Frank Torre

Frank Joseph Torre

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 3", Weight 205 lb.
• High School James Madison High School (Brooklyn)
• Debut April 20, 1956
• Final Game September 29, 1963
• Born December 30, 1931 in Brooklyn, NY USA
• Died September 13, 2014 in Palm Beach Gardens, FL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

The older brother of Joe Torre, Frank Torre had a seven-year career in the major leagues, hitting .273 with a reputation as a top defensive first baseman.

Signed by the Boston Braves prior to the 1951 season, Torre played that summer in the minors before spending the next two years in the military. He returned to baseball with the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association in 1954 and then hit .327 for the Toledo Mud Hens in 1955.

Torre reached the majors with the Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and saw regular playing time at first base the following season, 1957, after Joe Adcock broke his leg. On September 2nd of that year, his team scored 23 runs in a game against the Chicago Cubs, and he scored six times, tying a record. In that fall's World Series, Adcock was back and saw the majority of playing time at first, but Torre hit two homers in ten at-bats.

In 1958, Torre hit .309, and the Braves again went to the World Series. He again appeared in more games at first base than Adcock during the regular season, and the two of them alternated at first in the Series. In 1959, his average fell to .228 with one home run, but he still was the starting first baseman and clean-up hitter in the second game of the three-game playoff which the Braves lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, when Adcock was available and coming off a great season. In fact Bill James cites manager Fred Haney's insistence on playing Torre that season, in spite of all the evidence that he was not a productive player, as a key piece of evidence in naming the Braves' 1959 season as the worst-ever performance by a Major League manager (The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers, pp. 202-204). Frank was still a member of the Braves when his brother came up with the club in 1960, but he struggled at the plate and was sent to the minor league Louisville Colonels.

Torre spent the 1961 season with the Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific Coast League. He returned to the big leagues in 1962 after being sold to the Philadelphia Phillies, and hit .310.

Following his baseball days, Torre became an executive with the Rawlings Sporting Goods Company. He received a heart transplant in the fall of 1996, at the same time as his brother was managing the New York Yankees to a World Series win over the Atlanta Braves. He was also a vice-president of the Baseball Assistance Team, providing financial and medical assistance to former major league and Negro Leagues players. He died in 2014, aged 82.

In addition to his brother, Torre's father, Joe Torre Sr., was involved in baseball as a scout. Frank's son Frank Torre, Jr. coached at William T. Dwyer High School then became head coach of Indian River State College in 2019.

Frank gave a series of interviews to Cornelius Geary, who created a book out of it: All Heart: The Baseball Life of Frank Torre. See [1].

Notable Achievement

• Won a World Series with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957

Further Reading

• Cornelius Geary: All Heart: The Baseball Life of Frank Torre, HenschelHaus Publishing, Milwaukee, WI, 2019. ISBN 978-1595987310
• Norm King: "Frank Torre", in Gregory H. Wolf, ed.: Thar's Joy in Braveland: The 1957 Milwaukee Braves, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2014, pp. 213-216. ISBN 978-1933599717

Related Sites

• Frank Torre at the SABR Bio Project
• Obituary from USA Today