Yankees manager Joe Torre surely understands what Tom Lehman went through coaching the Ryder Cup team this evening.

Both Torre and Lehman were in charge of teams full of superstars who long ago grew used to having everything handed to them and fell apart when faced with real pressure. Heck, both Torre’s Yankees and Lehman’s U.S. team all but curled up in a corner in a fetal position.

Are there two more similar personalities in sports than Phil Mickelson and Alex Rodriguez? Say hello to 0-4-1 in the Ryder Cup and 1-for-14 in a loss to the Detroit Tigers.

Not that any of this excuses the putrid coaching jobs both Torre and Lehman did. Someone needed to wake up the shaken mega millionaires on both the U.S. Ryder Cup and Yankee teams. To instill some confidence. Neither Lehman or Torre could get through. And it didn’t look like either put much thought into it.

Torre dropping A-Rod to sixth then eighth in the batting order was as stupid as Lehman pairing Mickelson and Chris “Pizza Bone” DiMarco, the two quintessential U.S. underachievers. If you’re going to play the sensitive, but super talent A-Rod, you’d better show you have confidence in him. Either bat him cleanup or bench him outright.

Everyone knows Lehman will not be coming back to coach the next Ryder Cup. Torre shouldn’t be in pinstripes next year either.

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