I certainly wouldn’t know first-hand, but being a secular saint must be hard. If you look across the landscape of American popular culture, you probably don’t need more than two hands to count the number of famous people who have completely unsullied images. I’m not sure if that’s because it takes a certain kind of person to become extremely famous, or if being extremely famous means your image, deservedly or not, will take a beating.

Which makes this situation with Joe Torre and his new book hard to figure out. Calling him a saint might be a bit of a stretch, but try to think up some other celebrities or sports figures who served 12-years in the Gotham spotlight and emerged with their aura more or less intact. He did a Hall of Fame-caliber job with the top sports franchise in the world serving the most difficult owner and dealing with the most unforgiving media. And after all that, he got a job managing the SECOND-most renowned baseball franchise, in a city that—and it’s worth mentioning this in late January—is MUCH WARMER! Joe always seemed to come up smelling like a rose.

“Nobody knows anything.”

It’s one of Hollywood’s most famous quotes, delivered by screenwriter William Goldman, of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men” fame. The three words were Goldman’s assessment of the entertainment industry, specifically the ability of filmmakers and studios to consistently create high quality, popular films. Goldman was basically saying that no amount of planning, projecting, casting, budgeting, and directing could ever guarantee a successful movie. There are always going to be the sure things that will flop, and there are always going to be the low budget underdogs that will soar. Why? Nobody knows. READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP.