And as a manager he hasn't forgotten the lessons those men of durability taught him.

At the age of 68, and in his 29th managerial season, Torre still hasn't learned to pamper pitchers.

Not even closers.

"You have a point in the game where you say, 'I have to try and win it now,"' said Torre. "A lot of times that is in the eighth inning. You've got the middle of their order coming up. You want your best guy out there. That's where the game is going to be decided. So you go to the closer.

"You don't want to wait because if you don't stop it right then it won't matter in the ninth."

Most managers have fallen into the "save the closer to work the ninth" mentality, although there is no definitive moment that a change in philosophy was created. There are often stories written about Tony La Russa creating the one-inning save emphasis when he managed Dennis Eckersley in Oakland, which was only the case after Eckersley turned 38. In the first six years that Eckersley was a closer for La Russa — from 1987-1992 — 86 of the 246 saves Eckersley registered required more than an inning of work.

Eckersly turned 38 prior to the 1993 season and the demands diminished, as did his effectiveness. Only 17 of the 150 saves that Eckersley earned in his final five seasons with the A's demanded more than an inning of work.

Statistically for the reliever, the trend is quite obvious. In 1988, there were 532 multi-inning saves in the big leagues. The figure has declined significantly since then. There were 342 in 1993, 286 in 1998, 213 in 2003 and 127 a year ago.

Francisco Rodriguez set a major-league single season record with 62 saves last year. Not once did he work more than one inning. Heck, he never even appeared in a game the Angels were trailing until the 161st game of the season, when he needed to get sharp for the postseason. Only five times did he come into a game with the score tied.

Jonathan Papelbon of Boston led the majors with 11 multi-inning saves last year. Only five relievers had as many as four — Papelbon; Mariano Rivera of the Yankees (8); Brian Wilson of San Francisco (6); Jonathan Broxton of the Dodgers (5), and Brad Ziegler of Oakland (4).

Two of the first six saves Broxton earned this year have been multi-inning efforts.

But then Torre has always had bullpen workhorses, beginning with Skip Lockwood, who pitched 104 innings with the 1977 Mets and Kevin Kobel, who worked 108 1/3 innings the next year.

In the final 11 years of Torre's 12-year managerial stint with the Yankees, Mariano Rivera was the closer, and 95 of the saves Rivera amassed involved more than an inning of work. And in 76 postseason appearances, Rivera has worked 117 1/3 innings.

"Remember, my first year, Mariano was the seventh-, eighth-inning guy," said Torre. "It was no big deal to bring him in early and let him work more than an inning."

Rivera made 61 appearances that season, 40 of which involved more than an inning, including eight three-inning stints.

"I always want to look at a situation where (the closer) didn't work the day before or we have a day off the next day," said Torre. "You want to protect the arm."

Sometimes, however, even that isn't possible. Last weekend, Broxton worked 1 2/3 innings on April 23 for a save in Houston, the first time he had pitched in six days. One day later, Torre couldn't resist the urge and brought him in for the ninth inning at Colorado.

It wasn't an easy decision. Torre fought with it to the point that he actually sent lefty Hong Chih-Kuo out to warm up for the ninth, buying extra time to see if Broxton could get loose. Broxton finally nodded he was ready, and came in, but there was a sign that the 30-pitch demands in Houston had an impact. Broxton was unable to command his slider, but his fastball was enough to get him by that night.

Will Broxton hold up over time with the extra demands? Time will tell. Torre is going to give him the chance to find out.

But then what is Torre's alternative? Ronald Bellisario? Guillermo Mota? Ramon Troncoso? Kuo? Will Ohman? Yeah, right. Want some beach front property in Arizona?