Yankees Hall of Fame manager nearly had an entirely different job with franchise

Former New York Yankees manager and Hall of Famer Joe Torre revealed on Thursday that he was initially offered the team's general manager gig in 1995.

After Torre turned down the opportunity, he served as the manager of the "Evil Empire" from 1996-2007, while Bob Watson was hired as the Yankees GM and held the role for two seasons. Brian Cashman has been New York's GM since 1998.

During his interview with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Torre said he declined the offer after being told that the GM post wouldn't include vacation time. Torre's wife was approximately seven months pregnant at the time.

According to the four-time World Series champion, "two or three weeks later" he received a phone call from one of former owner George Steinbrenner's assistants, who asked if he'd like to be considered for the managerial role. Torre said yes and, furthermore, revealed that fellow Hall of Famers Sparky Anderson and Tony La Russa — as well as Davey Johnson — were on the short list of candidates.

Anderson ended up retiring that offseason, Johnson took over in the Baltimore Orioles dugout and La Russa, ironically, was hired to fill the St. Louis Cardinals vacancy created by Torre's midseason firing.