In the aftermath of the dismissal of New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre, it is obvious the team is no longer run by George Steinbrenner — or any Steinbrenner.

The new boss is Randy Levine, team president and long-time Torre hater, who has taken advantage of George’s decline to grab authority.

Levine has long been suspected of being the primary Tampa source of the backstabbing directed at Torre in recent years. There are also those who think it was he who arranged Steinbrenner’s conversation with Ian O’Connor in which Steinbrenner said Torre wouldn’t be back if the Yankees lost to Cleveland.

If the Yankees are the Evil Empire, the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro says Levine is truly “the face of evil.”

Now the Yankees are run by a tangle of titles, by a couple of Steinbrenner sons and a gaggle of in-laws and headed by a professional politician named Randy Levine who never has made any pretense about the fact he is unconvinced that Torre personally hung the moon in the night sky.

Torre always believed the harshest postgame questions asked by the Yankees’ own state-run network originated in Levine’s office. Whether that was true or not, it certainly tells you they weren’t destined to be bridge partners, and it tells you the man who ran the team on the field wasn’t necessarily prepared to share a foxhole with the man who ultimately ran it off the field. And the man who, ultimately, ran him off the field.

So Levine officially assumes a new role for himself as the crowds disperse from the gallows from which Torre has hung the past two weeks, although it is a perfectly familiar role for anyone who has followed the Yankees for more than a couple of minutes. Levine has thrust himself into position to be what Steinbrenner used to be, if this coup d’etat doesn’t work out the way everyone on Thursday’s conference call solemnly promised it would.

He will be the new villain. He will be the new target. He will be the one that Yankees fans point to if the man selected to replace Torre turns out to be anything less than a cross between Connie Mack, John McGraw, Joe McCarthy and Miller Huggins – none of whom, for the record, ever managed a team to the postseason 12 consecutive years.

Under Torre, the Yankees had become a respected, admired organization. The biggest superstars wanted to play in the Bronx.

Now, thanks to Levine Torre is gone. An exodus of Yankee superstars may soon follow.

The Bronx Zoo is back. And Randy Levine, for better or worse, is the zookeeper.

(Ed Valentine is an award-winning columnist and former sports editor of two daily newspapers. His work appears at Valentine’s Views and Big Blue View.)