Joe Torre Day

No team knows how to stage a day of honor the way the Yankees do. Saturday. Joe Torre became the 18th Yankee to have his number retired by the club. Making the post-season 12 years in a row, six pennants and four World Series titles form a heck of a resume -- a dynasty as impressive as any in Yankee history. I liked seeing the chalked number-six in the shadow of the grandstand. Below, Joe and his wife Ali look over the plaque being added to Monument Park.
Torre oversaw sustained success after a decade and a half of turbulence and underachievement in the Yankee organization. George Steinbrenner -- you bet Joe mentioned him prominently in this acceptance speech -- changed managers 20 times in 23 years before Joe's arrival. Torre spent 12 seasons doing nothing but playing in October. Maybe it was fitting that one of the products Joe pitched on TV and radio was green tea. Joe's approach seemed to symbolize the warmth, calm and quality of the product. "Clueless Joe" read the famous New York Daily News back page when he was hired. By 2014, his Hall of Fame induction and Yankee number retirement indicated he was more in the category of sage or saint -- and deservedly so.
Below: Joe's daughter Andrea (in denim jacket) was joined by a pair of her friends to sing the national anthem.
Above: friends, family and the Steinbrenner family honor Joe Torre on his big day.
Below, Joe is surrounded by some of the players and coaches he worked with during his Yankee years
Below: Cheers from the Yankee dugout, including Torre's shortstop Derek Jeter, and Joe Girardi, Torre's first Yankee catcher, who later became a coach under him and then, his successor.
If you grew up in the 1960s, number-six on the Yankees was first, Clete Boyer, then outfielder Roy White. Before our time, it was worn by 3rd basemen Bobby Brown and Andy Carey, briefly by Mickey Mantle (before he made 7 his) and originally in 1929, by another Yankee enshrined in Cooperstown, Tony Lazzeri. But for tenure and accomplishment, the number-six will be synonymous with Joe Torre for all time.

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