Kemp into the lineup. Kemp, who has hit .208 in his six postseason starts, had his place in center field taken by Juan Pierre in Game 4.

I’ve always been a fan of Joe Torre. When he arrived in Los Angeles, he did the best he could with what Dodgers GM Ned Colletti had given him. Without a big bat in the top of the order, he still remained neck and neck with Arizona. Manny was only the missing link, and he certainly proved it.

Still, even with Ramirez in the lineup, Torre has made some confusing decisions. Monday against the Phillies, he pulled Lowe in the top of the sixth, after only throwing 70 plus pitches and giving up two runs. Granted, he was only on three days rest, but he has just pitched his only one-two-three inning of the game. Then, he pulls Hong Chi Kuo—a pitcher the Phillies have been awful against—after giving up one single to Jimmy Rollins. These two decisions probably cost the Dodgers the series. Torre brought in all the wrong pitchers at all the wrong times. A string of bad decision killed Dodgers chances of tying this series: a twenty-year old Clayton Kershaw, a struggling Chan Ho Park, an inconsistent Joe Beimel, and a tired Cory Wade. With nowhere to go, in the top of the eighth inning Torre brought in their young, overworked closer, Jonathan Broxton. After elder statesman Matt Stairs hit a monster homerun into the right field pavilion, the Dodgers fans fell silent. Joe Torre’s critics, however, erupted.

Torre needs Chad Billinglsey to give him at least six good innings in the game tonight. If this doesn’t happen, the Dodgers are finished. However, with a lead going into the seventh, the Dodgers have two strong relievers in Kuo and James McDonald, who shut down the Phillies in Game 2. Then, it will come down to Big John Broxton, who’s hopefully learned a thing or two from Matt Stairs.

Gregg Doyel of CBS Sportsline.com writes that Joe Torre is having one bad NLCS in the Wake of the Phillies taking a 3-1 series lead after their 7-5 victory in Game 4 Monday night.

Torre is the biggest reason the Dodgers are one game away from being eliminated. You can argue that he has been unlucky in this series, but you can’t argue this: He has been unsuccessful. And isn’t that what it comes down to? Success and failure? Wins … and losses? Torre has had failures. The Dodgers have had losses.

We’ll go in reverse, which means we’ll start with the most recent loss, this 7-5 shot to the solar plexus in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium.

Starting pitcher Derek Lowe came out too early. Yes, Lowe was pitching on three days’ rest. But he had thrown just 74 pitches when he was removed, and after being rocked in the first inning he was cruising when Torre pulled him after the fifth.

Didn’t work. Reliever Clayton Kershaw, nominally a starting pitcher — and a 20-year-old rookie to boot — came in and gave up a walk and a single to the first two batters he faced. One of them scored. Kershaw for Lowe? That backfired.

Go back to the second game of this series, at Philadelphia. Torre, the guy who was too quick to pull ace starter Lowe in Game 4, was way too patient with Chad Billingsley in Game 2.

Even my man Scott Miller, who is most judicious with his criticisms of the men who play this decidedly difficult game, devoted his entire column from that game to Torre’s mismanagement of Billingsley, who was allowed to pitch through a streak that saw nine of 10 batters reach base. Philadelphia scored eight runs off Billingsley in 2 1/3 innings, and that was the game. The Phillies didn’t score again. They didn’t need to. They won 8-5.

Now go back to Game 1.

Lowe on the mound. Again. Torre having to decide whether to leave him in or take him out. Again.

Torre guessing wrong.

Again.

It was the sixth inning. Lowe had a 2-0 lead, and he was cruising. And then, suddenly, he wasn’t. Shane Victorino reached on an error, and Lowe came unglued. The next pitch — the very next pitch — was fat, and Chase Utley hammered it for a game-tying home run. Torre let Lowe stay in the game, and one batter later he fell behind 3-1 to Pat Burrell. Lowe grooved one, and Burrell hammered that one for a 3-2 Phillies lead. The Phillies wouldn’t score again, but again, the Phillies didn’t need to. They won 3-2.

It’s interesting how managers always seem to take more criticisms during the postseason than they do during the regular season. Managers have to take calculated risks in baseball and Torre has been around long enough to know when to take them. Still, the situations Doyel highlights are damaging and it’s too bad Torre has to take some heat because he’s done one hell of a job turning around a once dysfunctional Dodgers club.