» July 18, 1961: Henry Aaron, Joe Adcock, and Joe Torre of the Braves startle the Reds with a triple steal in the 6th inning. For Aaron, it is his first steal of home.

» May 29, 1962: Ernie Banks makes a spectacular return from his May 25th beaning with three HRs and a double against the Braves at Wrigley Field. Three teammates hit HRs, but the Cubs lose to the Braves, 11–9. Amado Samuel hits his 1st ML HR and Joe Torre and Joe Adcock also connect. The Cubs outhit the Braves, 15–8, but a Andre Rodgers error in the third opens the way for six unearned runs.

» September 25, 1964: The 1st-place Phils, just three 1/2 games in the lead after dropping three games at home to the Reds (9–2 and 6–4) throw Jim Bunning at the Braves. Bunning lasts six innings but the Braves topple the host Phils, 5–3, as Joe Torre belts two triples to drive home three runs. In the 2nd contest, the woes continue as the Phillies lose 7–5 in 11 innings. Chris Short goes eight innings for Philley before exiting with a 3–3 tie. Torre slams a two run homer in the 10th, but the Phils match it, before losing it in the 11th. Torre had three hits in the nitecap with three RBIs.

» September 27, 1964: Despite three home runs by Johnny Callison, the Phils are 14–8 losers to the Braves, who complete a 4-game sweep at Connie Mack Stadium. The Phils' 7th straight loss drops them out of first, which they had held for 73 days. Milwaukee tallied 22 hits—10 against Jim Bunning in four innings—and four relievers. Joe Torre has two hits including his 20th homer.

» June 8, 1965: Joe Torre, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, and Gene Oliver hit 10th-inning home runs, as the Braves win 8–2 at Chicago. It sets the major-league record for most home runs in an extra inning.

» April 12, 1966: The Braves and Tony Cloninger lose their first game in Atlanta 3–2 to Pittsburgh in 13 innings, with 50,761 fans on hand. Both Atlanta runs come on homers by Joe Torre, who opened the 1965 Milwaukee Braves season with two homers against the Reds.

» March 17, 1969: St. Louis trades 1B Orlando Cepeda to Atlanta for C/1B Joe Torre. Torre will knock in 100 RBIs in each of the next three seasons topping it off with the MVP Award in 1971.

» August 28, 1970: Jerry Reuss allows two hits and the Cards beat the host Dodgers, 1–0, when Joe Torre belts a 9th inning home run off Don Sutton. It is Reuss' 2nd two hitter this month, having beaten the Expos 4–0 on August 9.

» April 6, 1971: Before 41,121 at Chicago, Billy Williams clubs a 10th inning homer off Bob Gibson to give the Cubs a 2–1 win over the Cards. Joe Torre's homer, off Fergie Jenkins, is the only Cardinal score.

» November 10, 1971: Joe Torre, who hit 24 home runs for the Cardinals and led the NL in RBI (137) and batting (.363), wins the MVP Award over Willie Stargell (48, 125, .295). Torre receives 318 points to Stargell's 222.

» June 27, 1973: Led by 1B Joe Torre, who hits for the cycle, the Cards tally 22 hits to roll over the Pirates 15–4. Torre hit a double in the 1st, homered in the 3rd, and tripled in the 4th. After hitting into a double play, and then walking in the 8th, Torre asks to be pinch run for, but Red Schoendienst leaves him. Torre then singles in the 9th inning completing the cycle, and raising his average to .338.

» October 13, 1974: The Cardinals trade Joe Torre to the Mets for pitchers Ray Sadecki and Tommy Moore. Torre will not solve the Mets' 3B problems but he will be named manager in 1977.

» July 21, 1975: The Mets Felix Millan has four straight singles but is wiped out each time when Joe Torre grounds into four straight DPs, tying a ML record. New York loses 6–2 to the Astros.

» May 31, 1977: The Mets fire manager Joe Frazier, replacing him with 3B Joe Torre.

» October 4, 1981: With one game remaining in the season, the Mets fire manager Joe Torre and his entire coaching staff. The team finishes 41-62.

» October 23, 1981: Joe Torre signs a 3-year contract to manage the Braves.

» August 12, 1984: In one of the ugliest brawl-filled games in ML history, the Braves beat the Padres 5–3 in Atlanta. The trouble begins when Atlanta's Pascual Perez hits Alan Wiggins in the back with the first pitch of the game, and escalates as the Padres pitchers retaliate by throwing at Perez all four times he comes to the plate. All in all, the game features two bench-clearing brawls, the 2nd of which includes several fans, and 19 ejections, including both managers and both replacement managers. Padres manager Dick Williams will be suspended for 10 days and fined $10,000, while Braves manager Joe Torre and five players will each receive 3-game suspensions. But the brawl in Atlanta, as Dave Campbell observed, "woke the Padres up out of their doldrums."

» October 1, 1984: Braves manager Joe Torre is fired by owner Ted Turner and replaced by Eddie Haas. Atlanta was 80-82 this season, 12 games behind the first-place Padres.

» July 6, 1990: Disgusted with the team's performance, Whitey Herzog resigns as manager of the Cardinals after 10 years. Red Schoendienst will replace him temporarily and Joe Torre will be named permanent manager on August 1st.

» October 6, 1991: Greg Maddux and the Cubs beat the Cards, 7-3, with Omar Olivares the loser. The Cards are thwarted in their attempt to become the first team since the 1912 Washington Senators to have 10 players with 10 or more stolen bases. In the 9th inning, Joe Torre inserts Tom Pagnozzi, with nine steals, into the game as a pinch runner, but Hector Villanueva throws him out. Yesterday, Pagnozzi reached base twice and both times the burly Villanueva gunned him down.

» June 16, 1995: The Cardinals fire manager Joe Torre, and replace him on an interim basis with Mike Jorgensen.

» November 2, 1995: The Yankees name Joe Torre as their new manager, replacing Buck Showalter.

» April 30, 1997: The Yankees get a lead off home run from Tim Raines and nine strike outs from David Wells to beat the Mariners, 3–2. Joe Torre wins his 1,000th game while Dennis Martinez takes the loss, dropping his record against the Yanks to 2–18. Jay Buhner homers for the M's in the 9th against closer Mariano Rivera. Tino Martinez hits his 9th home run in the 8th inning, upping his ML-record RBI total to 34 for the month. Martinez will have 40 RBIs in his first 30 games, the first player to do so since Roy Campanella in 1953; Campy had 44.

» June 28, 1997: Yankees' P David Wells starts the game against Cleveland wearing Babe Ruth's autographed cap from the 1934 season. Manager Joe Torre makes him take it off after the 1st inning since it doesn't conform to the team's current uniform. Without the cap, Wells blows a 3-0 lead as the Indians go on to a 12-8 victory. The Indians mount a 19-hit attack, as CF Marquis Grissom accounts for five of the hits, while 3B Matt Williams gets four hits, including a pair of homers, and drives home six runs.

» May 6, 1998: In a wild game, the Yankees (22–6) beat the Rangers, 15-13, after jumping out to a 9-0 lead with two in the 1st and seven in the 2nd. But the Rangers came back with seven in the 3rd. After the Yankees score four in the top of the 4th, the Rangers score three to cut the lead to 13-10, then tie it with three in the 6th. Jorge Posada's RBI single gives the Yankees the lead in the 8th. Derek Jeter has four hits, including a triple and homer, and five RBI, while Paul O'Neill contributes three hits, two runs, two RBI, a double and a home run. Juan Gonzalez has three hits, five RBI, three runs and a home run for the Rangers. The game is a turning point for David Wells. After Wells allows seven runs on seven hits in two 2/3 innings, he receives a tongue lashing from Joe Torre which proves therapeutic.

» March 10, 1999: Yankees manager Joe Torre is diagnosed with prostate cancer. While he is undergoing treatment, the team will be run by coach Don Zimmer.

» May 3, 1999: The Pirates score four runs in the bottom of the 9th to defeat the Giants, 9-8. Jeff Kent gets five hits for the Giants, and hits for the cycle, just the 2nd player to do so in Three Rivers Stadium. Joe Torre did it on June 27, 1973. Jason Kendall goes 5-for-5, with two doubles, in a losing cause for Pittsburgh. The Blue Jays outslug the Mariners, 16-10. Carlos Delgado goes 3-for-3 for Toronto, with two home runs, five runs scored, and five RBIs.

» May 18, 1999: The Yankees lose to the Red Sox, 6-3, as Joe Torre returns as Yankee manager after being treated for prostate cancer.

» August 7, 2000: The Yankees obtain Jose Canseco from the Devil Rays. The move, which mystifies even manager Joe Torre, is presumably designed to keep the high priced slugger away from AL East rivals.

» September 19, 2000: After a 16–3 loss to Toronto, New York manager Joe Torre has a team meeting, and blisters the Yankees for poor play. It won't help as they lose their next seven games—15-4, 2-1, 11-1, 11-3, 13-2, 9-1, 7-3.

» November 30, 2000: The Yankees sign Orioles free agent P Mike Mussina to a 6-year contract worth $88.5 million. Mussina says a deciding factor was a call from Joe Torre.

» April 2, 2001: David Wells pitches six strong innings and Magglio Ordonez hits a 3-run as the White Sox beat the Indians, 7–4 in the opener for both teams. Colon gives up all seven Chicago runs. The bright spot for the Tribe is Juan Gonzalez, who bangs two homers, the 1st Indian with two home runs on Opening Day since Duke Sims, in 1968. Gonzalez also became just the 4th player to twice hit two home runs on Opening Day (Eddie Mathews: 1954, 1958; Raul Mondesi: 1995, 1999; Joe Torre: 1965, 1966).

» August 9, 2001: Yankees P Ted Lilly is suspended for six games for hitting Anaheim's Scott Spiezio in the head with a pitch in a game last Sunday. NY manager Joe Torre rips into baseball's dean of discipline Frank Robinson for the decision. Lilly was not thrown out of the game by the umpires when the incident occurred.

» May 12, 2002: The Yankees top Minnesota on Mother's Day, 10–4, giving Joe Torre his 1,500th career win as manager.