Mike Torrez, Retired MLB Player & The Club

I got to spend some time with Mike Torrez recently.  Torrez, who pitched for 17 years for seven different teams, including the 1978 Boston Red Sox (he served up the infamous Bucky Dent home run), told a story about one of the reasons why he thought Boston blew their 14-game lead that season over the Yankees. 

It comes down to this: Don Zimmer got offended.  And he kicked Bill Lee out of The Club.

What is The Club?  It's made up of the 750 players at any given time on a team's active 25-man roster.  It includes the managers, coaches and trainers.  It includes the front office, from the owner to the GM to the minor league scout.  It includes all of MLB, like the commissioner, his lieutenants, and the support staff that make the league run. 

That's The Club.

In 1978, Red Sox pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee, not known for keeping his mouth shut (you can hear his interview with me HERE), called Don Zimmer, Boston's manager, "The designated gerbil." 

He also helped form a tandem of players, dubbed "The BuffaloHeads," to mock their manager.  Zimmer, furious, took Lee out of the starting rotation.  Torrez thinks that led to the team's downfall. 

Allen Ripley was put into Lee's spot and proceeded to go 2-5 with a 5.55 ERA.  So, in effect, Zimmer had kicked Lee out of The Club because of personal reasons and his team lost the American League East. 

Lee was traded in the offseason to Montreal and continued to pitch well.  And speak his mind too.  He was kicked out of The Club for good during the 1982 season.  Without an agent to help him, he never got back in.

Mike Torrez never got back into The Club after his release from Oakland in 1984 (the Mets released him earlier that season).  "Youth movement" was the cause. 

That winter, Torrez pitched in the Puerto Rican league and threw a one-hitter in his last game. 

"Scouts came running up to me asking what team I was signed to," said Torrez. "I said, 'nobody.' They said they'd call." 

Nobody ever did call.  Mike didn't have an agent.  He was on his own.  He was out of The Club.  (He had one last shot with the Reds and Pete Rose.  Interesting dog track story you'll hear in our interview in a few weeks).

Garrett Berger was part of The Club.  A No. 1 pick by the Florida Marlins in 2003, Garrett was treated like royalty.  Until he hurt his arm.  His body was never the same.  And neither was his treatment.  "I had my shot," he said. 

But the window of opportunity for him shut quickly.  Eyes started looking elsewhere.  New ownership came in.  They had their player priorities.  A No. 1 pick of the past regime was not one of them.

Once you're in The Club, you don't want to get out.  While Torrez says he was okay with ending his career at 37, Eric Valent, former Phillies and Mets outfielder, was through at 30. 

"I said, 'If I'm not in the big leagues by 30, I'll quit,"  said Valent.

Valent had a productive 2004 season with the Mets, hitting 13 home runs.  But his spring training in 2005 was injury-riddled.  His stay with the team didn't last long. 

He was in the minors most of the season.  From there, it was to Japan, which didn't last a full season either.  He was told he could go home before they were done playing out the spring.  Not only was Valent out of the MLB Club, he was out of Japan's too.

Valent has found a way to get back in, however.  He's the hitting coach for the Phillies' Williamsport CrossCutters.  Will he ever make it back to the big leagues?  Will he be part of the MLB Club again?  As long as he doesn't compare any of his managers to a gerbil, as long as the eyes stay on him, as long as he puts in his time, he may get his shot. 

If you don't?  Then you need to find something else.  Like Torrez, who has run his own business, MAT Premiums International, since 1995.  It's a small business that will take your corporate logo and put it on a pen, hat, or alarm clock. 

It's not baseball.  It's definitely not The Club.  But it's a living.  And Mike's still a part of baseball once in a while, appearing at an Old Timer's Day, charity golf event, or signing autographs for luxury box guests at Yankee Stadium.  He's still got his toes in The Club.  And at 62 years old, maybe that's enough.