LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Joe Torre knew the names on the ballot were formidable. Those close to him encouraged the former Yankees, Mets, Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers manager his chances to be voted into the Hall of Fame were good.
“Sometimes you believe what you hear. They said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ That’s what they said when I was up 3-0 against the Red Sox,’’ Torre said Monday after it was announced he would enter the Hall of Fame with fellow managers Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox.
All three were unanimous selections by the 16 members of the Hall’s Expansion Era Committee, which covers 1973 to the present.
George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, Tommy John and Players Association founder Marvin Miller were among nine other candidates to fall short of induction. Each got six or fewer votes with 12 needed for election.
“Joe should have been in years ago,” Reggie Jackson said Monday night at an event in Manhattan. “He has a lot of credentials. He was almost a Hall of Fame player. And George Steinbrenner, I think he’s a Hall of Famer. I think it’s best if I just say I don’t understand the voting,”
While Torre’s playing career was very good — he was a nine-time All-Star and the 1971 NL MVP, posting 2,342 hits across 18 seasons — the Brooklyn native will enter Cooperstown because of his managerial accomplishments. In 29 years as a manager, Torre is one of only five men to win at least four World Series titles. He finished with a 2,326-1,997 ledger. In 12 seasons in The Bronx, he led the Yankees to 12 playoff appearances and four World Series championships in six trips to the Fall Classic.
“It’s a long time coming, I couldn’t be happier,’’ Frank Torre, Joe’s older brother and baseball mentor, said following the press conference at the hotel where MLB’s Winter Meetings are underway. “My mom [Margaret] would have been real proud. I know she is looking down smiling.’’
Torre was beaming. His wife, Ali, flew from California to Florida on Sunday night without a guarantee her husband was going to get enough votes. Torre said when the call came it hit him like a “sledgehammer.’’
Even though the divorce between Torre and the Yankees was awkward at best and bitter at worst, Torre said he would go into Cooperstown with a Yankees hat on his plaque and tipped his Hall of Fame cap to Steinbrenner.
“He made my professional career. I played for 18 years, but the only thing that meant anything to me was the World Series,’’ said Torre, who nixed a one-year deal to continue managing the Yankees after the 2007 season, insisting on a two-year deal. “To have George give me that opportunity. Even when I said good bye that day [in Tampa], he was failing somewhat, he was the first one I went over to and said good-bye to. He had tears in his eyes and I did too. It was one of those things, it was time to go away.’’
His players, of course, still hold Torre in high regard.
“Anyone who was on those teams will tell you he was a calming force and he helped us perform during that championship run,” Andy Pettitte said at a Steiner Sports Core 4 Celebration at Cipriani Wall Street, his sentiments echoed by Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada. “He had the perfect demeanor to fit our group.”
Hal Steinbrenner congratulated Torre on behalf of the Steinbrenner family in a statement that read, in part: “Joe led our team during one of the most successful runs in our storied history, and he did it with a quiet dignity that was true to the Yankee way. Joe’s place in Yankees history has been secure for quite some time and it is appropriate that he now gets to take his place among the greats in Cooperstown.”
Torre surfaced with the Dodgers and managed them for three years. He is currently an executive vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball.
“This is the ultimate in baseball. Baseball was part of my life, but baseball is my brother’s life,’’ said the 81-year-old Frank Torre, who played seven seasons in the big leagues and was with Milwaukee when the Braves faced the Yankees in the 1957 and 1958 World Series. “I don’t think you can bestow a greater honor. Even though he probably won’t say it, but it’s probably one of the greatest thrills of his life.’’
The trio of managers are among 10 men to ever win 2,000 career games and sit third (LaRussa), fourth (Cox) and fifth (Torre) in all-time wins.
“Managing against them, you certainly learned things,” Torre said. “I am honored to go into the Hall with these two guys.”
Additional reporting by Dan Martin in New York.