Joe Torre: Yankees’ most distinguished manager

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The Bio

Few people in baseball have left such an indelible impression as Joe Torre, who has left a mark on the history of the sport as a player, manager, and MLB executive. Torre got more than 2,340 hits when he played catcher, first base, and third base. He was an All-Star nine times and won the Gold Glove in 1965. Joe Torre was the NL MVP in 1971 and led the MLB in RBI, hits, and batting average. As the manager of the New York Yankees, he won four World Series and six pennants. With 2,326 wins, Joe Torre has the fifth-best record of any MLB manager. The New York Yankees, the Atlanta Braves, and the St. Louis Cardinals are all proud to have Joe Torre in their Halls of Fame.

Joseph Paul Torre was born on July 18, 1940, in the Marine Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. He was the youngest of five children born to Joe Torre Sr. and his wife Margaret Rofrano Torre. Joe’s dad was a detective in New York City and things were almost always tense in the Torre home in Brooklyn, especially between Joe’s parents. Joe Torre’s dad was a scout for both the Braves and the Orioles. His mother got a divorce from Joe’s father in 1951, when Torre was 11.

Joe Torre started the Safe at Home Foundation for people who have been hurt at home because he remembered the pain his family went through when he was young. Brother Frank, who was eight years older than Joe, played baseball for the Braves. Joe’s sisters Rae and Marguerite were also great fans of the game.

The start of Joe Torre’s career

Frank played for the Class A Western League’s Denver Bears, and Joe Torre would often go see him. He loved baseball from a very young age, and it didn’t take long for people to notice him. Torre had been a regular for a long time, and Vincent “Cookie” Lorenzo, who ran the Sandlot League at Brooklyn’s Parade Grounds for more than 60 years, liked him a lot. Lorenzo first noticed Torre in 1954, when the 14-year-old, who was much shorter than his 6′ 2″ adult height, hit three doubles in a game that Lorenzo was umpiring.

Jim McElroy was in charge of Joe Torre’s little league team, the Cadets. They played most of their games at Brooklyn’s Parade Grounds, which had 13 fields and was close to Prospect Park. Joe Torre and his brother Frank both took turns playing at first base and pitching when they were with the Cadets and in their last two years at St. Francis Prep. He is in the Hall of Fame at the Parade Grounds. The young Sandloteer from Brooklyn played at New York’s Polo Grounds on August 26, 1958. The annual Hearst Sandlot Classic took place at the almost empty old home of the New York Giants. The US All-Stars played against the New York All-Stars. Joe Torre, who plays first base for the Brooklyn Cadets in the Kiwanis League, was there to represent the team.

Joe Torre started the 1958 game on the bench and didn’t get a hit in his first at-bat after coming in. All 16 major league teams had scouts at the game, but Torre didn’t get a sniff. He was fat and moved slowly, so no one cared about him. Even batting .647 in the 1958 All-American Amateur Baseball Association tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, did not change the general opinion that Joe Torre was too fat, too slow, and too uncoordinated to play either first or third base.

But that would soon change. Frank told Joe that he would be noticed if he switched to catching. The next summer, Joe Torre caught for the Cadets, and on August 24, 1959, scout Honey Russell of the Milwaukee Braves signed him for a $22,500 bonus. On September 25, 1960, just over a year after signing with the Braves, Joe Torre played his first game in the major leagues.

Joe Torre’s pro career

In his first year as a pro, Joe Torre played for the Class C Eau Claire Braves and hit .344. He also played in two games for Milwaukee that fall. The next year, Torre came in second for the National League Rookie of the Year and even got a few votes for the NL Most Valuable Player after hitting .278 with 10 home runs and 42 RBI as the Braves’ regular catcher.

Joe Torre was the Braves’ backup catcher in 1962. In 1963, when he hit .293 with 14 home runs and 71 RBI and was named to his first All-Star Game, he took over the job full-time. Over the next five years, Torre became one of the best hitters at shortstop. In 1966, when he hit 36 home runs, that was his best year. In 1965, he won a Gold Glove Award.

But because of a problem with his contract, Joe Torre was sent to St. Louis in Spring Training of 1969 in exchange for Orlando Cepeda, who would go on to become a Hall of Famer. The Cardinals put Torre at first base, where he hit 18 home runs, drove in 101 runs, and had an average of.289. After playing both catcher and third base in 1970, when he hit 21 home runs, drove in 100 runs, and had a batting average of .325, he moved to the outfield. Joe Torre had his best season ever in 1971, when he played third base. He hit .363, had 230 hits, and drove in 137 runs to lead the league. Joe Torre also hit 24 home runs and was named the National League MVP. He was on the All-Star team again, but this time he started at third base.

Joe Torre never had those kinds of numbers again, but he was still a good corner infielder for the next few years. He was traded to the New York Mets on October 13, 1974, for pitchers Tommy Moore and Ray Sadecki. When Torre joined the Mets for the 1975 season, he was 34 years old. After playing part-time for the Mets in 1975 and 1976, Joe Torre was hired as manager 45 games into the 1977 season. However, he was a player and manager for a short time. On June 17, he played his last game as a player. At the end of his career, he had 2,342 hits, a batting average of .297, 252 home runs, and 1,185 RBI.

Joe Torre became an MLB manager

In 1976, Joe Frazier managed the Mets to an 86-76 record. He had won four championships with the Mets’ minor league teams. He came back for the Mets in 1977, which was their worst season since 1967. 45 games into the season, Joe Torre took over as manager. He had never been a coach or manager at any level of organized baseball before.

On May 31, 1977, Joe Torre’s first game as manager of the Mets was a 6-2 win over Montreal at Shea Stadium. Joe was a manager who played for a short time. He only had two at-bats as a manager, and the last time he played was on June 17, 1977. Joe Torre’s years as manager of the Mets were not good. The team had a record of 286-420 while he was in charge.

By 1981, the Mets were about to lose for the fifth year in a row, the team was being sold, and Joe’s marriage was in trouble. In the middle of all of this, there was a strike from June 12 to August 9 that stopped play. Joe’s life outside of work was a mess. On October 21, 1963, he got married for the first time, but there were problems right away. Jackie, his wife, was a Playboy bunny. They had one child together, Michael, who was born in 1964, and they split soon after. Joe Torre’s second wife was Diane “Dani” Romaine. He met her at a baseball game in New York in 1967, when he was playing for Atlanta. On January 13, 1968, they got married. In 1969, his daughter Tina was born. They broke up in 1981, and they got a divorce just before the 1982 season. 22

In late August, the Mets played the Reds in Cincinnati. Without a doubt, August 23, 1981, was the best day for Joe Torre in a long time. The Mets beat the Reds 3-2 in ten innings. Joe made six strategic moves that all helped the Mets win, including a change in defense in the last inning that led to a game-saving catch by left fielder Bob Bailor. With the win, the Mets’ record for the second half of the season improved to 8-5, making them almost tied with the Cardinals for the league lead.

During the 1981 season, Joe Torre was the manager of the Mets and led them to a record of 286-420. In 1982, he went back to Atlanta to take over as manager of the Braves. In his first season, the Braves made it to the playoffs and won the West Division title for the first time since 1969. Torre led the Atlanta Braves to a 13-0 start to the season, which helped them win the NL West division title for the first time since 1969. In the 1982 NLCS, the Braves lost to the Cardinals. The next two years, Joe Torre’s teams finished second and third with the Braves. However, in 1984, the team won only 80 games and Torre was fired at the end of the season. Joe Torre did TV commentary for the California Angels for the next five seasons.

In 1990, Joe Torre took over for Whitey Herzog as manager of the Cardinals. Before Torre was fired in the middle of the 1995 season, the Cardinals finished either second or third every year from 1991 to 1994. From 1991 to 1993, Torre led the St. Louis Cardinals to winning records, with an average of just under 85 wins and a winning percentage of .523. However, he did not even come close to getting the Redbirds to the postseason. Near the end of the 1994 season, the players went on strike. This had a big effect on Joe Torre, who had been a strong union member when he played. He was particularly upset about the idea of using replacement players. In April 1995, the players came back, but the Cardinals had a rough start. When Joe Torre was fired in the middle of June, they were 20-27.

Yankees hired Joe Torre amid criticism

Then, in 1996, George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees, hired Joe Torre as the team’s manager. George Steinbrenner introduced Torre as the new manager of the New York Yankees on November 2, 1995, even though there were three candidates ahead of him for the job that would take him to the World Series and the Hall of Fame. The media called Torre “Clueless Joe” because they thought he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. At best, the response from the media was tepid. Joe Torre was taking over from Buck Showalter, who had been the AL Manager of the Year in 1994. Showalter was well-liked and had led the team to a 237-182 record and their first playoff appearance since 1981.

Joe Torre led New York to 92 wins in his first season as manager. He then won the ALCS against the Orioles and the 1996 World Series against the Braves after they were down 2-0. The Yankees lost the first game of the series 12–1, but Torre was not worried. On the other hand, owner George Steinbrenner was very upset. Joe Torre told his boss that he shouldn’t worry. When the World Series was over, Torre was named Sportsman of the Year by The Sporting News. He and Johnny Oates of the Texas Rangers were both named American League Manager of the Year.

Steve Martinez wrote, “With heart, faith, and a calm confidence, our Sportsman of the Year led the Yankees to an unlikely world championship and, in the process, turned a hard-boiled city into a legion of Torre Adorers.”

In 1997, the Yankees won 96 games and got a spot in the Wild Card game. In 1998, the Yankees won their second World Series title. This time, they won the AL East with 114 wins, which was an American League record at the time. They also beat Texas in the ALDS and Cleveland in the ALCS. In the World Series, they finished things off by sweeping the San Diego Padres. Joe Torre won the Manager of the Year award for the American League for the second time in three years.

In 1999, Joe Torre’s life got harder when he was told he had prostate cancer during spring training. Torre got better completely after the disease was caught in time. On his 59th birthday, July 18, 1999, the Yankees beat the Montreal Expos 6-0 thanks to a perfect game by starter David Cone. He was only the fourth manager in MLB history to lead his team to two perfect games. Joe Torre was the first manager to lead his team to two wins in perfect games. In 1999, he was in charge of the Yankees when they won their second World Series in a row.

When they beat the New York Mets in five games in 2000, it would be their third straight title. In 2001, the Yankees won the AL Pennant again. They then had three straight seasons with 100 or more wins, including another AL Pennant in 2003. Before Joe Torre was fired in 2007, the Bronx Bombers went to the playoffs every year from 1996 to 2007. That’s 12 trips to the playoffs in 12 seasons.

Joe Torre ranks among the best managers in the Bronx. Torre and Walter Alston are tied for fourth place all-time with four World Series titles. Joe McCarthy has won seven, Casey Stengel has won seven, and Connie Mack has won five. He was a manager for 29 years and had a record of 2,326-1,997, which is a.538 winning percentage. As big league manager, only Connie Mack, John McGraw, Tony La Russa, and Bobby Cox have won more games.

The Yankees lost in the first round of the playoffs each of Joe Torre’s last three years as manager. After the 2007 season, Torre moved on to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers for the next three years. In 2008 and 2009, two more division titles were won by his teams. In his last 15 years as a manager, 14 of his teams made it to the playoffs.

President Obama put Joe Torre on the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women in 2010 because of the work he had done with the Safe at Home Foundation. In 2011, Joe Torre was given an award at the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards for his work with the Safe at Home Foundation. “Margaret’s Place,” which is a tribute to Torre’s mother, is a place where teens can talk to each other about domestic violence and find solutions.

Joe Torre left the Dodgers at the end of the 2010 season and took a job as Executive Vice-President of Baseball Operations in the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball.

In 2014, Joe Torre was chosen for the Hall of Fame. On “Joe Torre Day,” August 23, 2014, the Yankees retired his number 6 and put a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium to honor him. The Cardinals made Torre a member of their Hall of Fame on August 27, 2016. The Atlanta Braves made Joe Torre a member of their Hall of Fame on July 30, 2022.

During his career, Joe Torre hit over.300 five times, drove in more than 100 runs five times, and hit more than 20 home runs six times. He was an All-Star nine times, and he won the Most Valuable Player Award, the batting title, and the RBI crown once each. He finished in the top ten of the National League four times in batting average, on-base percentage, on-base plus slugging percentage, adjusted OPS+, hits, total bases, RBI, and slugging percentage.

Joe Torre also won a Rawlings Gold Glove Award for his work as a catcher. Twice, he was the best catcher in the National League in terms of fielding percentage, and he was in the top five in terms of being caught stealing. Joe Torre played catcher, first base, and third base, and in ten different seasons, he had a fielding percentage that was in the top five. Bill James, a baseball historian, put him as the 11th-best major league catcher of all time.

Joe Torre’s Greatest Moments

• 1961 Topps All-Star Rookie Team
• 9-time NL All-Star (1963-1967 & 1970-1973)
• NL MVP (1971)
• NL Gold Glove Winner (1965/C)
• NL Batting Average Leader (1971)
• NL Hits Leader (1971)
• NL Total Bases Leader (1971)
• NL RBI Leader (1971)
• 20-Home Run Seasons: 6 (1964-1967, 1970 & 1971)
• 30-Home Run Seasons: 1 (1966)
• 100 RBI Seasons: 5 (1964, 1966 & 1969-1971)
• 200 Hits Seasons: 2 (1970 & 1971)
• 2-time AL Manager of the Year Award (1996 & 1998)
• Division Titles: 13 (1982, 1996, 1998-2006, 2008 & 2009)
• Other Post-season Appearances: 2 (1997 & 2007 Wild Card)
• AL Pennants: 6 (1996, 1998-2001 & 2003)
• Managed four World Series Champions with the New York Yankees (1996, 1998, 1999 & 2000)
• 100 Wins Seasons as Manager: 4 (1998 & 2002-2004)
• Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 2014

FAQs about Joe Torre

The Stats

Joe Torre’s Standard Batting Record

Joe Torre’s Standard Fielding Record

Joe Torre’s Career Graph

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