Joe Torre

Joseph Paul Torre (born July 18, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) is currently the manager of the New York Yankees and a former Major League Baseball player in the National League for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, and New York Mets. Joe's older brother Frank was also a Major League Baseball player.

Career

Breaking into the majors with the Braves in 1960 Frank Torre's last season with that club), he played primarily as a catcher but also played first base. At 19, he was the 5th-youngest player in the league.

He was named an All-Star from 1963 to 1967, and won a Gold Glove Award in 1965.

On March 17, 1969, he was traded to the Cardinals for Orlando Cepeda, who had been the league MVP only two seasons earlier. The Cardinals, already having Tim McCarver at catcher and grooming Ted Simmons as his successor, needed Torre's potent bat in the lineup more than his presence behind the plate, and made him their regular first baseman. McCarver's trade to the Philadelphia Phillies after the season led Torre to do the bulk of the team's catching in 1970, but by the following year, Simmons was ready and Torre was moved to third base.

The 1971 season saw Torre's play reach its highest level; he led the NL in two triple crown categories - RBIs (137) and batting average (.363) - as well as in hits (230) and total bases (352). He was also 2nd in the NL in on base percentage (.421), 3rd in slugging percentage (.555), doubles (34), and intentional walks (20), and 5th in runs (97) and triples (8). Batting cleanup all season, he hit .413 in games that were late and close. He was named the NL's Most Valuable Player.

Torre received four more All-Star selections (1970-73) while with the Cardinals. Following the 1974 season, he was traded to the Mets for Ray Sadecki and Tommy Moore. On July 21, 1975, he set the NL record for most double plays grounded into in a single game, 4.

Torre had a career batting average of .297, and hit .318 with men on base. He had particular success against Ken Holtzman, batting .508 against him in 65 at bats.

During the 2006 season, Torre had to face numerous obstacles with the team. The largest hurdle was losing star players such as Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui with long term injuries, a problem that was alleviated by trading for Bobby Abreu and bringing up Melky Cabrera, who after a terrible 6 games in 2005, made an impressive mark in 2006. Pitching was once again another major issue for the team. Randy Johnson who in his second season with the team was still inconsistent in many of his starts. After helping the Yankees in the second half of last year's season Shawn Chacón and Aaron Small were both removed from the team, with Chacón being traded to the Pirates on July 31 and Small being sent back to the minors, and being designated for assignment but never going anywhere, early in the season. Despite the problems Torre was able to guide the Yankees to another AL east title.

His success as Yankee manager is generally credited as much as to his patience with owner George Steinbrenner as it is to his baseball knowledge; he is the longest-tenured Yankee manager during Steinbrenner's ownership of the team.

Torre entered the final year of his contract in 2007.

On June 7, 2007, Torre got his 2000th win and became the first major league manager to win 2000 games and have 2000 hits.

On June 29, 2007 against the Oakland Athletics, Torre had his 2,010th managerial win, placing him past Leo Durocher for 9th on the MLB all-time Managerial Wins list.