Longtime former massive league catcher, supervisor, and broadcaster Jeff Torborg handed away as we speak at age 83, the White Sox introduced. Torborg performed for 10 seasons with the Dodgers and Angels from 1964-73, after which managed the Indians, White Sox, Mets, Expos, and Marlins over components of 11 seasons from 1977-2003.
Torborg was the Dodgers’ backup catcher behind John Roseboro after which Tom Haller throughout his seven seasons in Chavez Ravine, and this tenure was highlighted by a World Sequence with Los Angeles’ 1965 championship group. That very same season noticed Torborg play an enormous function in probably the most memorable pitching performances in baseball historical past — Sandy Koufax’s 14-strikeout good recreation towards the Cubs on September 9.
Torborg holds a novel place in baseball historical past as the one catcher who caught no-hitters from each Koufax and Nolan Ryan, as Torborg was behind the plate for the primary of Ryan’s report seven profession no-nos on Could 15, 1973. Torborg additionally caught Invoice Singer’s no-hitter on July 20, 1970, and is considered one of solely 18 catchers to ever catch three completely different no-hit video games.
Over 574 video games and 1525 plate appearances, Torborg hit eight house runs with a profession slash line of .214/.268/.265. He retired after the 1973 season on the finish of a three-year stint with the Angels, and shortly moved into teaching with a job on the Indians’ employees in 1975. This led to Torborg’s first managerial gig, as he was promoted to develop into Cleveland’s skipper partway by the 1977 season, and he managed the membership by the top of the 1979 marketing campaign.
It took a decade for Torborg to develop into a supervisor once more, as after he spent the following decade on the Yankees’ teaching employees, he was employed as Chicago’s new supervisor previous to the beginning of the 1989 season. He received solely 69 video games in his first 12 months, however after the Sox surged to a 90-win season in 1990, Torborg was named the American League’s Supervisor of the Yr. The White Sox received 87 video games in 1991 to complete second within the AL West for the second consecutive season, as Torborg’s Sox have been crushed out first by an Athletics group that received three straight AL pennants, after which by the upstart Twins who received the 1991 World Sequence.
This profitable run in Chicago led the Mets to lure Torborg away to develop into their subsequent supervisor, with Torborg receiving a hefty four-year, $1.7MM contact. Sadly, the 1992 Mets have been one of many extra notorious groups in franchise historical past, because the membership’s splashy acquisitions of Bobby Bonilla, Bret Saberhagen, and others resulted in solely a 72-90 report. After the Mets stumbled once more to a 13-25 begin in 1993, Torborg was fired with greater than two and a half years remaining on his contract.
Torborg returned to the dugout in 2001 because the Expos’ supervisor, however when then-Expos proprietor Jeffrey Loria took over because the Marlins’ new proprietor previous to the 2002 season, Torborg additionally went to South Florida because the Marlins’ new skipper. Torborg had a 95-105 report in components of two years with the Marlins, and the 2003 group went on to win the World Sequence after Jack McKeon stepped in as Torborg’s alternative. Torborg’s general managerial report was 634-718 over 1352 video games along with his 5 golf equipment.
Each earlier than and after these stints in Montreal and Florida, Torborg labored as a TV and radio broadcaster. He labored for CBS Radio all through the 1990’s and for Fox in each the 90’s and 2000s, with Torborg calling Braves video games in 2006.
MLB Commerce Rumors sends our condolences to Torborg’s household, mates, and family members.
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