You are hereBlogs / Jimmy Scott's blog / Jimmy Scott's High & Tight: The Mike Torrez Interview

Jimmy Scott's High & Tight: The Mike Torrez Interview

By Jimmy Scott - Posted on 19 January 2009

It is really a special thing to be able to talk to somebody you grew up watching on TV. It's especially special when that somebody talks back. Mike Torrez recently talked back to me. Not in the "Don't be fresh, Mike" way, but in the, "Thanks for having me, Jimmy" kind of way. Mike is a class act through & through.

I know this because of one moment in time he is most famous for (unfortunately, on his part). It was 1978. Last game of the regular season, so last they called it game 163. Mike's Boston Red Sox had just been good enough to blow a 14-game lead over the rival New York Yankees. Mike, who had pitched for New York in 1977 and won Game 6 of that World Series, the game that clinched a championship over the Los Angeles Dodgers, was on the mound to face his teammates from just one year before. He was doing well until the 7th inning, whenBucky Dent hit a forever-improbable 3-run home run to put New York ahead to stay.

Mike talks about the big hit, but we dig a little deeper. How did he feel? Why did Boston even get in that situation? Could the team have done things differently and never even had to play that game? (Mike's answer is yes. Two words: Bill Lee.)

A big question for Mike was this: If you'd just won a World Series with the Yankees in '77, why would you leave in the first place? He tells us right at the beginning, in glorious detail, about being one of baseball's first free agents. He also explains why he was traded to the New York Mets and why the Mets released in in 1984, right when that team was on the precipace of becoming a winning organization again. But when they released him, there were whispers around baseball that Mike had a sore arm. Did he? If not, who started those rumors? Was it Frank Cashen, Davey Johnson & the Mets? I'm not saying. He does.

And when it was over, how did he know? What happened at an encounter between Mike & Pete Rose at a Florida dog track? How did Mike transition from durable, winning pitcher to former player who signs autographs (sometimes with Bucky Dent) at card shows? How did he feel when he was introduced as "former pitcher Mike Torrez" at charity events? And how on earth did he go from 20-game winner in 1975 to owner of his own company, MAT Premiums International? Oh, and knowing that Mike's middle name is Augustine, what could the "MAT" in MAT Premiums Internationalstand for?

Post-interview, some big baseball news happened for Mike Torrez. He was named pitching coach for the Newark Bears, an independent league team that will be managed by former big leaguer (and two-time World Champion with the Yankees) Tim "Rock" Raines. Don't believe me? Click on the word Believe.

So, if you're interested in the Yankees, Mets and/or Red Sox, if you want to know why a consistent winner like Michael Augustine Torrez was married three times, if you want to know about Florida's Senior League from the late-1980s, then click on the little block arrow just below this paragraph. I'm fairly certain you're going to like Mike as much as I did, and still do. And the soundtrack? It's a keeper. Listen, learn and enjoy.