The 6-1-1 Podcast Ep. 3 : Joe Torre
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All right, welcome back to the 611 podcast with your co-host Jimmy Rollins, my boy Ryan Howard. And we're here today with one of the great managers of the most storied franchise in MLB, the New York Yankees.

Can't talk about those guys without, of course, mentioning the great Joe Torre. Joe, thank you for being here today. You know, it's nice being with you guys when you're not wearing your uniform and got that grumpy look on your face. I think this is going to be fun. Oh, man. I hope so. But it's nice being here. I have to say it's an absolute pleasure having you here. The accolades that you were able to accomplish over your career. Nine time.

All-star. Nine. Nine-time all-star. MVP in 1971. We all have that in common. I at least can say that. Yes, Wes. Yes. So today is the 611 MVP podcast. YouTube more in common because I did it with a little speed. You know, I'm just throwing it out there. What are you saying about me? I think we all had a burst at some point. Do you ignore my speed or what? It's not that I'm ignoring it, Joe. Oh.

I'm just saying it didn't really factor into you winning the MVP. Like, Ryan hitting triples would not have gotten him MVP. You hitting triples would not have gotten you MVP. I needed the triples. Wait a minute. Do you have any idea how many triples I had in my career? How many triples? Did you have more than Ryan? This is fun. Somebody sent this to me. I didn't know it at the time. Okay. Just give me a guess. Okay. Okay. I will say...

I'm going to go 18 years. I know, I know, I know. 17, 18. I was going to say 25. That's pretty, that's a pretty reasonable guess, right? That's pretty reasonable. I think I'm a little low. Yeah. He threw me off right there. I'm going to throw 18, 18 years. I mean, I'm going to go higher. I'm going to go higher because I, because I myself had what? Two, three triples in one week.

It was like two. I had at least two triples in one week. It wasn't the triple, Joe. It was the face that he made when he was hitting it. Because I had to look over at Jimmy and Kenny Lofton and see the disbelief that I had hit two triples in the same week. So I'm giving good graces here. I'm going to go a little higher. I'm going to say at least...

75. 75? 75? In 18? I mean, I'll go high. I'll go high. If this microphone wasn't here, I'd go over and give you a hug. 59. 59. Okay. So we split the difference. That's solid. We split the difference. Yeah, I didn't know that either until some...

fan wrote and referenced it comparing to somebody else. That's why I love the fans. Because they remind us of how good we were at times. And we're letting them know that we do read that stuff. Yes, we do. We may not talk about it, but we definitely recognize when it's happening. Oh, no, absolutely. Absolutely. You gotta love it. Now, Joe, I want to ask you,

So what was your rookie year? What was the first year? Which team? Well, I started professionally in 1960. I signed with the Braves. And in 59, they sent me the Instructional League. 1960, they sent me, at that time, which no longer exists, Class C ball.

Cause it would, you know, you have triple a double a a. And at that time, uh, each club had to be teams to see teams and, you know, a couple of D teams. And then one of those D teams were the, uh, the short season. Okay. Okay. So I played, yeah, I played no Claire, Wisconsin in 1960. It was the Braves seaball, which Hank Aaron had played there. And, um,

And I led the league in hitting, came up, actually went down to Milwaukee because my brother was living in Milwaukee at the time. He was with the Brave organization. And when I got down there, I went over to the ballpark and they're informing me they're going to keep me

you know as they expand their roster in september they're going to keep me on the um on the on the team you know to be the third catcher so i was nervous as a cat needless to say for sure but i didn't think i was going to get any playing time so i just hang out with the guys you know it would be pretty good until one saturday afternoon my manager chuck dress and said

get a bat and, you know, hit. And it was the ninth inning. I pinched it for Warren Spahn and Harvey, Harvey Haddix was the pitcher threw me the first, I mean, legs were shaking and Harvey Haddix threw the first pitch and I took it and I said, I can hit that. And he threw me an identical fastball in the same place. And I hit a single up the middle and thank God they pinched ran for me at first. I'm not sure I could have gone beyond that.

I remember my first, but it reminds me because you actually able to swing your first batches, which is great. You saw a lot of my career and you saw all of it. I wasn't there to take pitches at all. My very first at bat. I don't know if I shared this story before. And if I have, forgive me for repeating the bat did not come off my shoulder. And it wasn't with the intent I was trying to take. I just could not pull the bat off my shoulder. Who was your first at bat against? The Florida Marlins, Chuck Smith. Okay.

and he was throwing some beautiful fastballs. And I was like, yeah, okay. It's a little crisper. You know, it's a hot day, Sunday. It seemed like you got called up, did not expect to play, just hang out. I'll just enjoy, you know, being here and getting this free check. That's what I thought. And I walked in the clubhouse and my name's on a lineup and it was just immediately just like, what is happening? What do you mean? I'm starting. I just got here. Why am I? All these thoughts went through my head and they continued. So my first at-bat, fortunately, I walked.

But the next at bat, I finally swung the bat. The one swing I took ended up being a triple. And so that same, I couldn't do it. So congrats for being able to swing your first at bat. So you started your career off triples. So that, I mean, that was pretty much par for the course. Yeah, I mean, in all fairness, it was par for the course. It was par for the course. It was. But since we have the great Yankee manager, Joe Torre, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't get –

But a Derek Jeter story. Oh, well, first off, recently I went to his 50th birthday party. Okay. And I didn't feel real good. And I'm,

it was a surprise party. Okay. That's why I was wondering. Okay. Yeah. That's what surprised everybody. That's okay. That's what, that's what really drew me in to be honest with you. And when he did show up at the party, I said, I didn't know if I was going to come tonight, but I just wanted to see what surprise look like on your face. I haven't seen it in 12 years. Um, but the Derek Jeter story, uh,

I had, I guess, two of them. We opened the season in Toronto, and this is when Giambi was on our club, and they played Giambi around, three guys on the right side of the infield at that time, and he was at first, and Giambi had a ground ball, and he was going to

Take third because there was nobody there, but the catcher managed to get down to third base. They threw over there. He slides in head first and dislocates his shoulder. All right. Opening day of the season. I go out, obviously. I didn't know it at the time I went out, but I knew he was hurt because he didn't get up. So he's laying there and I look down at him and he says, I'll be in there tomorrow, Mr. T. I said, yeah, okay, no problem. You know, that's the one story.

And then the other one, we're in Baltimore, and man at second base, two out. And he's like 0 for 30. He's gone through this dry spell badly. And man at second, two out, and he tries to drop a bunt down the third baseline. Oh, that went over well.

Not only didn't it go over well, he was thrown out at first base. So it wasn't even safe. He come into the dugout. When he come into the dugout, I said, what the hell are you doing?

He says, I need a hit, Mr. T. I couldn't help but laugh. But, you know, it's the first little desperation I saw in his face. So he was human because, I mean, two things I picked up from the first story. Did he know how injured he was? Yes. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, he didn't get up. And when he didn't get up.

There was reason to keep laying there. Oh, yeah, definitely knew he had something. And was he back out there the next day? No, he was probably getting it corrected the next day, and he went on to DL at that time. Okay. But, I mean, you don't think, when you think of Derek Jeter, you don't think about a slump. He seemingly never was in a slump. He'd always find a way to get hits. And, obviously, there's always a time to attempt a bunt.

And there are plenty more times when they're, you shouldn't be attempting to, but I've been there. So to hear that he's done the same thing, like, look, I'm just trying to get a hit to get something going. If I, if it works out,

It's still like, what the hell are you doing? But you understand it's like, okay, it worked out, but you still have that conversation, but you didn't throw it out at first. Trust me, I've done it. You just drop your head and you feel even worse. And it's always the best pitch that you bunt and get thrown out on. It's the fastball down the middle. It's too late. Once you commit it. He was like you two guys as far as when the game was going on. And there are players, and we know

that would rather not be up in that key situation. I mean, he just craved to do that. And if it didn't work, it didn't work. Just like you go out there and do the best you can, but the one thing you know is that your heartbeat's the same. And that's something you can't teach. Well, speaking of heartbeat being the same, I want to kind of talk about your transition from player to,

to manager, right? So as a player, I'm sure there was some intensity that was taking place out there on the field. But how did you kind of temper that

That competitive nature from what you had between the lines as a player to that as a manager. Because when we would look over, when we're playing against you, you didn't show any real emotion. Ball's getting hit in the third deck.

Just stone face. Same face. Same face. Same face. So if you were taking an x-ray of me, you would see, you would see a big difference. No, the one thing I think, and even when I was a player, you know, if I struck out, I, you know, I would show no emotion, then go back in the dugout and tear a nail off the wall or something like that. I,

I don't know. I just didn't want to give the opposition or the opposing pitcher the satisfaction of seeing that he ruined my day, basically. And as a manager, especially I started in New York as a manager, managed the Mets first. So you know that if anything bad happens on the field, they want to see the reaction. And having understood that, I never wanted to...

show that kind of emotion. Because I didn't want the players to see later on, on TV or something, if he made an error that, you know, here I am, you know, shaking my head or something like that, because I played the game. Right. And I know, you know, it's not always great, you know, and you make errors and that's all part of the game. The only time they may have seen me react if it's a mental error of some kind.

And let me go back and give you another Jeter. Here we go. Here we go. Let's get it going. See, they're all coming out. Rookie year in 96. We're in Chicago playing the White Sox. He's at second base. And he's either the tying run or the go-ahead run. It's two out. And Cecil Field is the hitter. And...

you know he had shown me enough up to this point that i really turned them like you know you're on your own right you're on the base you're not on your own okay and just catching the street and so he's at second base and i you know i don't say don't try to steal third because he's not going to do that okay all of a sudden he takes off the third base and he's out now

You know, he's third out of the inning. He's staying out there. Somebody takes him his glove, you know, and I'm pissed because, you know, and now I'm blaming myself. I should have put the hold on, you know, I gave him more credit than he deserved and all that stuff.

So I said to Zim, Don Zimmer, my bench coach, I said, I'm not going to talk to him. I'm not going to say anything to him because, you know, we got to try to win this game and I'm not going to try to disturb him or get him off, you know, off point here. So bottom of the inning is over with. And a lot of times when someone screws up, you know, they go toward the end of the dugout or hit some water or whatever.

He came walking in and squeezed between Zimmer and me. He just sat down. What do you say? I hit him in the back of the head. I said, get out of here. Right. You know, cause he knew he screwed up and, but, uh, that was him. That was him. He never hid from anything. That's when you know, you got somebody different. Yeah. That's, I mean, as a, as a rookie, you said that was his rookie year. Like you don't see that.

Very, very often. And that's where you know he was cut from a different cloth. Just greatness. Yeah, I didn't like what he did, but I certainly liked the way he reacted to it. Ryan, you've never been thrown out at third base trying to steal for the third out of any heavy.

Not that I can recall. Actually, wait. No, don't even worry about that. Actually, no. Not that I can recall. I did not. Actually, I had a good story. I had a good story. Is it the truth? Is it a true story? It is the truth. It is the truth. It's the 611. We need the truth, bro. That's all we give. So I did not get thrown out. I was not the third out.

But my story, it was interesting, okay? It was the same year I was feeling good. You know, I had my, I think my nine stolen bases in a season, feeling good. I'm on second. Jason Wirth is on first and somewhere Jason's going to be out there listening to this story and he's going to start cracking up. He's on first. J-Dub needs like one more base or something like that to get like 20 or 30 stolen bases. I forget which it was. He

he's on first i'm on second j-dubs at first base he's looking at me he's like go like go go i'm like bro like what are you like we're having a conversation and the game is going on he's like doesn't realize who he's speaking with at that moment um i don't think he did okay but i ultimately wind up going get thrown out at third go back charlie looks at me and he's like

"What the hell are you doing, son?" I was like, "Hey, man, Jada told me to go. I thought I had a shot."

So, yeah, it did. And then J-Dub's at second base just dying laughing, just cracking up at me getting tossed at third. So he got his 20. He got, well, yeah, he got it. He got it. He got it. Well, did it count if I got thrown? Yeah, I got thrown out. So it didn't even count. But he's standing at second base laughing at me because I got thrown out. And he didn't even get the stone. Right. I was like, man, I'm never going to get it for you, bro. Never going to get it for you. Can't do it. Oh, my Lord. Can't do it. But it was fun, though. It was funny. All right, Joe.

You've had some of the greatest players to play the game. Definitely, in my opinion, the greatest closer, Mariano. But you and him didn't always see eye to eye on certain things. Maybe in his mind it made more sense to be a position player, go track some balls down in the pastures. I don't know. I hear there's a story out there that exists.

Yeah, he wanted to play center field. I cringed when I watched him even go out there and, you know, during batting practice, you know, chasing fly balls down.

because I had, you know, by the time I get to the Yankees, I had this memory. Well, actually I didn't, it was after I left the Yankees, went to the Dodgers, but I, I told him no chance. You're not going to go play center field. You know, I'm not going to get in trouble. Yep. I'm, you know, I'm, it's going to be fine. There's no question. He was, you know, he's a great athlete. No doubt. But you know, when you got a boss upstairs, uh,

And I see him stumble around in center field. And when they asked me the question, I really couldn't come up with a good answer if that was the case. Right, right. You know, and then when I went to the Dodgers, it brought back a memory of Mo asking me about playing position. You know, it could have been shortstop or center field. He didn't care, but he wanted to play. The man's busy. That's it. That's important. That's it.

You should pick it up and tell him you're on the 611 and you can call him back. That was Halem. See, I knew it. Of course. Of course it's Dan. One of our bosses called him in our show. Right. Anyhow. We're silent. Back to Mariano. But I went to, when I went to the Dodgers, I wind up losing Kershaw for exactly that situation. He went out and jumped the wall and catching a fly ball and dislocated and

But dislocated the right side because he had the glove up with him trying to catch a ball during batting practice. Oh, wow. Yeah. Pitchers? When that happened, I thought of Mariano. Right. And the reason why I did it. Because they really think they're athletic. Some are athletic. Right. You know, but...

You know, athletes, they're good at what they do. They have a special talent. They probably couldn't hit. They probably couldn't field that well. But they made one hell of a living on the mound. But Joe, we got your story. Bob Gibson was another one. Oh, yes. He took ground balls at third base all during batting practice. How those hands look. Oh, hands were good. Ooh.

Hands were good. He thinks he could, anytime you want, he could go one-on-one on you. And he did a lot of that because he wanted to work. He really, he didn't run much because he just had the bad knees. But he was dripping by the time he batting practices over playing third base. All right.

Do we have a clip of Mo's version of the story? Oh, man, my favorite Joe Torre. I mean, in 96, I came in in spring training and I want to introduce myself and, you know, I start, I start,

I was speaking to the men in Spanish. And when he looked at me like, I'm crazy. And I'm like, you don't speak Spanish, huh? The man says, man, no, man. I mean, I was so embarrassed. I'm like, oh, man. You know? And the other one, guys, the other one, I always told Joe, put me in center field, man. Put me in coach, you know? Put me in coach, man. Put me in center field. Put me in the eighth inning, two-out inning.

If they hit the ball to center field, I will catch it. And then put me in the game tonight. And I will do it. Fulfill my dream. And that's it. So Joe never put you in in center field. Never did. Never did. So he was trying to be the Shohei before the Shohei. Right. Yeah. You know? So he was trying to make. But he was already specialized at this point. Right. He was. He's Mariano Rivera at this point. He was. Yeah. Can I interrupt? Go for it.

I'm not sure about the bat part of it. You know, he gave you Shohei. I think we – The defense? Okay. We'll take the defensive side. He can check that box. Shohei. We'll take the defensive side of it. I'm not sure about Mo. So he was one – he wanted to go make the play in center field and then come back in and then shut it down. And get the save. Get the save. So he wanted to rob somebody in center field and then come back and get the save on the bump. But you got to admire that.

You got to admire the intensity of him wanting to do it all. Like, yes, Joe, let me just, let me be Mariano. And he was, again, like you guys, there was nothing he didn't feel he could do, you know, that he couldn't do. I mean, he was special, obviously. Did you ever ask him how he came upon that cutter of his?

I didn't. How did he come across the cutter? He was doing bad in practice to you and you kept shooting him? Not quite. Not quite. He was in the bullpen one day and all of a sudden started doing that. He just wasn't trying to do it. He just started doing it. I noticed something too with his cutter as well is that

And maybe it was later on, either when I got up there, maybe earlier on in his career, he was more... He might have been more in the middle, but I noticed, like, when I look back, my few at-bats that I had against him, he was on the third base out of the rubber, which...

created more angle for his cutter because with lefties he creates that angle to where as soon as it's out of his hand it looks like it's right down the middle of the plate but it's always coming across the place and it's bearing in because he broke my my good bat in the all-star game in 06 yeah the one i won the home run derby with in 06 he broke it so thanks for that um

Mariano. But it served its purpose. It definitely did. But I always noticed that early on was that, oh, man, he's creating that angle. And I wonder, like, kind of more so in today's game, you start seeing more guys kind of standing on different sides of the rubber trying to create more angles. How many guys really kind of did that back then? Because you see it a lot more today, I think.

than you did back then. There's a science to it for sure. And that broken bat step, that was your gamer. That was a gamer. That's the All-Star game. Who brings their gamer to an All-Star game to begin with? Look, they weren't making Scooby-Doo bats and all the kind of bats that they're making today. You had to use what you had to use. Marucci made you a whole bunch of... You could have asked for a special edition All-Star game. You could have left... See, that was a problem. You could have left that one for us.

And took the All-Star game to the All-Star. That's what I did when I went to the All-Star. I had an All-Star bet because I didn't want my baby dying at the All-Star game. Joe, thank you. I'm going to interject. In 2006, Young James, how many years had you been in the league? That was my sixth season. Okay. In 2006, how many years was I in the league?

45 game. Pretty much. Yeah. You think I had the wherewithal of having that type of bat carriage? You could have asked.

You could have asked. I had a couple extra bats. See, Joe, I feel like the manager now, when you let Jeep on his own, that was my fault. Okay, yeah. I should have went to him and gave him a play. You see my teacher. You see my teacher. I'm supposed to be taught these things. I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry. Yeah, I had a bat story. I had a bat when I was a player. I had this bat was like iron, man. It was just.

It had dents in it. Was it tarred up in nails? No, just to tar it up. How many grains? How many grains was on that bat? It was wide. I had a bat with no knob on it. How I started using that is when I was catching one time against the Pirates.

and Clemente got a base hit and I went to pick the bat up and throw it out of the way and this feels pretty good. And I started using that bat, but this was Ironman. It was great. We're in San Francisco now and I didn't use this bat

because we're facing Gaylord Perry. And he got in my kitchen all the time because that thing would go, you know, he'd throw that thing that was accused of being a wet one this way. So I didn't use it. We wind up knocking him out of the game, and I went to get my bat. It was broken. Jose used it. Oh, my.

Jose Cardinal, for the same reason, didn't want to use his bat. So he picked up mine. Oh, my goodness. And if I could have caught him, I'd have killed him. I could not outrun him. What size? What was the spec on your bat? What size bat did you use? It was 35 inches, 36 ounces. Oh, wow. Right. Yeah. No, he got me. Jesus. I was 35, 34. I know. So, yeah.

Yeah, those are big bats. You know, the big bats and the thicker handle, it's a better balance. But it was a better balance. It's still a log, though. It's still a log. But you would swing it. You would swing my bat. But you know. It took me about a month and a half to actually take him to the game because I was afraid. He would talk to me all the time. He called my bat the little sports car. And I need to upgrade to the SUV. You got to take the family for a ride. You know, take them for a trip. But I learned that, yeah, using a bigger bat, the benefits of it,

Not necessarily for the flight. For me, yes, I'll get that, but it was those one, two hoppers that were getting past guys in the infield. That's true. Yeah. Exactly. That was what I saw as the biggest benefit. And Ryan, I appreciate that. Man. My pleasure. My pleasure. It was fun watching you guys hit with my bat. I got to see what it looked like.

where the ball would come off and it would hit a different trajectory. I can guarantee you that the ball off my bat never, ever looked like the ball off your bat. I can guarantee that. Okay, but that's probably true. But I did see some stuff with, I did see it where it hit and then I could see your ball kind of take another gear. We got to be real here. We got to be 100% here. But that's what we would talk about like with bigger bats because, you know,

Guys in your area of ball all used bigger bats. And so, and it looked like, from my point of view, it's like you couldn't swing them hard. You just got them going and let the momentum of the bat do the majority of the work, I would say. Yeah, I had like Hank Aaron. I mean, he was my teammate for eight years. You know, he had a real thin-handled bat. And he had this kind of, you know, hitting zone. You know, I needed something a little...

a little larger, but it was always right there. All the noise was right here. He was something to watch. And Joe looked like he was going to come out and get Mike Messina. Did he say, Joe, stay there? No, stay there. Don't take me out. Yeah, I thought that's what he said. Looking for one more out, and he's going to get it. He finishes Deion off with a strikeout here in the ninth inning, and Mike Messina has won his seventh game.

After seeing that clip, did you get the game ball for leaving him in the game? What's going on there? Yeah, what's the process? You're the manager. You protect your player. I don't know why I was going out, but evidently I was going out, so I was going to take him out. Right. But when he yelled, I said, okay. He never opened his mouth. The man never said much.

All of a sudden he's, you know, talking at me in the distance, you know, and okay. I do not remember why I was going out, but it had to be to take him out for some reason. But, uh, you know, obviously I didn't do it. Maybe the pinch gave me an idea who run that team. Obviously it wasn't you in that moment, but yes, this it's,

And I'm glad that came up because this is something that you've seen in all stages from guys throwing 180 pitches, it didn't matter until your arm fell off, to basically you were given seven innings and about 110 pitches, to now it's 80 pitches or five innings, whichever one comes first. Can we talk about the evolution of the game from where it was to what it is now and what

Obviously, a lot of pitchers and things have happened. I understand the speed-up rules, but just how analytics has come into that part of the game, which I think is the most important, that's pitchers. Yeah, it bothers me. You know, analytics, you know, information's important. There's no question about it. But knowing how to apply the stats and stuff is something that I think should be left to...

you know, someone who's in charge and who has some experience. I hate to have managers have all this experience and not be able to use it. Yes. And the thing that bothers me about the pitching changes is we're trying to change pitchers before they get in trouble. Right. And, you know, to me, you don't know if you have a pitcher until you find out if he can get out of trouble. Right.

And I just think that that's part of it out there. Mel Stottlemyre used to go to the mound. We have bases loaded, nobody out. He'd go out to the mound. And again, he'd just try to send a message to the pitcher. He says, just keep that guy at second base from scoring. You know, just keep it simple. And just don't put the pressure on yourself that you can't, you know, give up anything.

And I think just watching a pitcher mature in fighting his way through tough times is the way you make a pitcher for me. And that's where trust is created. Yeah, I think it's a very different animal. I mean, because with us, you had to pry the ball out of the starting pitcher's hand. Yes. Every year we had...

Roy, Oldswall, Doc, Cole, Cliff Lee, all those guys wanted to go from inning one to inning nine. Even Jamie Moyer. All of them. They wanted to pitch a complete game. They did not want to come out of the game. And I think now you see a lot of the younger pitchers today. And I'd also be very interested too, Joe, to get your thoughts on

pitchers from back in the day and their longevity in comparison to pitchers today, right? With the amount of pitches that they used to throw back then and how they didn't really get injured and to where we have so many different guys having Tommy John or different kind of arm issues, but finishing up the first point where you have all these guys to where

Our guys wanted to finish the game and these guys, you know, they're not telling the manager, no, I got it. Like, leave me in. Like, what's kind of your take on,

on that with these guys saying basically like all right man hey you want to take me out in five innings and i'm still feeling good like i basically i've got a no hitter in five innings they haven't touched me and you're gonna take me out all right cool i'm go shower up i'll see you guys on the bus yeah you like what you see you know the pitcher is comfortable and and to me pitch count

I mean, let's admit it. You know, when I was a manager in my early years and then, you know, before that as a player, you know, they had somebody on the bench keeping track of how many pitches, you know, you have, you call it charting, but they just kept a number of pitches. Uh,

And, you know, it used to be the average game was like 130 pitches. Right. You know, and everybody has the red light go on now when you get close to 100. You know, it's like automatic. Well, this will be his last inning, you know, and stuff like that. Right. Andy Pettit is a good example. I mean, he never wanted to come out of a game, you know. And you could see, you're watching somebody who's comfortable. And pitch count is deceiving.

a lot of it depends on, are you pitching with men on base every inning? Stressful pitches. Exactly. Right. You know, and then all of a sudden there's more pressure with each pitch you throw. But if, you know, if you're going through innings and, you know, you're not in trouble, well, then you're really not stressing yourself. And I think you can go a little, a little bit further, but, uh, yeah, I, you know, I, I, I just don't like the fact that, uh,

To me, I used to pick up the newspaper when they had newspapers back in those days. We're going to L.A. Oh, damn. Here comes Koufax and Drysdale. You couldn't miss them. Probable pitchers for this day or that day. Of course, that's when they were pitching every fourth day. They had three days and pitch on the fourth day.

um you never thought about it you just you knew the starting pitcher was someone you were interested in and you know managers would you know against certain pitchers you know wouldn't pay play certain guys because you know Drysdale was very unfriendly to right hand hitters because he not only you know wheeled from here but he'd throw here too you know so

But yeah, it's changed a great deal. And I just don't like putting our game in a test tube. Right. And...

you know, we've got, uh, just athletes now. And, and I, I admire watching them. I mean, I, for, for years, I admired watching Greg Maddox pitch masterful because he, it seemed every time you took a pitch, it was a strike. Every time you swung at it, it was in the dirt. You know, he, he was a master. Yes, he was. Um,

It's a great part of the game that we see very few pitchers go into the seventh, eighth, and ninth. Do you think we'll ever see another Greg Maddux-ish type pitcher? With what they desire for pitchers and spin rates and all that and velo?

I think the problem I have is we're so caught up in velocity that I think we're getting a lot more throwing than pitching because everybody's trying to light the scoreboard up.

And, you know, to me and, and, you know, you guys are hitters. Uh, the velocity didn't bother you as much as the movement, the movement, the late movement, you know, get the ball off the fat of the bat. And, um, you know, but now it just seems to be, wow, he threw that one 102, you know, and stuff. And,

It's impressive. It is. There's no question it's impressive. You know you're going to see at least one of them. But it's like, okay. You throw a 102 with a four and a half. Yeah. I mean, I faced Bob Gibson before I was traded to the Cardinals. And I always prided myself that I could put the ball in play. So I'm going to face Gibson with the bases loaded and nobody out. I can hit a fly ball, you know, whatever. Right, right.

Swung and missed, swung and missed, swung and missed. Three pitches, went back to the dugout. Come to find out later, he's throwing like 95, 94, 95. But when he needed that strikeout, he was throwing 98. But he saved that. We're not saving it. We're throwing it right from the get-go. We're trying to strike out hitters from the first pitch.

but that that was the artistry i i thought of the pitchers back in the day and that's one thing i get to talk to pedro every tuesday about and he talks about he calls them baby tendons and you talk about the injuries yeah it's like these guys they throw so hard they're coming out of high school they're coming out of college and haven't built up the the innings they haven't built up the strength uh the the know how to throttle back it's just full throttle let's get to the big leagues as fast as possible and

And then they're halfway through their first or second year, and they're getting TJ surgery. And it's happening over and over and over again. So there is an artistry, as you talked about Maddox, and you talked about Gibson. I'm talking about Pedro. When they wanted 98, when they needed it, they would turn up. But other than that, they could sit between 93, 95, put a little movement here, change speeds just to keep you off balance. It wasn't only just a power game. It was a game of pitching and not –

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And Joe, you brought up athletes, which all of us position players are. Sorry, pitchers. I love you guys. You guys have a great job. Oh, yeah. You have a few fights with those guys on that one, right? Oh, yeah. But there's a guy wearing the pinstripes right now that, I mean, he may be – well, Mookie's up there, too, because Mookie's an athlete. I haven't seen him do anything bad. He's an athlete. There's nothing he can't do. But Aaron Judge, he is a specimen.

I mean, what is he, 6'7"? I mean, I saw him at the- 270 or so. I saw him at the All-Star. He moves like me. He's your size, Ryan. Yeah. Well, he's faster than I am because of stride. My turnover rate, my RPMs are better, but he got that stride thing on me. But he is a specimen, what he does at the plate, what he does in the field. There was a guy-

Dave Winfield, that he reminds me of. Maybe a better athlete. I'm not sure, Dave. No shots. You're my guy. This is just current day. I didn't really get to see you. I get to see Aaron. But those guys are special. And he's doing it in New York with, obviously, which is a city that another guy who was a fantastic athlete, Mr. Clutch, Mr. November, Derek Jeter. You got to manage Derek. You get to see Aaron. I'm sure he's

come up to you to ask questions about New York, being named a captain, that responsibility. Are there any similarities you see between them? And also, what is the difference that sets them apart, that gives them their own style as the captain? Well, I mean, both of them are leaders from example. You know, you watch them. You know, Judge was a right fielder, you know, moved to center field. That's not the easiest thing to do.

You know, Hank Aaron was a great right fielder center field. He had trouble, but judge just took it on. I mean, he is a leader in that clubhouse. Again, I don't spend a lot of time in there. I go visit every once in a while.

But, you know, again, you lead. And as you guys know, because you guys have been in pennant races, you know, year in and year out, it's all about what you do. That's what other young players learn from is watching the guys, the guys who've been around go out there and play.

Aaron judge goes out there and, and just plays. And as a hitter, you know, and you mentioned Winfield, these guys hit the ball in the air. It doesn't come down, you know, and Ryan, you know, same way, you know, you,

You pull for ground ball base hits. That's fine. But you know, you hit the ball in the air. It just stays in the air. But I watch, you know, they, they have all kinds of camera angles now. And, and he's like this, you know, and I don't like to teach young kids to hit like this. I want to see more of this. And, but,

For him. It keeps going. Yeah. And the fact that he doesn't need to pull the ball. He can hit the ball in any part of the ballpark, and it's a short field. So envious of that.

Those days are over. So anyhow, sorry, brought me, brought, brought back some bad memories of me trying to hit the ball to center field. You know, know thyself, Jimmy down. So now there's any similarities between the way he carries himself as, as, as by example, you know, we didn't get to share a clubhouse with Jeter. We saw what he was on the field, but there's always the,

The guy, when the door closes and the team needs a meeting, somebody needs to be gotten on. And like I say, you don't spend a lot of time in there. But from what you can tell, and obviously you've heard, what are the similarities between those two guys? Well, the similarities, they both need to win. They both need to win. I can only tell you from the Jeter side.

you know, he goes three for four and we lose the game. He's not a happy camper. He does, you know, it doesn't really matter. And if he's hit list, we win the game. It's a whole different personality. I mean, he's on the field to win and he, he just has no patience with anybody who happens to be the opposite in this clubhouse. As far as judge, I'm assuming he's the same guy because he, he just has that,

that sort of temperament. I've gotten to know him over the last couple of years just by seeing him in spring training, sitting and talking to him. And he, you know, he enjoys talking like,

you know, he'll come in and talk to me and he, you know, and he asked me the one time, you know, it's come around more. I think the guys would appreciate it, you know? So, so he's speaking for the guys and, and, you know, to me, he and Jeter are, are pretty good match when it comes to trusting somebody to be captain of your team. That's that, that's a heavy weight. And, and,

the history of, you know, the captain, if you can. Because I don't know. I mean, I wish we in Philly would put C's on guys. I thought it was just cool to do like, yes, I'm the captain. Veritech, who was in your division, you know, he was the captain. What he said went. The way Jeter went about his business, everyone followed. What does that C in New York? It's always different in New York. It's the Big Apple. What does that C mean? What is the weight of that captaincy?

carrying that on your chest well the thing that Derek you know he when when George wanted to make him captain mm-hmm we were we were stumbling around a little bit he was resistant to it you know there are guys who've been here longer than me you know and right but again when when the guys who have been there longer don't resent the fact that you you're gonna be named captain

It tells you something. But Derek didn't want to see. He wanted to be, you know, he'll accept the captaincy, but he didn't want to see on his uniform. And I think part of the reason he was a little resistant to being in

The captain means he had to answer more questions. They always go to him. Now it's my responsibility. He didn't back off from it, but it wasn't his favorite thing. When the game was over, he just wanted to

come down, you know, his own way. And, you know, talking about a game, especially one that you lose, it wasn't something that was his favorite thing to do. Did not enjoy that at all. No, that's definitely understandable. I will say, I saw Aaron Judge at the All-Star game in Texas. And it's not too many people that, you know,

make me feel like how you feel standing next to me. And, you know, he, he did that and his, his hands and I got big hands, bro. I have big hands. His hands like engulfed mine. And I was just like, look, bro, like this is, this is insane. But to see, can we get your hand piece foot for the camera right here? Right.

Right here. Aaron's hand, we got this on, where were you? Right here? Aaron's hand was like this. Right? And, you know, but in talking to him, man, he's got such a great head on his shoulders. He's very humble. But at the same time, you can see he's got some swag about himself.

And one thing I want to ask you about is obviously, obviously, yes, we sit by Mr. Swaggalicious over here. But, you know, we'll get there. Right. Mr. Swaggalicious over here. But one thing I want to ask you, too, about, Joe, is to play this game, you have to have some swagger about yourself. I like you had to have some swagger. I like to call it inner conceit. You know, I mean, they don't you know,

Today we're promoting, you know, every time somebody gets on base, they have to make some kind of gesture. You know, but I thought you were paid to do that. I thought that was part of what you were supposed to do. But that's, you know, that's the progress of, I guess, where we are. Who were some of those guys in the 70s that you would say just they had that? Obviously, like Reggie Jackson.

Had that, that swagger, like the guys that you read, you wanted everybody to know about it. Yeah. But other guys outside the coffee, that's my guy, Reggie. I mean, I, you know, I, I broadcast for the angels when he was playing there, we got to know each other and then I broadcast the, you know, we broadcast together.

my last year before I went to the Cardinals. Oh yeah, it was interesting. It was interesting. Reggie, he was a kick. And I'm glad we did because we got to know each other and I love him. He's like a brother to me. But he's a beauty. That's all I can say. And you know what I mean. You know what I mean. Reggie...

You know, he wants people to notice him. Oh, yeah. I don't think there's any secret to that. Was there anybody else that you saw from the 70s that was like that? And in today's game, who do you think is that? Look at me. There's a lot of fighters today. I'll tell you. I think there's too much swag going on. It's becoming a show as opposed to it being natural.

So in the 70s, we had Naturals. We had Flow. We had Mustaches, the whole nine. So let us know who those guys viewed. And were you? Were you?

a swaggy fella. No, I, you know, I can't. No, no, no. I was a fat kid coming up. But I got to know the team I played for before I played for them. My brother Frank played for the Milwaukee Braves when they were in the World Series in 57, 58. I'm a teenager and I got to know Aaron and Matthews and Adcock and Warren Spahn and Lou Burdette. So now I,

All of a sudden, it's 1960, 61, and I'm their teammate, which is pretty cool. That's crazy, right? But I was like the little brother, like Burdette and Spahn. They used to take me to the movies during the day. You know, we had a night game. And it was really cool because it was easier to fit in. But you always had a feel that you had to, you know, obviously pay your dues. You had to show them that you were worthy of being there.

And, uh, but they helped me along the way. Eddie Matthews was probably my idol. I loved it. You know, and I got a chance to, you know, play playing, you know, uh, back behind Hank Aaron for eight years, which is pretty cool. And just watch him, you know, just watch him up there. When Hank Aaron first started, he had everything the right feel just about.

It was remarkable. So he learned. As you get to know pitchers, you take a few more liberties. Everything was the left field at first. But getting deep. He wasn't afraid to have the pitcher get deep because he could handle it. I always got a kick out of the pitcher that got ahead of him

you know, strike one, strike two. I thought it was over. And now they're going to do the usual stuff, throw one inside and then go back away. But they never got past the inside because he hit the ball out of the ballpark. He hit the ball out of the ballpark. It was one guy he had trouble hitting, and that was Kurt Simmons. Kurt Simmons used to throw this –

Yeah, Ephus Ball, if you want to call it. He just threw it up in the air, and it was one of these. Hank would just swing and miss at that sucker and just laugh when he swing and miss. He just couldn't even foul tip it. So one night, and this is when Simmons was pitching for the Cardinals. We played in their original ballpark and Bush Stadium, and he made up his mind. He threw one of those. He ran up on it.

And hit the ball on the right field roof, Hank. Wow. Bob Uecker was the catcher. And he pointed to the umpire that he was at in a batter's box. And he called him out. Oh, my goodness. He called him out. Smart play. He's smart, though. Smart play. He called him out. So it should have been 7-16. Yeah. There it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I was never going to get close to those numbers. No, no, no, no, no shot. Didn't have any effect on me at all. When you stop, I was in the, I was in Atlanta for the, uh, celebration, the Hank Aaron celebration. And they had the outfield filled with people holding different numbers from his home run. Oh, I know that was, and I was standing next to, uh, Acuna and Andrew Jones. And we were just looking, we were like, damn,

Like 700, to fathom 700 home runs from one person. It's insane what he was able to do. Man, amazing. I was at Willie Mays'. They had a little memorial for him out in San Francisco. And I was, first of all, I'm a kid, 10 years old, 11 years old. Willie got to the big leagues. And I was a Giants fan because the Giants were in New York at the time.

and you know his hat would always come off when he ran the base right because he never needed a coach he always had a head on his swivel and and when he got up at the plate you know a little that i know that 10 years later i was going to be trying to get him out that's crazy you know and so now you know he wanted to hit he wanted to get in a batter's box and and he didn't mind talking you know just whatever but he wanted to hit now he didn't want to wait you know so you

As a catcher, you wouldn't get a sign. You wouldn't put one down. And he'd say, I know what you're doing. I know what you're doing. Didn't matter to him. So then you'd talk to him and he'd answer you. And he's in the batter's box. It's not like before the at bat. He's in the batter's box. And you're talking to him. One time, and I've mentioned this before, I asked him a question.

As he was answering the question. No, he didn't. Stop. Long ball. You had a home run. No, he did not. Before he left the plate, he says, I'll finish the answer and I get back. True story. True story. I love that. I love that. But he loved playing the game. And you talk about swagger, you know. Oh. It was just natural. It started with him. It was just natural. You know, he didn't believe in the cutoff, man. Mm-hmm.

You know, he airmailed every, you know, every throw he threw. I had a first baseman like that too. What? Except mine was going to left. Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah, exactly. But he was exciting. And I thought Hank Aaron could probably do everything that Willie could do, except he didn't.

You know, have the flair that Willie had. Let's see this. Let's check it out. Can we get a little of that for the camera? Oh, look at them chops. We got some mutton chops. They're mutton chops. They're not sideburns. They're mutton chops. Got some taco meat coming out. Man. Make sure we get that right. Look at those chops. Mutton chops. But I want you to know one thing when you look at this. I want to know, Joe. The hair grew on my face and not on my head. So I got a little light. Yeah, a little light. But yeah, that was...

That was sort of in style, I guess. I laugh at it. It was looking good. It was looking good. The chaps. It looks like a Cardinal player, too. It looks like a Cardinal player. It looks like there's some flow coming out the back of that hat over there. It looks like some 70s style. Yeah. Like, if you were in Hollywood and a convertible, well, you would have a Cadillac, something back. Maybe a Vette. A Corvette. I would say a Corvette. Stingray. Something like that. Maybe a Mustang. Yeah. You know, 68. Yeah.

No, you got to- I like 65. 65 and a half. 65 and a half staying down in Hollywood, I for sure would have asked you for an autograph. There you go. Yeah. I wouldn't have known who you were, but just that style that you show in there with the mutton chops. Yeah. I'm going to throw them in a-

Orange 72 Stingray. Orange 72 Stingray. Yeah, just Stingray convertible. Did they make them orange in the 70s? Yeah. It was the 70s. Everything was bright colored. Yeah. Sorry, Joe. We're not acting. It wasn't dating you. No, that's okay. That's okay. I played at a time where you know, it...

You know, you, you, there's always something that you just embrace it. You know, you, you feel the privilege of playing the game. I, I think the players today should be maintained, should be made to know the history of the game. Oh man. And just understand what happened before them. Uh, and, and, uh,

you know the time it was you know my first salary in the big leagues was sixty five hundred dollars that was the minimum salary sixty five hundred dollars wow and um you know i remember when we went on strike in 1972 and uh that picture with the mutton chops i was on the cover of sports illustrated

I won the MVP in 71, led the league in hitting, and they had me on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The top strip over the cover was baseball's troubled season because we had gone on strike for the first couple of weeks of the season. It was a plus and a minus. We did what we thought we had to do as players. Right.

And unfortunately, I had trouble recovering from getting booed at home. Mm-hmm.

I didn't like getting booed, and I put a lot of pressure on myself. We appreciate you guys going through because it's always paid forward, and the money in today's game had to start somewhere. And I know, being familiar with the story of Curt Flood, not wanting to leave St. Louis. St. Louis for Philadelphia, right? St. Louis for Philadelphia, yeah. Exactly, and that started. So there were wars going on.

fought and battled for the guys the kids today to make the money they're making so yes they should know it should be a part of it know the history you didn't create this game you didn't create this money it was fought for and you're not entitled to anything because there's going to be wars down the road yeah you're benefiting from it you know i i always told my players i'd i'd say you you're

Your career is this long. You're going to have to give it back. And the last thing I want any of you players to do is when you're home after you've retired, say, I wish I had worked harder. Because this is really an honor to be here and have the ability to play and the privilege to play, especially in the big leagues. And it always felt brand new to me. That's a beautiful piece of advice right there.

Just puts it all in perspective to be able to understand as a young player coming up, like, you're going to have way more time outside of this game than you are with the uniform on. Whether you believe it or not, whether you know it now, you have way more time. You don't see that when you're in it. Even if you're playing for 20, 24 years, you know, it's…

If you live to be 100, for the most part, you're going to have 60, 70 plus years off the field. So understanding what you need to do in between those two white lines and carrying yourself, it's amazing. Very good. I have a question, and it's something I hate.

Answering because you leave so many people out of the equation and it's always who is the rush more of A or B or C? I can't stand these questions because you give your answer and then you have a thousand critics. Well, I can't forget about this. Look, someone's always going to get left out. That's just what it is.

But the fun part is it's your Mount Rushmore. It's your Mount Rushmore. You have to remind them of that. Everybody else has their own. So this is Joe Torre's Mount Rushmore. Of today's game. I think we want to go current. Today's game. Today's game. Yeah, today's game. You choose players from today. And there's no wrong answer, Joe. There's no media after the game. It's tough because today they're still playing. So there's still more to do, right? There is. But that's the beauty of this quiz.

That's a beautiful challenge. That's a challenge. Exactly. Well, Otani has to be up there. There's no question about it. For sure. I would start there. Yeah. I mean, how do you, you know, he could take two spots. He really could. He could. He really could. Unfortunately, he only gets one. No, I understand. You know, and I think Bryce Harper, to me, and I love watching him when he's hitting the ball left center field because he's such a

He's such a pure hitter as far as I'm concerned. And he's a guy that has lived up to the hype since he was 19. He is not disappointed. Again, he fought his way through it. Yes, he did. And here he is, a superstar. But I think I have a sense he loves the game. He does. He loves to play the game.

And let me see. Give me some help here. We got Shohei, Bryce. We got Shohei, Bryce. Any arms? Any arms out there? I mean, Clayton, although he's at the end. Clayton, Clayton. But he's still active. You're right. Clayton's still active. You can put – I had him as a baby. I had him as a 19-year-old, and I sent him to the minor leagues for, I think, 10 days or something. He didn't like me very much. But that sucker –

And once he started adding the curveball and then the cutter, I mean, adding the slider, because he was fastball curveball. When he first had him. Which was Koufax, fastball curveball.

which, especially when you go overhand 12 to 6 like that, it's really tough to get a strike called. Yes, it is. Because it starts high and finishes. And that was Koufax. Koufax used to, you could hear the ball. He'd go, bzzz. I mean, his fingers were this long. And the breaking ball, same thing, bzzz.

It was remarkable. And then he started trying to throw a cutter and a splitter and all that. But once Kershaw got the slider, he needed something else to throw for a strike. And then he throws some change-ups.

He was as good as anybody because I know what his insides were like. I know he gets a bum break when they start talking about postseason. He didn't win. They said that about Elway, too. He couldn't win the Super Bowl.

But, you know, you get a game to win, I'd hand them the ball any time. For sure. Other guys out there. Mookie's out there. So is Kershaw on there? Kershaw. Okay, so we got three. We got Shohei. We got Bryce. We got Kershaw.

This is where it gets dicey. This is where it gets tough. Who did you leave off? I like Mookie Betts. I like Mookie. There's Mookie. I'm trying to think of other guys. Yeah, Trout. He's another guy. My Trout. Oh, geez. It's so many choices. It's tough. Mookie has got so many things going for him. I mean, he has so much confidence.

And yet, you know, he's got those leadership qualities. I mean, you play the outfield and then play second, play short, wherever, you know, we're trying to win a game and that's what we need you. He's willing to do it. I, you know, he gets high marks for me for being a manager's dream, you know, for, for someone like that. But I'd, I'd have to include him and I know we have other great,

great talented kids out there that I marvel. I mean, I'm happy they took the ships away because all you saw before that was the ball coming to people. You know, now it shows your ability at shortstop and things like that, that you're seeing the athleticism. Yeah. I love the fact that it comes back. And I remember going to the Dodgers and,

And yes, the game was starting there. But I'm playing short and I look over to my left and I swear, this is what it felt like. You're Howie Kendrick. I'm looking at him like, bro, why are you here?

And it wasn't against him. It was like, why are you here? I can catch that ball. I can get a lot of these balls. But it was the way the game was shifting around. But, Joe, that's a hell of a rush mark. Kershaw on a bump, and you got Mookie, Bryce, and Shohei, one, two, three, or two, three, four. Because again, Shohei could be on a bump. So you got a player and a half right there. There you go, man. Yeah.

That's what it would be. And to answer your other thing, or to add to your other thing too, while you were looking at how are you, like, why are you here? As that left-handed here, I'm like, why are you here? Like, why are you here? So, yeah, it's, I'm glad they got rid of the shift too, Joe. Just a little bit, a little bit too late, but you know what? You know, better late than never. Better late than never, but it's good. It's good. It was getting away from being from what baseball is and was. Like, it was just, what are we doing? Yeah.

This is not baseball. This isn't baseball. This is a computer game. You're just going to stack guys, and you hear all the complaints, but why don't you hit the ball the other way? Well, pitchers are trained to make you do certain things with balls, and you still want to score runs. I don't want Ryan Howard trying to get a single on that field. I don't want that.

There was no reason for that. And on top of that, the game has changed. You get paid on exit velo or hit balls. They want you to swing and miss just in case you get a chance to hit a ball out the ballpark.

There are too many. I was, I found out later in my career, too many ways to get a single. Right. And I'm afraid I'm not going to go by judge either. He's, he's going to have to sit up on that. So we're going to give you, we're going to give you that bonus pick. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We're going to get that bonus pick for the championships. Right. We get the right. I mean, you know, you know, the thing about, uh, about Aaron judges, you know, you see him, he's big. Oh, he has home runs, but then you see everything else. He makes center field look easy. And, uh,

you know, and he can use the whole field. Absolutely. Joe, this has been absolutely amazing. Just being able to sit here. No, not yet. Not yet. No, we got some more stuff to talk about, but it's been absolutely amazing being able to sit here and just kind of chop it up with you. And the next thing I want to talk about is something that,

myself, Jimmy, our teammates were very, very big on was the charitable side of things and foundation side of things. And you have the Safe at Home Foundation with your wife, Allie, I believe. Right. Correct. Can you tell us a little bit about that and the work that you guys do there? Yeah, I...

when i was a kid i'm the youngest of five in the family and uh there's there's a big gap between me and the next oldest it was like almost nine years wow you know my i'm the youngest of five and the other four had two years between them and then there i am oops and so my dad my dad my dad was abusive to my mom both physically and verbally and he was a new york city cop um

uh, my mom was born in Italy, made her ashamed that she was born in Italy. He just, uh, and she never complained about it. You know, I, uh, I was a nervous kid because, you know, he'd be violent with her. He was, he wasn't a drinker. It was just that he was a bully and I didn't share it with any of my friends. I kept it inside and it,

It scared me. And I was a nervous kid growing up. I had very low self-esteem, didn't think I was worth anything. Played hooky from school a lot. And, and, and, you know, I played baseball. Baseball saved my life. And I don't know what I have done if I didn't have the ability to play baseball. So fast forward now, I'm going through my career. You know, if I didn't perform

and we lost the game, I felt that it was my fault. Even during my playing career, I probably didn't enjoy baseball as much as I should have as far as playing the game. But my wife was pregnant with our daughter, Andrea. We were living in Cincinnati. This was right after I got fired by St. Louis as a manager.

And Allie says to me, you want to go to this seminar with me? It was a four-day seminar. It was a self-help type thing. And I didn't want to say no to anything she asked me because she was eight months pregnant. I'm not about to go into that. So we went over there, and it was –

when you go in there and I could see, I said, I'm not going to like this because you're going to make me talk. And I'm not really interested in doing that. But you know, if you're looking to quit smoking or quit drinking or whatever, you felt that you needed a change in your life. This is what this was for. And the first thing they do is they, when you go in there, they put you in a group and my wife and I weren't in the same group. They just split you up. And it was, it was either a day two or three.

and I'm sitting, you know, someone's a speaker. And, you know, I can't tell you what this guy said, but I wind up standing up. Now, mind you, I was just named manager of the Yankees. Okay. And I wind up standing up and I'm crying my eyes out because he struck a nerve with me on, you know, what my dad was doing in the house.

um because i thought i was born as a nervous kid i thought i was born with the low self-esteem and i didn't realize that you know what he was doing in the house was was causing me to have those feelings so once we you know when i'd call my sister did dad do this dad do that and she you know would would say and then i found out he did more things like uh

My mom, after the four children were born, she had one more daughter, and she died shortly after birth. So my dad told my mom that he didn't want to have any more children, and then I came along. But while she was pregnant with me, when he found out she was pregnant, he threw her down the step. So if it wasn't for going to this seminar, I never would have asked these questions of my siblings.

So now we go to New York. We've always, Allie and I have always had charities involving children. And she said, what do you know, what charity should we get involved with? I said, how about domestic violence, which sort of bought her off guard because I didn't talk about it. She knew stuff went on, but we, you know, she had to drag it out of me because I just never wanted to talk about it.

And, you know, once I went through that, it sounds weird, but here I am 50, what, 56 years old. And this guy, you know, all of a sudden struck a nerve with me and I want to talk about it now. And so we decided to start a foundation and do it through education. So what we do is we put

safe rooms in schools named it after my mom, Margaret's place and have a master's level counselor and kids dealing with abuse have, you know, it's part of the curriculum and we know it works. We've been doing it over 20 years. We've, uh, you know, we have, uh, programs in the New York area and the LA area and,

One in Cincinnati and we have two, believe it or not, in Tahiti. Wow. Where someone come to see what we were doing and said, oh, we need that there. And, you know, we've had...

kids come through our program that wanted to join gangs and all of a sudden they're looking at college brochures, you know, because we just want to, it's such a dangerous world out there that if, if a kid goes out into the world and then not have a feeling about how good they are or, you know, self-esteem, somebody is going to put their arm around them and say, come with me. And it's, um,

you know, as I say, it's been very satisfying to know what we do works and that, uh, you know, we try to raise money so we can reach more kids. That's, that's, that's amazing. Are there ways that people can, can try to help and help to contribute? Sure. Just go to joetory.org. Simple as that. And they'll, they'll see everything that we do. And, um, and you know, that's,

We use the money. Obviously, everything goes toward what we do. We've had a lot of support. Now we're doing stuff with Major League Baseball where my daughter, Andrea, has tied in the minor leagues. This coming year, we're going to have 40-something teams have one night.

where, you know, I'll get an autograph ball and they'll auction it off. And the money wouldn't necessarily go to us because if there's a charity in their town, that's where it would go to. But just to raise awareness because it's a tough subject to talk about.

And so, you know, when, when you start thinking about it, everybody's touched by, by this at one time or another. Well, thanks, uh, Ali for dragging Joe out to the seminar all those years ago. And thank you for, you know, being brave enough to share the story because it's not easy. And we've, you know, many ways, shapes and forms have been touched by it, as you said.

And, you know, what you're doing is a blessing for these children to understand, which it took you, you know, to well into your adulthood that you weren't born that way. It was something you saw. You were surviving. And a lot of times that's what you're doing. You're just, well, I just need to survive the situation to make sure I make it out alive. So thank you for your story. Right.

Right. Not everybody's as lucky as I was and the ability to play baseball where I can go hide somewhere, you know, so I felt very fortunate. No, absolutely. Absolutely.

Well, Joe, again, now I think we're about to kick you off because we got you. We've had you. This has been such an absolute pleasure. I know I can speak for my man, young James, over here as well. It's so much nicer in this environment. It's so much nicer in this environment. If I knew you guys were this nice, I wouldn't have been so upset when you beat us. I'm sure.

But thank you so much for coming on the 611. I mean, this has been an absolute blast, an absolute pleasure being able to share your story. Man, this has been amazing. You guys are real, and I appreciate that. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. All right, so that wraps up this episode of the 611. Jimmy Rollins, my co-host, Ryan Howard. We have the pleasure of speaking to Joe Torre. We have more stories like this. Stay tuned.