Joe Torre
Joe Torre
Joseph Paul "Joe" Torreis an American professional baseball executive, serving in the capacity of Major League Baseball'schief baseball officer since 2011. A former player, manager and television color commentator, Torre ranks fifth all-time in MLB history with 2,326 wins as a manager. With 2,342 hits during his playing career, Torre is the only major leaguer to achieve both 2,000 hits and 2,000 wins as a manager. From 1996 to 2007, he was the manager of the New York Yankees, whom...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth18 July 1940
CountryUnited States of America
When you're in a slump, you do something different, just to try it. I remember one time I was in a slump, and I borrowed one of Henry Aaron's bats and hit two homers. I used my own bats the next night. I just needed a change.
When you start talking about right-handed hitters for the Yankees who hit 40 home runs, there are only two of them. That's hard to believe, and the other guy is named DiMaggio. You know he's special.
That ball about took his hand off. It was hit hard, but it was a play he's made before.
I'd like to say we're experienced enough that that's not going to happen. But the whole thing about hitting and pitching is the feel you get and the psychological edge you think you have. Unless you've had success, it's hard to latch onto that.
He hasn't been an All-American out. Flaherty hit a very important sacrifice fly the other day against (Tim) Wakefield. His batting average doesn't show it, but he's still able to do some things for us.
He does things that drive hitters nuts. I've never seen a pitcher get so many ground balls back to the mound. That's all about movement.
The whole thing is confidence. (Wednesday) night's hit added to his confidence.
Right now, we are just having trouble putting runs on the board. We can't string together some hits right now, but it's early in the season.
That kid's not easy. He didn't have great command tonight, but that makes him even harder to hit off of. As a hitter, you like to zero in. When he's missing spots than making good pitches, it makes him tougher to hit.
Instead of questioning the period, they're going to question the player for the whole time, and I don't think that's fair. Because he was a heck of a player as a skinny kid. He hit a lot of home runs against me. I would walk him intentionally even then, so that kind of respect was earned at that point in time.