Frank Torre

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Frank Joseph Torre (born December 30, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former first baseman in Major League Baseball.

Torre, who batted and threw left-handed, played for the Milwaukee Braves (1956-60) and Philadelphia Phillies (1962-63). He is the older brother of Joe Torre, himself a former Major League Baseball player and, as of November 5, 2007, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent in 1951, Torre spent four seasons in the Braves farm system. He debuted with the team in 1956 (the Braves had since moved to Milwaukee) and played in 111 games, most of them as a backup. He hit .258 in 159 at-bats.

Torre’s two best seasons were in 1957 and 1958; in the former year, he batted .272 with 5 home runs and 40 runs batted in. He also tied a National League record that year by scoring six runs in one game, the first game of a September 2 doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs, which the Braves won 23-10. Torre was a member of a Braves team that defeated the New York Yankees in that year’s World Series; he homered twice in the Series, which the Braves won in seven games on the strength of Lew Burdette’s three victories. In 1958 Torre established career highs in batting average (.309), home runs (six) and RBIs (55) as the Braves repeated as National League champions. However, the Yankees defeated the Braves in the World Series after trailing 0-2 and 1-3 in the Series.

In his career Torre played 714 games, batting .273 with 13 home runs and 179 RBIs. He was also a difficult man to strike out, fanning only 64 times in 1482 at-bats, or one per 23.2 at-bats. Torre was also an excellent defensive player, coming into the game as a replacement for Joe Adcock in late-inning situations in games where he did not start. Torre led all National League first basemen in fielding percentage in 1957 and 1958.

In 1996, as his brother Joe was managing the New York Yankees to a World Series title (his first as a player or manager—39 years after Frank had won his) over the Atlanta Braves, Frank made news of his own by successfully undergoing a heart transplant. [1] He received the new heart on October 25 at New York-Presbyterian Hospital after a two-and-a-half month wait. The very next night, he watched from his hospital bed as Joe managed the Yankees to the World Series title. As in the 1958 World Series against Frank's Milwaukee Braves, the Yankees had rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win this series, taking the next four games.

[edit] External links

• Frank Torre’s career stats and analysis