Midwest League Profile

Torch

"Hitters are like snowflakes. No two of them are alike."
--Tony Torchia

Tony Torchia was the Midwest League's best player in 1962. He was 18, a newly-signed Dodgers farmhand at the time, and assigned to Keokuk. His 1962 stat line:

     G  AB  R   H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB HB   BA  OBA  SLG
   124 477 81 161 33  8 10  94 45 56  8  3 .338 .398 .503

Torch led the league in At Bats, Hits, RBIs, and Batting Average, and he was selected as MWL Player of the Year. His team played decent baseball, finishing the year at 67-57 (.540).

There was chaos in Keokuk, though. No one was watching the games--the Dodgers drew just 28,787 fans that year, about half the league's average--and the team was surrendered to the League on August 7. The league moved the remaining home games to Dubuque and the record book calls this team the Midwest Dodgers.

Tony's playing career would last 13 years, all in the minors, much of it in Triple-A and mostly in the Boston organization. His MWL year was his best year, but he had other seasons which were similar; his career BA was .294 but he didn't show much power for a first baseman. He led the Eastern League in RBIs in 1966.

The BoSox hired him as a minor league manager in 1976. Tony managed in their system through 1986, then moved to the San Diego system, mostly as their AAA hitting coach. From 1994 to 1999 he worked for Colorado, managing their Sally League entry that year and coaching for the Rox PCL team at Colorado Springs after 1996. His managing career has been very successful; he won five league titles in 13 years. He's since worked for the Astros, at New Orleans, and has coached for the Expos at Brevard County.

Tony was Boston's big-league hitting coach in 1985, where his charges included Boggs, Rice, Dewey Evans, and Easler. That's where the quote at the top of this page came from....

This profile originated as the March 20, 1999, Midwest League Tidbit on the Midwest League Mailing List.