RetroSimba

Joe Torre reported to Cardinals spring training prepared to be their catcher, got switched to third base two weeks before the season opened and ended up playing a similar number of games at both positions.

In March 1970, the Cardinals asked Torre to change positions after third baseman Mike Shannon was diagnosed with a kidney ailment. Torre, 29, hadn’t played third base since he was “a fat kid in high school back home in Brooklyn,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Torre, who got to camp weighing 228 pounds, went on a diet, lost 25 pounds and was able to perform with the agility needed at third base.

Torre as Twiggy

Torre’s weight loss wasn’t dictated by the club. He did it on his own and before he was asked to play third base.

The motivation for the weight loss was twofold:

_ He would turn 30 during the 1970 season and knew he had to work more diligently to stay in shape.

_ He also knew there was a chance he could be shifted to first base when catcher Ted Simmons, the Cardinals’ top prospect, completed a military commitment and joined the club in May.

Torre followed a diet developed by Dr. Irwin Stillman of Brooklyn. The Stillman Diet emphasized drinking large quantities of water, eating foods high in protein and avoiding carbohydrates and fats.

In his book, “Chasing the Dream,” Torre explained, “Every time you eat a hardboiled egg and then have two or three glasses of water, it’s like swallowing a sponge and filling it up. That’s the idea. You’re full.”

The Stillman Diet was controversial but it worked for Torre.

“I was the kind of guy who thought nothing of eating candy, soft drinks, banana cream pies and junk like that,” Torre said. “I really watched what I ate after the diet and learned to reduce my portions.”

Change in plans

On March 18, 1970, the Cardinals disclosed Shannon’s kidney ailment and said he’d be unavailable to play for a while.

Manager Red Schoendienst initially considered using one of his utility infielders, Cookie Rojas or Phil Gagliano, to play third, the Post-Dispatch reported, but neither was the run producer Shannon had been for the Cardinals.

Another utility player, Carl Taylor, was regarded a good hitter and, though he primarily played first base and outfield, he had caught in 29 games as a rookie for the 1968 Pirates.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the scouting report on Taylor as a catcher was “he has a strong arm,” but “he has problems getting the ball away properly.”

Schoendienst decided to test Taylor at catcher and Torre at third base.

“I’m going to give that combination every chance to make it in the last two weeks of exhibition games,” Schoendienst said. “If Carl can do it behind the plate, I believe Joe will do all right at third.”

Said Torre: “If I can get enough work there, I think I can do it.”

Hot corner lessons

Torre received a crash course on how to play third from coaches George Kissell and Vern Benson as well as Ken Boyer, a five-time Gold Glove Award winner who was in camp as manager of the Cardinals’ Arkansas farm club.

“I can use all the instruction I can get,” Torre said.

The Post-Dispatch reported, “For 15 minutes, Kissell had Torre fielding grounders hit to either side of him. Later, Phil Gagliano joined Kissell in hitting grounders and Torre began to wish he were an octopus.”

“I thought I used to hate catching batting practice most,” Torre told the Post-Dispatch, “but now I hate George Kissell.”

In his book, “Chasing the Dream,” Torre said, “George Kissell turned me into a third baseman.”

The experience also helped Torre become a Hall of Fame manager.

“I learned one of my many lessons from George,” Torre said. “As a manager, you have to find a way to communicate with people _ to correct and suggest things _ without having them resent you for it.”

Let’s try this

While the experiment with Torre at third base was succeeding, the experiment with Taylor at catcher wasn’t doing as well.

“I never was supposed to be a Bill Dickey,” Taylor told the Post-Dispatch. “They know my glove is not what brought me up here.”

On Easter Sunday, with a week remaining in spring training, Schoendienst returned Torre to catcher and put Taylor on the bench.

“You just have to have a good defensive catcher, someone who has been catching a lot,” Schoendienst said.

The manager’s next move was to shift Richie Allen from first base to third. Allen was the Phillies’ third baseman from 1964-67 before he hurt his hand and changed positions.

After watching Allen work out at third, Schoendienst said, “Allen has been throwing a lot better from third base than he has in the six years I’ve seen him.”

Said Allen: “I don’t care where I play. I’ll do whatever the manager wants me to do … I just hope I can throw well enough to suit everybody.”

Though the Cardinals opened the regular season with Torre at catcher, Allen at third and Joe Hague at first base, Schoendienst said the experiments of spring training were valuable because, “We know now that Torre can play third base good enough.”

Fine fit

Allen returned to first base when Shannon came back to the lineup in mid-May. When Shannon struggled to hit, Schoendienst benched him, played Torre at third and started Simmons at catcher.

Though Shannon eventually got back in the lineup, his kidney condition deteriorated and, when he stopped playing in August 1970, Torre became the third baseman.

Torre played 90 games at catcher (88 starts) and 73 games at third base (72 starts) for the 1970 Cardinals.

He was the Cardinals’ third baseman in 1971, when he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, and 1972 before moving to first base in 1973 to make way for smooth-fielding Ken Reitz.