Joe Torre is a an American baseball legend–an all-star player, New York Yankees manager, hall-of-famer, and the current chief baseball officer for Major League Baseball.
Torre is also a child victim of domestic violence, and his commitment to helping others like him led him to create Safe at Home, a foundation that serves young people traumatized by exposure to domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault.
In late 2007, during a week-long break on the Magic Tour, Bruce made a special appearance at a New York City benefit for the foundation, and he wrote a new song for the occasion.
Just a few days before the event, Torre announced that he was ending his eleven-year tenure as the manager of the Yankees and heading west to manage the Dodgers instead. As a lifetime baseball fan and a known Yankees fan, it’s not surprising that Bruce decided to both tweak and pay homage to Torre in song.
Unfortunately only the end of the song was captured on video (and Bruce has never played it since), which means we’ll have to use our imaginations to flesh out the rest of the song.
Bruce lifted the melody from his under-the-radar Ghost of Tom Joad Tour masterpiece, “Pilgrim in the Temple of Love.” (One wonders if Bruce keeps that tune on-hand for any occasion where he needs a custom ditty.)
The lyrics are obviously a salute to Torres’ amazing run of wins as manager, but (perhaps subconsciously due to the melody’s origin) Bruce got a little risque at times, too, conjuring up an image of Patti in pinstripes.
In the clip above, presumably after setting expectations with a few verses that culminate in a win for the Yankees, Bruce teased Torre by making reference to the end of the Rising Tour, when Bruce played Fenway Park but not Yankee Stadium. At Fenway, Bruce publicly proclaimed that he had broken the curse that had always kept the Red Sox at arm’s length from a world series title–and lo and behold, the following year, the Red Sox won their first, adding another entry to the Legends of Springsteen annals.
It’s the end of the last tour, E Street Band looking for a place to play
We went to Yankee Stadium, but the boss man turned us away
We went up north to Fenway and those kind folks let us in
Oh, lord, Yankees lose
But in the end, everyone knew that Bruce would bring it back around to acknowledge Torre’s contributions to baseball and to his community.
Well, Joe, we wish you plenty of luck and good fortune, and
We don’t know when we’ll be seeing the likes of you again
You could teach a master class in class, and so, my good friend
Thanks for all those thrills and chills and all those Yankee wins
It was a touching way for Bruce to honor the man who’d brought him (and so many other Yankees fans) joy and pride.
Yankees Win
Never recorded
Never released
First performed: November 7, 2007
Last performed: November 7, 2007
Looking for your favorite Bruce song? Check our full index. New entries every week!
