Jeff Torborg, an unassuming baseball lifer who caught three no-hitters, together with Sandy Koufax’s good recreation in 1965, and as a supervisor revived the Chicago White Sox however flopped spectacularly with the New York Mets, died on Sunday in Port Orange, Fla. He was 83.
His demise, in a hospital, was introduced by the White Sox, with whom he gained American League Supervisor of Yr honors in 1990. He had struggled lately with Parkinson’s illness, his son Greg stated.
Throughout his 10 seasons enjoying within the majors, most of them as a backup catcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Torborg had a repute as a sturdy, cerebral backstop who couldn’t hit — a deficiency he overcame with the worth he added in adroitly managing pitchers.
“I’ve at all times loved the considering facet, the mechanical facet of the sport,” he advised The Sporting Information in 1973. “I’ve at all times gotten a thrill from doing one thing that doesn’t present up within the field rating, like stopping a wild pitch.”
Torborg was one in all simply 18 catchers in Main League Baseball historical past to catch not less than three no-hitters. His first — Koufax’s good recreation, throughout which the lefty struck out 14 Chicago Cubs batters — is among the many biggest pitching performances ever.
It was solely Torborg’s second season within the massive leagues. He known as each pitch of the sport.
“Sandy didn’t shake off too many pitches on this specific recreation,” he stated in a 2005 interview with Chicago Baseball Museum historian George Citadel.
The Dodgers gained the World Collection that season, the one championship Torborg gained as a participant or supervisor.
In 1970, Torborg caught his second no-hitter, this one thrown by the Dodgers righty Invoice Singer. Torborg joined the California Angels the next yr and in 1973 — his ultimate season as a participant — he caught the primary of Nolan Ryan’s seven profession no-hitters.
Catchers don’t get credit score for no-hitters, however Torborg understood the necessary function they play.
“I really feel {that a} catcher’s pitch choice, his goal location, his information of what the pitcher throws and his familiarity with opposing hitters’ strengths and weaknesses could be necessary elements in making a no-hitter occur,” he advised The New York Instances in 1989.
After retiring, Torborg spent the subsequent three a long time teaching and managing, together with stints with Cleveland, the Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Mets, the Montreal Expos and the Florida Marlins.
His greatest yr as a supervisor was in 1990, throughout his second season with the White Sox, when the workforce completed 94-68 after dropping 92 video games in 1989. Torborg credited a lot of his success to the laid-back household environment he fostered, together with permitting wives to journey with the workforce.
“I imply, why wouldn’t you need guys to be with their household on the street as a substitute of going out someplace?” he stated in a 2010 interview with the Idaho State College sportscaster and White Sox historian Mark Liptak.
The White Sox completed the 1991 season 87-75, however that wasn’t adequate for the workforce’s new common supervisor, Ron Schueler. Torborg, inspired to search for a job, took over in 1992 as skipper of the Mets — a workforce loaded with massive stars like Eddie Murray, Dwight Gooden, Vince Coleman, Bobby Bonilla and Bret Saberhagen.
However the workforce collapsed amid accidents, clubhouse squabbles and poor play. Torborg’s emphasis on household values wasn’t widespread amongst most of the workforce’s veterans, who pushed again in opposition to the concept of bringing wives on journeys.
“The clubhouse, the enjoying area, the press field had been all property of the previous boys’ community, and but right here was Torborg breaking all the principles,” Bob Klapisch and John Harper wrote in “The Worst Staff Cash May Purchase,” their 1993 e book concerning the Mets’ awful season.
Torborg wouldn’t relent. Late within the season, he designated a collection of away video games in St. Louis and Chicago as a wives’ journey.
“On the day the Mets left for St. Louis,” Klapisch and Harper wrote, “a telling inscription was anonymously scribbled on the clubhouse blackboard: SIX DAYS OF HELL.”
The Mets completed 72-90. Torborg was fired early within the 1993 season after a 13-25 begin.
Baseball writers lamented his dismissal.
“One will get the sensation that what New York grew to dislike a lot about Torborg was that it couldn’t flip him into one in all its personal kind of rabid sports activities character,” Claire Smith wrote in The Instances. “You already know, the type that confuses diatribe with clever dialogue, the type that believes the fist is mightier than motive.”
Jeffrey Allen Torborg was born on Nov. 26, 1941, in Plainfield, N.J., the youthful of two sons, and grew up in close by Westfield. His father, Robert, labored within the insurance coverage business. His mom was Winifred (Kenney) Torborg.
Torborg was an All-American baseball participant at Rutgers. He led the nation in hitting with a .537 batting common in his senior season, and the Dodgers signed him in 1963 with a $100,000 bonus (the equal of about $1 million in the present day). He performed one season for the workforce’s Class AA affiliate in Albuquerque, the place his repute as a hitter collapsed in opposition to higher pitching.
He’s survived by his spouse of almost 62 years, Suzie (Barber) Torborg; three sons, Doug, Greg, and Dale; 4 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Regardless of hitting poorly within the minor leagues, Torborg was rapidly promoted to the large leagues. He marveled that Dodgers supervisor Walter Alston, a Corridor of Fame skipper, even put him within the lineup.
“He was conscious that I couldn’t hit a lick,” Torborg advised Baseball Digest in 2002, “however he nonetheless performed me. I don’t understand how he went to the Corridor of Fame with that form of judgment.”