Top 100 Joe Torre Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Competing at the highest level is not about winning. It’s about preparation, courage, understanding and nurturing your people, and heart. Winning is the result.”

— Joe Torre

2. “Don’t be afraid to fail, encourage your talent, and use your heart. And never be unprepared.”

— Joe Torre

3. “Unless you have bad times, you can’t appreciate the good times.”

— Joe Torre

4. “We all have different ways to do things.”

— Joe Torre

5. “I’m a very private person, and I don’t want to share stuff with anyone.”

— Joe Torre

6. “The second you think you’ve arrived, someone passes you. You have to always be in pursuit.”

— Joe Torre

7. “A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished.”

— Joe Torre

8. “My greatest talent is calmness and being positive. I concentrate on what you can do even in the worst of times. You don’t judge by last week’s errors or lost opportunity.”

— Joe Torre

9. “Stress is something that is sort of out of your control. You get stressed out over looking at the finish line. Stress is something that is an outside thing. Stress is an anxiety.”

— Joe Torre

10. “We can learn from past failures and mistakes, but we shouldn’t get stuck there. We can keep future goals in mind, but we shouldn’t get stuck there, either. The only way to reach our potential is to focus on what we must do now – this moment, this day – to perform effectively and win.”

— Joe Torre

11. “Respect is the word I want. You have to earn it. You give, and you get it in return, that’s how I see it.”

— Joe Torre

12. “I do love the feeling of a big win. But you don’t have to have a World Series ring to be a winner. A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished. Being able to get the most from their ability. That’s what characterizes a winner.”

— Joe Torre

13. “Sometimes they say the world rotates a little different for lefthanders.”

— Joe Torre

14. “There is no worse emotion than fear.”

— Joe Torre

15. “Major league baseball is about the history of the game. Baseball history is so important. It’s so much more than money.”

— Joe Torre

16. “You have to fix something when it first appears.”

— Joe Torre

17. “You hear the word ‘cancer,’ it scares you. You think of death.”

— Joe Torre

18. “When we lost I couldn’t sleep at night. When we win I can’t sleep at night. But when you win, you wake up feeling better.”

— Joe Torre

19. “You can’t win the Kentucky Derby unless you’re on a thoroughbred.”

— Joe Torre

20. “The game itself is an autonomous game, but everybody is a part of it. No contribution is too small.”

— Joe Torre

21. “I feel emptiness, and he probably won’t be able to close his eyes for two or three days.”

— Joe Torre

22. “Baseball is a team sport played by individuals for themselves.”

— Joe Torre

23. “I have great confidence in Rick Caruso’s unique qualifications and his ability to lead a successful bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers.”

— Joe Torre

24. “When I was a player and hit into a double play, I felt as if I was letting everyone down.”

— Joe Torre

25. “I have no problem with cheating. Whatever you can get away with.”

— Joe Torre

26. “My father wasn’t the best role model to me.”

— Joe Torre

27. “If I intimidate people, that’s not my intention.”

— Joe Torre

28. “Getting fired is what happens to a manager sooner or later.”

— Joe Torre

29. “I hated the Yankees and Dodgers and wound up managing both.”

— Joe Torre

30. “In regards to steroids, I think we’re all to blame, all of baseball. I never realized how far-reaching this problem has been.”

— Joe Torre

31. “It’s nice to be in first place. But just because you’re not on a winner doesn’t mean you’re a loser.”

— Joe Torre

32. “It’s all about makeup.”

— Joe Torre

33. “There will be a time when everyone on the team is going to contribute to winning a pennant.”

— Joe Torre

34. “My wife accuses me – and she’s probably right – that I’m sometimes oversensitive.”

— Joe Torre

35. “The fact that somebody is reducing your salary is just telling me they’re not satisfied with what you’re doing.”

— Joe Torre

36. “Winning is a lot of fun. I remember having a meeting a couple years ago and telling the guys: ‘You’re not enjoying yourselves.’ O’Neill said to me afterwards, ‘Skip, it’s not fun unless you win.’”

— Joe Torre

37. “You don’t catch the knuckleball, you defend against it.”

— Joe Torre

38. “I met Tiger Woods, and I looked in his eyes – and I saw Derek Jeter. They don’t have to tell people they’re good. They just prove it by the way they love the competition.”

— Joe Torre

39. “My relationship with George Steinbrenner was great. He was the boss, and I accepted that.”

— Joe Torre

40. “Years ago, you never concerned yourself with pitch counts. Now, with statistics telling you that between this number and that number bad things happen to this particular pitcher, you have to pay attention to it. The bullpen has become a huge part of what happens now.”

— Joe Torre

41. “You look at a guy who’s being brave. He’s afraid, or he wouldn’t be brave. If he isn’t afraid, he’s stupid.”

— Joe Torre

42. “Golf is the only game I know where you call a foul on yourself.”

— Joe Torre

43. “Watching other teams in the World Series is like watching somebody else eat a Hot Fudge Sundae.”

— Joe Torre

44. “You could have the bases loaded, and you bring up the best pinch-hitter in the world to pinch hit, he hits into a double play, and then all of a sudden: ‘How could you do that?’”

— Joe Torre

45. “Baseball has always been filled with negative statistics.”

— Joe Torre

46. “I played for 18 years, but the only thing that meant anything to me was the World Series.”

— Joe Torre

47. “When I was 16 years old, my brother Frank said, ‘You’d better become a catcher, because you’re too big and fat to do anything else.’ Well, I took his advice. It was a quick way to get to the big leagues, and I’ve never regretted it.”

— Joe Torre

48. “I knew what the Dodgers uniform represented as a kid growing up in Brooklyn.”

— Joe Torre

49. “I am deeply saddened and shocked at the loss of umpire Wally Bell.”

— Joe Torre

50. “As a member of a competitive team, you want to make sure you have yourself ready to play. You don’t control anything but what you do.”

— Joe Torre