Jeff Torborg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jeffrey Allen Torborg (born November 26, 1941 in Plainfield, New Jersey) is a former catcher and manager in Major League Baseball. Torborg was signed by Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1963. On September 9, 1965, Torborg caught Sandy Koufax's perfect game. On May 15, 1973, Torborg also caught the first of Nolan Ryan's 7 no-hitters.

After a successful ten-year career as a catcher with the Dodgers and Angels, Torborg switched to coaching. In 1977, he became the manager of the Cleveland Indians (a position he held for three years). In 1989, Torborg became the manager of the Chicago White Sox. A year later, the White Sox won 94 games which was a 25 game improvement from 1989. For his efforts with the 1990 Chicago White Sox, Torborg won the American League Manager of the Year Award. Torborg would stay with the White Sox for one more year before moving to the New York Mets.

Unfortunately, Torborg wasn't as successful with the Mets as he was with the White Sox. A year after leading the White Sox to an 87-75 record, Torborg's 1992 New York Mets posted a 70-92 record. After starting the 1993 season with a 13-25 record, the Mets fired Torborg and replaced him with Dallas Green.

For the rest of the 1990s, Torborg kept busy working as a sportscaster for the likes of CBS Radio and Fox. Torborg returned to managing first with the Montreal Expos in 2001 and then the Florida Marlins in 2002.

In 2003, Torborg was fired from the Florida Marlins after they started off the season 16-22. Jack McKeon was hired to replace him and led them to the 2003 World Series victory. He then returned to broadcasting on Fox. He served as the color commentator for Atlanta Braves games on FSN South and Turner South in 2006, where he was partnered with Bob Rathbun. However, neither Torborg nor Rathbun was retained for the 2007 season. [1]^{[citation needed]}

While a Braves commentator, Torborg had a fan club known as "Torborg South". The club's logo looks similar to the logo of the Turner South Network.

[edit] External links

Baseball-Reference.com - managing record and playing statistics

Jeff Torborg Watch

Preceded by Frank Robinson	American League Manager of the Year 1990	Succeeded by Tom Kelly
Preceded by Frank Robinson	Cleveland Indians Manager 1977-1979	Succeeded by Dave Garcia
Preceded by Jim Fregosi	Chicago White Sox Manager 1989-1991	Succeeded by Gene Lamont
Preceded by Bud Harrelson	New York Mets Manager 1992-1993	Succeeded by Dallas Green
Preceded by Felipe Alou	Montreal Expos Manager 2001	Succeeded by Frank Robinson
Preceded by Tony Pérez	Florida Marlins Manager 2002-2003	Succeeded by Jack McKeon