Torre, Embarking on a New Career, Finds He Likes It

For 28 years, Joe Torre put on a baseball uniform when he went to work. He was a player for 20 years, a manager for eight more.

He played for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets, then managed the Mets for five seasons and the Braves for three before being fired after the 1984 season.

Now he’s the Angels’ TV commentator.

“I haven’t missed strapping on the ol’ uniform yet,” Torre said from his home in Atlanta. “This is a new challenge for me, and I’m really getting into it.”

But is television announcing a new career, or just something to keep him busy until another managerial job comes along?

“I don’t know,” Torre said. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing and not looking down the road.” As for accepting another managing job, he said, “I guess it would depend on the situation.”

In the meantime, his new career is blossoming. NBC has already shown interest, hiring him to work a game with play-by-play announcer Jay Randolph on a doubleheader date later this season.

Torre doesn’t need to work. His contract with the Braves doesn’t expire until after the 1986 season, and it pays him more than $200,000 a year.

Torre’s first job offer in broadcasting came from Braves owner Ted Turner, the man who fired him. Turner asked Torre if he wanted to be a radio commentator for his team. Torre said no. “It would have been an awkward situation,” Torre said.

Torre later heard about a radio job with the Chicago White Sox. He pursued that one. Not long after that he heard from a New York writer who had talked with Dick Enberg that the Angels were looking for a TV commentator.

“I called Dick and he put me in touch with Hec Highton (Channel 5 sports director),” Torre said.

The White Sox were still interested as well, so Torre hired an agent, who struck a deal with the Angels.

“It’s really ideal,” Torre said. “Since it’s only 40 games, I didn’t even have to relocate. My only problem was having to study up on the American League.”

After the strike-shortened season of 1981, Torre worked the mini-playoff series between Philadelphia and Montreal for CBS Radio with Jack Buck. During his last two seasons as the Braves’ manager, he had his own TV show.

That was the extent of his broadcasting experience, though, before the Angels hired him.

ESPN used him on two college baseball telecasts, then he worked two spring games for the Angels before making his regular-season debut during a three-game series at Oakland two weeks ago.

Torre was back on the air Thursday night, working the Angels’ game at Seattle, the first of a four-game series. Channel 5 is televising all four games.

“I’ve critiqued my tapes, and I feel I’m improving,” Torre said. “I have to try to not talk too much.

“I’m fortunate to know a lot of sportscasters. I talked to Vin Scully, Joe Garagiola, a lot of them, and came to the conclusion that the key to this business is preparation. I’m reading everything I can get my hands on and talking to as many baseball people as I can. And I study the box scores.”

Torre said another thing that helped him was being familiar with broadcasting partner Bob Starr, who was with the Cardinals when Torre was playing for them.

Dodgervision update: The first of the 20 home games the Dodgers and Metromedia are offering to cable subscribers on a pay-per-view basis was televised Thursday night. The second will be televised Saturday night.

Metromedia’s Walter Kalb, the executive in charge of Dodgervision, said about 3,000 subscribers have signed up for the 20-game package, which costs $85. Possibly that many again will order individual games. It costs $6 to order one game at a time.

“Our main concern now is to educate the people about what we are and what we are offering,” Kalb said. “We are not taking games off free television and charging for them. What we are offering is just another way for people to watch the Dodgers if they so desire.”

There are 25 cable systems in Southern California, plus one in Honolulu and another in Scottsdale, Ariz., now carrying Dodgervision. Those systems represent 600,000 TV households.

Of those 600,000 households, 315,000 are addressable, that is, capable of receiving individual games on demand. Subscribers with nonaddressable systems must take a season package.

Four major Southern California cable companies--Valley Cable, Rogers, Group W and Falcon--are not carrying Dodgervision. Neither are ON-TV or SelecTV.

No consolation to fans: USC football Coach Ted Tollner said this week that the Trojans may travel to Tokyo to play Oregon in the Mirage Bowl Nov. 30 in order to compensate the players, particularly the seniors, for not being able to appear on television this season.

That’s fine, but what good does that do USC’s fans who will be deprived of watching the Trojans on TV this fall? They’re not getting any free trips.

Notes The first of the four-part International Race of Champions will be televised on CBS Saturday at 11 a.m., and this one is definitely worth watching. The 100-mile race, taped Feb. 15 at Daytona, Fla., had an incredible finish. The three leaders, A.J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough and Tom Sneva, battling for position, crashed just before the finish, enabling Darrell Waltrip to sneak through and win. What’s more, Waltrip car was equipped with an in-car camera, so viewers are home can see what a wreck looks like from a driver’s perspective. . . . Howard Cosell, who hasn’t work a live event since the baseball playoffs last fall, will be a part of ABC’s team at the Kentucky Derby May 4 and will also work the Tournament of Champions tennis at Forest Hills the following Saturday. . . . Latest rumor about Monday Night Football: Don Meredith will not be back and Joe Namath was asked to replace him. But Namath, who is devoting all his efforts to his acting career, turned down the offer. . . . Did you wonder why CBS didn’t switch from the Lakers’ romp over Phoenix last Saturday to the closely contested Cleveland-Boston game? The problem was that the network was running three commercial spots behind on the Laker telecast, and, you know, you don’t mess around with commercial time. So viewers were stuck with a terrible game and deprived of seeing a good one. . . . NBC’s baseball Game of the Week Saturday will be dedicated to cameraman Jim Herring, 43, of Los Angeles, who died in his sleep earlier this week.

HBO, which was prepared to pay more than $9 million for exclusive live TV rights to the Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns fight, ended up paying $1 million for the delayed rights. It may have been the best $1 million HBO ever spent. A lot of people didn’t see the fight live, and those who did wanted to see it again. HBO showed the replay last Monday night, and will show it again tonight at 11:30 and Saturday night at 6. . . . Add HBO: The cable network’s coverage of the fight was far superior to the live coverage. . . . Last add fight: An estimated 1.2 million people watched it at closed-circuit locations and, in Los Angeles, another 100,000 watched it at home on a pay-per-view basis. . . . ESPN’s coverage of next Tuesday’s NFL draft will begin at 5 a.m. and continue through 1 p.m. This is the sixth year that ESPN has covered the draft. . . . ESPN will show highlights of the two most recent Handicapped Skiers Invitationals today at 1:30 p.m. Ted Kennedy Jr. is the host of the show. . . . Because of a change in ownership, San Clemente radio station KWVE-fm has dropped the Lazers. KFOX-fm carried, delayed, the indoor soccer team’s first playoff game Wednesday and is scheduled to do the second tonight at Baltimore, delayed at 8. But as of Thursday there was no radio station lined up to carry Game 3, which is Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Forum. . . . You may have noticed that Dodger broadcasts on KABC radio sound better this year. That’s because they’re now in stereo. Microphones have been put in left field, right field and behind home plate. . . . KABC radio’s Tommy Hawkins will be the master of ceremonies when a life-sized statue of Jackie Robinson is unveiled at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium Saturday at 11:30 a.m. . . . “Calling All Sports” on Channel 56 Monday nights at 10 is changing its format to audience participation for the next five weeks, and Bob Elder, the Anaheim station’s sports director, said fans are invited to come to the studio. The guests on the show next Monday night will be quarterbacks Vince Ferragamo of the Rams, Steve Young of the Express, Sean Salisbury of USC and 6-3 freshman sensation Todd Marinovich of Mater Dei High.