I
have been meaning to add a proper “Career-Capper” for Joe Torre in the
1978 for a long time, and figured today would be as good a day as any to
do it, so here goes:
Of course, Torre was closing out a very nice 18-year playing career in
1977 as Player-Manager of the New York Mets, and would get one of those
sweet manager cards in the 1978 set (one of my favorite Topps lay-outs
of all-time), but since I came across this image of him during that last
season, I figured a dedicated “player card” would fit the bill.
The Brooklyn-native put together a career that had him take home an MVP
Award in 1971 when with the St. Louis Cardinals, then as a third
baseman.
But it’s easy to forget how he came up as a catcher and had some monster
years for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves between 1961 and 1968 before
being traded to St. Louis for Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda right before
the 1969 season opened.
Five times he would top 100 runs batted in, while topping 200 hits
twice, 20 home runs six times and a .300+ batting average five times on
his way to career numbers of 1185 RBIs, 2342 hits, 252 homers and a very
nice .297 MLB average.
He finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year race in 1961 behind
future Hall of Famer Billy Williams, and was named to nine all-star
teams over the course of his career.
Of course, though not necessarily Hall of Fame numbers, once he moved on
to managing, particularly when he took over duties with the New York
Yankees in 1996, his path to Cooperstown was laid out in front of him,
leading the Bronx Bombers to World Series wins four times, including
three in a row between 1998-2000, with the ‘98 team considered one of
the best teams of all-time, winning 114 regular season games along with
11 more, steam-rolling through the San Diego Padres for a world
championship.
Over 29 seasons as a manager, Torre finished with 2326 wins along with a
nifty .538 winning percentage. Looking at his Yankee tenure, he
finished an incredible 1173 and 767, good for a sparkling .605
percentage, averaging just under 100 wins a season!
So of course, in 2014 he made it into the Hall, being selected by the
Veteran’s Committee after a combined 47 years in Major League ball as a
player or manager.