This isn't the first time Joe Torre's been in a divisional race involving the Dodgers.

Before Sunday's game, the Dodgers skipper was reminiscing about the 1982 season, when he was managing the Braves and chasing L.A. for first place in the NL West.

The race came down to the final game of the year, and thanks to a 3-run home run by Cincinnati's Joe Morgan that eliminated LA, the Braves advanced.

Torre recalled how he first heard the news.

"Jerry Royster (Atlanta's first baseman) hits a pop up, comes running back to the dugout and says 'Joe Morgan hit a 3-run home run', I said 'how do you know?',"

Apparently someone in the other team's dugout was listening to the game on the radio, then told the catcher, who told Royster.

Added Torre: "He couldn't wait to make an out so he could tell us about it."

--Matt Calkins
--mcalkins@PE.com

1 Comments

Jeff Ball on September 7, 2008 8:47 PM said:

Matt,

You did a great job of TRYING to stick an ice pick into the collective memory of long-time Dodgers fans. It's a shame you couldn't get your facts right ...

When Joe Morgan hit that infamous home run in 1982, he was playing for San Francisco, not Cincinnati, as you wrote.

I can't believe that a semi-major metropolitan area newspaper can't hire fact-checkers or editors to check the work of inept neophytes before it gets put up for all the "connected" world to see.

---

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