Atlanta Braves Top 10 Managers in History:: Number 9 Joe Torre
By Fred Owens
The Atlanta Braves inducted Joe Torre into the club’s hall of fame as a player, but he was also a successful manager in Atlanta. Ten years after Lum Harris left, the number nine manager on my list took over.
Prologue
Atlanta Braves vice president of player personnel Paul Richards was a brilliant field manager who became an equally brilliant general manager. The Braves hired him after Astros owner Judge Roy Hofheinz allowed personal pride to overcome common sense and fired him.
While Richards improved the franchise, he also made one of the worst mistakes in its history. According to his SABR biography, Richards was one of the loudest and most reactionary anti-union voices, and Torre was the Braves player representative and a vocal union supporter.
Torre’s SABR biography says his support of the union didn’t sit well with Braves’ ownership and reflected their displeasure by offering Torre a contract with a 20% pay cut. Richards tried to trade him to Washington and the Mets before eventually sending him to St Louis for Orlando Cepeda.
From player to manager
After a borderline Hall of Fame career as a player, the Mets made Torre their player/ manager on May 30, 1977. Torre stopped playing on June 17 but remained as manager of the Mets until 1981.
No one could call his time in Queens a success; the club finished sixth of six in his first three seasons and fifth in the final two. Torre ended his time as Mets manager with a 286-420 record and a .405 W/L %,
Meanwhile, the Torre-less Braves followed their 1969 surge by sinking like a rock to the depths of the NL West. Over the next 13 seasons, the Braves finished as far out of first as 40 games in 1975
The split season in 1981 saw them finish fifth overall in the NL West, 15 games behind the Reds.
In an interview after the Mets fired him, New York Times reporter Ira Berkow asked Torre if he wanted to manage again,
"“Yes, I plan to keep doing it until I get it right.”"
Braves’ leadership wanted a change and believed Torre would get it right. Fourteen years after trading him to St Louis, Joe Torre returned to Atlanta to replace Bobby Cox.