Comparing Coaches Joe Torre & Billy Martin

13 Pages 3370 Words

managing. “Best job in baseball is playing everyday, and the second best is managing – beats playing part-time,” Torre said. He wasn’t nervous even though it was something new; he was just as excited as being called up to the big leagues for the first time. Torre won his first game and then went on to win the next eleven out of sixteen games.
In 1980, Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday bought the Mets and hired Frank Cashen as General Manager, moving Torre down the line. Cashen thought that Torre was too much a “player’s manager.” But he was no more different with the World Champion Yankees than the last place Mets. In fact he was probably more of a player’s manager with the Yankees, he would always hang around the clubhouse before and after games.
Joe Torre was then hired to coach Atlanta with Jim Mullen in ’82, which they started off the season 13-0 and then finished the season 76-73. There was one stretch that the team was 2-19. He only lasted two years coaching for that team and both years they finished second. Torre picked up signals that he was going to get fired and he was, so he called California Angels when he heard about an opening for a broadcaster. He worked for them for five years, and after a little over 3 years he thought he would never make it to the World Series. July of 1990, St. Louis needed a manager and he started August 1st. He was excited, after not managing for 6 years it was like getting his first job all over again.
George Kissell was Torres spring training coordinator; he had a favorite line, “Joe, Who wrote the book?” It was his way of reminding Joe that he could make any move he wanted as a manager as long as he had the right reason for it – whether it was unpopular or unorthodox. That style helped him in the ’96 World Series; benching Wade Boggs against right-handed pitchers, letting his pitcher bat in the ninth inning, put potential winning run on base intentiona...