Printable Biography of Joe Torre

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Few personalities in baseball history have earned the level of respect accorded to New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre. Fewer yet can boast of the successes Torre has achieved on the playing field, and in the dugout as a manager. Winner of four World Series, he’s written about the industry strategies he applies to business in Joe Torre's Ground Rules for Winners.

In the off season, Joe Torre is most comfortable on stage motivating audiences, explaining the challenges of sport, and stressing the importance of team work. He offers an inspiring story of personal and professional triumph. Drawing on championship memories and his own inspiring story of cancer recovery, he energizes people to compete and to find within themselves the will to succeed. He also demonstrates the need for selfless teamwork as a key component to reaching a common goal. He is the author of Joe Torre's Ground Rules for Winners: 12 Keys to Managing Team Players, Tough Bosses, Setbacks, and Success , an autobiography detailing his 30-year wait as a manager and player to finally win the World Series.

In his presentations, Torre shares his wisdom on the universal concerns of managers—tough bosses, earning trust and respect, and forging a diverse group of individuals into a winning team. Full of entertaining insights, he gives audiences the tools they need to develop to succeed in sports, business, or life.

 Speech Topics:
Dealing with Setbacks, Building Teams: Drawing on his years of experience in the corporate microcosm that is professional baseball, Joe Torre shares his wisdom on the universal concerns of all managers – handling tough bosses, dealing with both setbacks and success, earning the trust and respect of the team, and forging a diverse group of individuals into a cohesive unit with a willingness to make the sacrifices necessary to win.

Down-to-Earth Leader: Torre led one of the most fabled franchises in sports history, the New York Yankees. During his tenure, the team won six American League Pennants and four World Series Championships. For all of his success, Torre remains down to earth, good-humored and practical in his approach to leadership and success.

A Winning Outlook: Perhaps there’s no job in sports more rife with pressure than being the manager of the New York Yankees, an organization rich in both a winning tradition and controversy. Torre’s invaluable insights regarding managing in such a stressful environment are not only entertaining – they provide listeners with the tools they need to develop a winning outlook and to get the most out of themselves and others.

What they are saying:

Torre has persistently conducted himself with the dignity and class that the Yankees believe epitomizes their organization. No Major League manager is under more scrutiny than the manager of the New York Yankees. He has consistently handled the demands of this job with grace and with what seemed at times to be saintly patience. - Mike Bauman, MLB.com columnist

About:

Joe Torre was named the manager of the New York Yankees on November 2, 1995. In becoming the 31st manager in Yankees history, he joins Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, and Dallas Green as the fourth manager to wear both the Yankees and Mets uniforms.

An All-Star catcher in the 1960s, Joe Torre moved to third base during the 1971 season and won the NL MVP award, leading the league with a .363 batting average and 137 RBI. He finished his playing career with a .297 average, 252 HR and 1,185 RBI. Joe Torre made his managerial debut on May 31, 1977 with the Mets, when he became the first player-manager in the Major Leagues since 1959. He is the only person ever to be named both the MVP and Manager of the Year.

Moving to Atlanta the following season, Joe Torre rode a 13-0 start to the division title, finishing 89-73. The Braves finished second the following two seasons, although a mediocre 80-82 record in 1984 led to his dismissal. He went on to become a popular Angels broadcaster. In August 1990, Joe Torre returned to the bench as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Torre guided St. Louis to a respectable 84-78 finish in 1991, good for second place behind the Pirates in the NL East.

In 1996, the Yankees, who had finished second in the AL East under Buck Showalter, hired Joe Torre to lead the club. Torre was happy to get a chance to return home to the New York area, and proved to be up to the task of managing in the Bronx.

In just his first year with the club, Joe Torre led the Yankees to a 92-70 finish and after a tumultuous post-season (during which Torre's brother Frank lay in a NYC hospital awaiting heart surgery) his team vanquished the Atlanta Braves for the Yankees' first championship since 1978. Joe Torre has led the New York Yankees to championship after championship. In 1998, Torre and his team capped off one of the greatest seasons in the game of baseball. The Yankees earned an unprecedented 114 victories, breaking the American League record for most victories in one season. They went on to defeat the San Diego Padres in the World Series.

He is a three-time recipient of the Manager of the Year Award and, as a player; Joe Torre is a nine-time All-Star, and a winner of the Most Valuable Player Award. He has been named "Sportsman of the Year" by The Sporting News and "Co-Manager of the Year" by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Off the Field:

Off the field Joe Torre has used his status to raise awareness for number of important causes, culminating with his formation of his own charitable foundation in 2002.  Joe Torre’s personal commitment to the issue of domestic violence stems from the fear he lived with growing up as a child in Brooklyn. Spurred by the abuse he witnessed and endured, Torre and his wife, Ali, founded the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation in 2002 – in memory of Joe’s mother, Margaret. The Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all children have an opportunity to grow up in a safe and abuse-free environment. Its goal is to raise awareness and to develop educational programs aimed at ending the cycle of domestic violence and saving lives.

In 2005, the Joe Torre Safe At Home® Foundation opened its first school-based programming initiative, Margaret's Place, at Hostos-Lincoln Academy, Bronx, NY. Margaret's Place, a tribute to his mom, is a comprehensive program which provides students with a safe room in school where they can meet with a professional counselor trained in domestic-violence intervention and prevention. Currently, the Joe Torre Safe At Home® Foundation has ten fully funded and operational Margaret's Places in New York City and Westchester County. 

Torre is involved with several other charities including the Starlight Children's Foundation, the American Heart Association, and CaP Cure, an organization that raises money for prostate cancer research.

Torre and his wife reside in Westchester County, New York, with their four children.