If Your Birthday is July 18th...

...you share it with the manager who helped restore the Yankees success, stability and pride, Joe Torre.  A first-rate catcher who enjoyed a career renaissance after moving to 3rd base with the Cardinals, the Brooklyn native's first three managerial jobs were for the teams where he once played -- the Mets, Cards and Braves (whom he led to the 1982 NL West title).  But who could have predicted that after being fired by St. Louis, the best was yet to come?  Hired by the Yankees after George Steinbrenner fired Buck Showalter (whose '95 club lost to Seattle in the playoffs), the local tabloids were 
skeptical -- remember that Daily News back page proclaiming "Clueless Joe" -- especially since Torre hadn't led a team to the post-season in a dozen years.

Well, Joe was more than clued in. His 1996 Yankees won the Worlds Championship for the first time in 18 years.  And the teams kept winning, racking up titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000. In fact, the Yankees made the post-season in every one of Torre's 12 seasons.  Only Joe McCarthy lasted longer as Yankee skipper.  (And the winning ways continued after leaving the Bronx.  Moving to the Dodgers in 2008, he extended his personal post-season streak to 14 years.)

A leader, a unifier, a master strategist -- and most importantly, a winner -- Joe Torre was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014. 




 

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