Mike Torrez: A Baseball Biography

Was hoping for a book that covered his unique career, filled with lots of highs and lows, in great depth and detail. Instead, much of the focus was on his Mexican American heritage and his impact on Mexican American sports & culture in the Midwest. Interesting subject for some, but not why I purchased this book. Only about 2/3 of the book was on Torrez's career, and most disappointingly, there was only one player (by my count) that the author interviewed for the book ... that was Dennis Eckersley, who was maybe quoted twice. The rest of the book seemed to come from old newspaper articles and box scores. Finally in the last chapter you got to hear some of Torrez's feelings about 1978, but they were second hand and by then, too little too late.

My hometown hero. Great story about my neighborhood. I know the history, but wanted the book about Mike. Won two games in 1977 World Series for Yankees. May have been the MVP of the Series, except a guy on the team by the name of "Mr. October" cranked out 3 dingers in a game.

great story

There is much more to the Mike Torrez story than just the pitch to Bucky Dent. Torrez won more games than any Mexican-American pitcher in baseball history (more than the more famously remembered Fernando Valenzuela). His career also encompassed many important events and characters from the 1960s and 1970s, including the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals of Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Curt Flood, the swinging A's of the seventies, the Bronx Zoo Yankees of 1977 and the cursed Red Sox of 1978. He also figured prominently in the new economic climate of the seventies and the dawning of free agency. This book covers it all in fine detail along with the author's area of expertise--the Mexican-American experience and it's impact on baseball, which is vital to the understanding of Mike Torrez and where he came from. Mr. Iber obviously did a large amount of research and has turned out a fine addition to the baseball literature of the era.