Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way

Be It, Family at Home, Or His NY Yankee Team Family, it's Great To See the LOVE, on the Playing Field, and Off!!" Joe Torre's book, and this TV movie, showcased his first season, as team manager of the New York Yankees, and subsequent 1996, World Series, Championship, and with the team, and his family went through with him during the season.

Sadly, the Torre family lost his oldest brother, Rocco, 69, to a sudden heart attack, after the 1st winning game, of a double-header.

Soon after The Torre's found out that his older brother, Frank, 63, needed a heart transplant, Fast!

Frank Torre, was not only his older brother, by several years,...but Joe's Hero, in many ways!

Frank was a World Series Champ, 1st baseman, for the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, who beat the New York Yankees!! Also, Mostly, because Frank defended their mother, Margaret, and kicked their abusive father out of the house!! Frank then prepared Joe, physically, mentally, to be a ball player in the major leagues,...and a Great Hero Father Figure!

Thankfully, Joe Torre's Home Family, & Yankee Team Family, Learned to Be Closer,... and to Overcome,...even through Curveballs Along the Way,

There might be a baseball movie out there that can rival how bad this one is, but I doubt it. For such great actors cast in some of the parts, I was sorely disappointed by the performances. The cinematography was poor, going from shots during a game that were obviously on a sound stage to crowd shots from any baseball broadcast. They would purposely do close up shots so you wouldn't see that nobody was actually there. Just not believable at all. I couldn't suspend my disbelief at all. Blech!

Paul Sorvino does a fine job as Joe Torre, the man who had not been to the World Series for over a decade as a player and another two decades as a manager. In 1996, he finally made it. What a shame that just one year earlier, Don Mattingly had retired after the disappointing playoff loss to the Seattle Mariners due to his long suffering back problem. But that is for another film. This one has some production shortcomings, but the human story of Torre overcomes those shortcomings. David Cone and Doc Gooden gave everything they had that year, and the team also made an amazing comeback in the World Series against the Atlanta Braves. I remember watching the third game of the Series at a bar in Queens with some friends, and we were drowning our sorrows in Jack Daniels and cokes, as the Yanks were trailing in the third game and had already lost the first two. But baseball is a funny game; anything can happen and turn the momentum on a dime. I enjoyed reliving this great year for Torre and the Yankees, and so will you if you are a Yankee fan. All others might want to shave one star off the rating.

This movie is GREAT! I call it a 10, that being the best! It is what it is, a baseball movie! How many of those are classics anyway?? C'mon, of course it's not going to make anyone forget "On the Waterfront" for example. But it's GREAT as far as baseball movies go! I loved it! Watched it five times already and just bought it the other day!The acting was great, the story was great! It's a Rocky in pinstripes!To me it was a .400 hitter!Joe Torre is one of the all time great managers now,a sure fire HOF candidate.All the years he toiled as a player and under appreciated manager turned around when he got the call from Mr. Steinbrenner. Torre as a Cardinal manager was very gracious to the fans even, never neglecting to sign a ball for instance.My friend from St. Louis said it was not uncommon for Torre to sign for fans for hours. Even after a game when the Cards got skunked!His stats as a player are just short of the HOF, and in fact he is better than many enshrined! Props to the movie!It's about time the man had a movie made about his life!Thanks for reading!



Thanks! It's a HOME RUN!

I'm surprised that "Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way" never became a camp classic. It's laughable bad at times. Paul Sorvino spends most of the movie walking around in moping around with a puss on his face. Robert Loggia spends most of the movie walking around with his hand over chest. "Curveballs Along the Way" uses stock footage of Yankee games in a very poor way. It uses the fake sports talk phone calls in an even worse way. The biggest problem with the movie is the subject matter. Sorvino is stuck playing Torre as some kind of super wise baseball genius which he was not. He was just in the right place at the right time. Honorable mention: the nice performance by Isaiah Washington.