(Updated June 27, 2020)
Because he didn’t produce many triples, Joe Torre wasn’t a prime candidate to hit for the cycle. On the night he achieved the feat for the Cardinals, Torre increased the degree of difficulty by nearly removing himself from the game while still in need of a single.
On June 27, 1973, Torre hit for the cycle _ a single, double, triple and home run _ against the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
Jim Rooker, in his first season with the Pirates after pitching for the Tigers and Royals, got his first National League start that Wednesday night versus the Cardinals.
Torre hit a RBI-double off the wall against Rooker in the first inning and a solo home run over the right-field fence in the third.
In the fourth, facing Bob Johnson, Torre hit a triple to left. It was Torre’s second and last triple of the season.
“I didn’t think I’d ever hit for the cycle because I’m not a triples hitter,” Torre told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Needing a single to complete the cycle, Torre grounded into a double play against Johnson in the fifth inning and a drew a walk from Steve Blass in the eighth.
With the Cardinals ahead, 11-4, and figuring he likely wouldn’t get another at-bat, Torre asked manager Red Schoendienst to remove him from the game. Schoendienst, unwilling to concede the possibility of another at-bat for Torre, declined the request.
“You have to give Red an assist _ I’m glad he ignored me this time,” Torre said.
Torre was scheduled to bat fifth in the ninth inning, meaning at least two Cardinals would need to reach base to give Torre a chance at the single.
When the first two batters, Mike Tyson and Reggie Cleveland, both grounded out, the odds of Torre getting an at-bat seemed stacked against him, but Bernie Carbo and Ted Sizemore each worked a walk against Blass, who entered the game with a 9.44 ERA.
That brought Torre to the plate.
“I was pressing like crazy for the single,” he said.
Torre grounded a pitch that bounced past the mound and into center field for a RBI-single. “It was a 3-and-1 pitch and I sure wasn’t going to take another walk,” Torre told the Pittsburgh Press.
As Torre ran from the batter’s box to first base, he clapped his hands the entire way.
“If I would have hit that last ball off the wall, I would have stopped at first base,” Torre said.
Torre became the first Cardinals batter to hit for the cycle since Ken Boyer in 1964. The only Cardinals to do so since: Lou Brock (1975), Willie McGee (1984), Ray Lankford (1991), John Mabry (1996) and Mark Grudzielanek (2005).
“It’s the first time I’ve ever hit for the cycle,” Torre told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’m not exactly a triples man, you know. It would have been a kick, though, if a lousy single had kept me from getting it.”
In producing the cycle and scoring four runs with three RBI, Torre overshadowed the performance of teammate Ted Simmons, who had his first five-RBI game in the big leagues.
“If I could run, I might be a triples hitter like Joe,” Simmons said to the Associated Press. Boxscore
RetroSimba 
[…] June 27th, 1973 […]
The sad part of this story is the downfall of Steve Blass, a world series mvp, who had been a really good pitcher and a real nice guy. I remember an interview where he said that while this was going on he would be in the back yard at three in the morning sitting on his kid’s swing set and trying to understand why this was happening.
Blass said that he was watching when Rick Ankiel had his meltdown and he told his wife that the phone would start ringing soon, and it did.
Yes, thanks for the insights. In Rick Ankiel’s 2017 book, “The Phenom,” Steve Blass retells the story of watching on TV as Ankiel had his meltdown on the mound in the 2000 postseason game vs. the Braves. According to the book, Blass said, “Oh, my God. This is a terrible thing.” Ankiel said in the book he met Blass for the first time in July 2015 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Regarding his own sudden inability to pitch with command for the Pirates, Blass said to Ankiel, “I remember sitting in my backyard at 4 in the morning, tears coming down my face, asking, ‘Why?’ I didn’t know what caused it. To this day, I don’t know why.”
Joe Torre had only two triples that year. The same number that John Mabry had in 1996.
I was surprised to discover Joe Torre had 9 triples for the 1970 Cardinals and 8 triples for the 1971 Cardinals. He ranked 5th in the National League in triples both years. I would never have imagined he’d rank among the top 5 in the league in triples.
From about the 1972 All-Star break on, Torre went from nearly-great to just-good, similar to Johnny Callison in 1966.
In his book, “Chasing the Dream,” Joe Torre said his playing career began to decline in 1972 because of personal problems, primarily the collapse of a marriage. His wife at the time didn’t like living in St. Louis, so they moved back to New York, and that added more strain and made things worse. Torre said, “The secret to playing baseball consistently well is to be relaxed enough so that you just react to things, as opposed to trying to force things to happen. I could no longer do that because I was too distracted and unhappy.” Torre added, “My numbers turned out to be decent but not up to the standards I expected.”