A misty-eyed Don Zimmer made his first appearance at the Yankees’ Old-Timers’ Day, receiving the loudest and longest ovation at the Stadium on Sunday. “I don’t know who invited me, but I’m here,” said Zimmer, who cut ties with the Bombers after lashing out at George Steinbrenner and storming away from the team following the 2003 season.

Zimmer, a special adviser with the Tampa Bay Rays, served as bench coach for eight years during Joe Torre’s tenure in New York, but left after a falling-out with The Boss.

Yesterday, Zimmer seemed to have put the bad blood with Steinbrenner behind him.

“I thought it would be a good time to come back and see some of the guys, the old-timers and some of the young guys, and I didn’t hesitate when they asked me,” Zimmer said, his voice starting to quiver. “I’ve moved on since that night (in 2003). I feel bad about The Boss, the shape he’s in. I feel very bad about it. I’ve never talked to him since I left here.”

Zimmer said he doesn’t know if Steinbrenner or his relatives had anything to do with bringing him back for the 63rd Old-Timers’ Day. “I don’t know if it’s (because of) his daughters, or his sons, or whoever, but I got invited and I came. I don’t know if (Steinbrenner) is even all right enough to know that I’m here. I don’t know nothing about it, except that I’m here and my wife is here and we’re going to have a good time.”

In 2003, just before the Yankees faced the Marlins in the World Series, Zimmer announced that he wouldn’t be back in 2004.

Fed up with Steinbrenner and incensed by The Boss’ R-rated pet name for the coaching staff that season, Zimmer said: “This is one (expletive) they don’t have to worry about being fired. He don’t have to worry about that ’cause I won’t be back. I’m a human being and I ain’t been treated like one in 11 months!”

Showered with praise by the Yankee faithful Sunday, Zimmer repeatedly doffed his cap to the crowd and smiled as he stood alongside pinstriped legends such as Don Larsen, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and nearly four dozen others who played in the Bronx.

“Coming back here and seeing your friends, it’s special,” Zimmer said. “All the guys, it’s a very special day.”

While Zimmer typically speaks with Torre a few times a month, they haven’t touched base recently.

“I don’t even know if he knew I was coming back,” said Zimmer, who thought the former Yankee manager was in the right for penning his latest book. “I don’t think Joe said anything that I don’t think he’s sorry for. He said things that he thought should be said, and if somebody took it wrong, that’s their problem.”

Sunday’s trip down memory lane was meant for backslapping and laughing about the good old days, but Zimmer was still a little upset with how the Yankees treated Torre toward the end of his time in pinstripes.

“There’s no doubt that I thought it was mishandled. The first time, not the year he got fired, but the year before he went through the same thing,” Zimmer said. “If you want to fire a guy, it’s easy to fire a guy, just say, ‘We’re going to move on, we’re going in a different direction.’

“But they strung him out, and strung him out, and strung him out like he was a piece of rope or something. I think the second year was almost the same way. Either you want him or you don’t want him.”

Source: Daily News

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