Tuesday, September 07, 2010
A half-century ago today (9/8/10)
Posted by Chris JaffeFifty years ago today, the Braves signed a future Hall of Famer to his first professional contract: Joe Torre.
Man, he's been around a while, hasn't he? Given what a good player he was, I'm surprised he didn't sign his first pro contract until he was 20 years old. That's doubly surprising given that his brother was already a major league ballplayer; it ain't like Torre should've been under anyone's radar.
He isn't the only famous baseball name signed on this day. On September 8, 1953, the Cubs signed Ernie Banks.
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail.