Torre should be upset if Cashman indeed failed to speak on his behalf at the final meeting — and if Cashman failed to inform ownership of a contract proposal that Torre believed might save his job.

But is that even what happened?

Some close to Cashman dispute that the final meeting went down as Torre described and say that other portrayals in the book are pure fiction as well.

There are two sides to every story, especially in a relationship as lengthy and complicated as the one between Cashman and Torre.

Perhaps Cashman grew tired of fighting for an embattled manager. Perhaps he believed that the Yankees needed a change — hardly an unreasonable position, considering the team's repeated failures in the postseason.

Regardless, the breakup was unnecessarily ugly not because Cashman undermined Torre, but because ownership made Torre an offer they knew he would refuse.

Yet, Cashman also bears Torre's grudge.

While the book accurately points out Cashman's flaws — his abysmal record with pitching and occasional overreliance on sabermetric analysis — Torre goes out of his way to embarrass and diminish his supposed friend.

Cashman made more than his share of mistakes, often leaving Torre in a compromised position, particularly with pitching. Some of Torre's friends still burn that Cashman was "Teflon" with his ability to escape criticism. But Cashman, as the book explains, also did not operate in a vacuum.

The team's Tampa-based executives routinely interfered with Cashman's decision making before he assumed full control in 2005. Then, when Steinbrenner's health began to decline, an ownership committee came to power and again complicated matters.

Oh yes, Cashman also had to deal with a celebrity manager who had his own shortcomings. That's baseball. Even the best and brightest, from Torre to Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, are prone to stumble.

Torre takes responsibility for some of his own slip-ups — recommending Todd Zeile, endorsing the trade of Ted Lilly for Jeff Weaver and most notably, failing to remind Mariano Rivera to be aggressive against Kevin Millar leading off the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS.