Joe Torre's Big Day

Today, the Yankees retired Joe Torre's jersey #6 after his service to the Bronx Bombers as a manager for 12 seasons. Torre is also being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year as a manager, along with Bobby Cox and Tony LaRussa. He is certainly one of the greatest managers of our generation, winning 4 World Series and another 2 pennants with the Yankees. What I think is pretty cool is that with his number 6 retired now, the Yankees are one number away from having every number 1-10 retired. The only one missing: #2. In a few years when Jeter is away from the game, his will be retired and that will be a day of joy in my heart. No Yankees player will ever to wear a single-digit uniform number again. Wow.

But back to Torre. Sure, he was a great manager and continued the Yankees dynasty through the heights of the Steinbrenner era. But he was also a fantastic player, and if you ask me, could have gotten into the Hall of Fame as a player as well. He was a career .297 hitter with 2,342 hits, an MVP, and runner up in Rookie of the Year. But that's an argument for a later day. 

I think Torre is the greatest player and manager combination of the post-integration era. After players no longer managed and managing was a specific, tailored skill, it took a special baseball mind to excel at both. A couple other names that come to mind are Ozzie Guillen, Don Mattingly, and Lou Piniella. Guillen won Rookie of the Year in 1985 for the Sox but after that didn't really amount to much. He was a 3-time All-Star and a career .264 hitter. As a manager, he won the 2005 World Series but was more known for his colorful outbursts and rants that resulted in massive fines and suspensions. Mattingly was an incredible hitter in his day, collecting a career .307 average and winning the 1985 MVP.

He was a total bases and doubles machine and was always in the Silver Slugger/MVP conversation. His managerial career is off to a decent start with the Dodgers; they've gone above .500 in his 3 years and are currently 19-16 in the NL West. Many picked the Dodgers to win it all this year, and if he can somehow juggle the loud personalities of Puig and Hanley Ramirez, then he could follow Torre's footsteps and be an excellent baseball personality. As for Sweet Lou, he had long careers in both managing and playing, but was not really great at either. He won 1 World Series with the Reds in 1990 and was barely over .500 for the rest of his managing career. He led the Mariners to AL record 116 wins - but didn't do anything with it. He won Manager of the Year 3 times, the three years in which he compiled the most wins. He is similar to Ozzie Guillen in the fact that he won the Rookie of the Year award, but after that didn't do much. One All-Star game, no silver sluggers, no gold gloves. He was a career .291 hitter, but only averaged playing in 103 games a year. 

Mattingly is still new, but for the most part, Torre is the best player and manager combination. Greatest player? Not at all. Greatest manager? Maybe, there's a talk about it. Both? No question.

Congrats, Joe.

Courtesy of MLB on Instagram.

Thanks for reading.