Tony Torchia

Anthony Lewis Torchia (December 13, 1943 – September 24, 2021) was a Major League Baseball coach and minor league player and manager. The Chicago native was a left-handed throwing, right-handed batting first baseman who played 13 seasons in the minors.

Tony Torchia
Torchia in 1988
Coach
Born: (1943-12-13)December 13, 1943
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died: September 24, 2021(2021-09-24) (aged 77)[1]
Tucson, Arizona, United States
Batted: Right
Threw: Left
Teams
As coach

Biography

Torchia was originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers after playing for Miami Dade College. He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox after his rookie season, 1962, and he would spend 23 years in the Boston organization.[2] Torchia played in 1,435 minor league games and batted .294 with 89 home runs.

Torchia holds the distinction of having been the only man who has served as a player, coach and manager of the Pawtucket Red Sox. After he retired as a player in 1974, he coached for the "PawSox" in 1975 (under skipper Joe Morgan). He then managed Boston farm clubs from 1976 to 1984, ranging from Class A to Triple A. His first team, the Winston-Salem Red Sox, won the 1976 Carolina League pennant. He skippered the Bristol Red Sox of the Double-A Eastern League for five seasons (1978–82), winning league titles in 1978 and 1981. Torchia returned to Pawtucket as the third manager in the club's Triple-A history in 1983. He spent two seasons there, winning the 1984 Governors' Cup, emblematic of the championship of the International League.

Torchia then was named bullpen coach for the Boston Red Sox in 1985, his only full campaign in Major League Baseball. He managed Boston's Double-A New Britain farm club in 1986 before leaving the organization for good. He later sued the Red Sox and co-owner Haywood Sullivan, claiming he was demoted and subsequently fired for seeking psychotherapy for depression in 1985.[3]

Beginning in 1987, Torchia coached and managed at the minor league level for the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros and Montréal Expos.[2] His 1988 Riverside Red Wave, a San Diego affiliate, won the Class A California League championship. Torchia later managed the Asheville Tourists of the South Atlantic League in 1994, the Brevard County Manatees of the Florida State League in 2002, and finally the Mid-Missouri Mavericks in the independent Frontier League in 2003.

He died on September 24, 2021.[1]

References
  1. Murphy, Abby; Long, Justin; Loor–Almonte, Bryan; Montemagno, Kyle; Benson, David (2022). Boston Red Sox 2022 Media Guide. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Red Sox Media Relations Department. p. 2.
  2. "Tony Torchia Profile". MWL Guide. March 20, 1999.
  3. "Torchia Says Red Sox Fired Him for Seeking Therapy". Associated Press. June 16, 1989 – via LA Times.

Further reading
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