Kelvin Curtis Torve (born January 10, 1960) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

and

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

First baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

, and current head coach of the American Legion Baseball Post 22 Hardhats in

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

. Torve batted left and threw right.

Minor leagues

Torve was drafted by the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

in the second round of the

1981 Major League Baseball draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1981 Major League Baseball draft. Compensation Picks Other notable players *Darrin Jackson, 2nd round, 28th overall by the Chicago Cubs *Mike Gallego, 2nd round, 33 ...

. Over four seasons in the Giants' farm system, Torve batted .284 with 36

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 227

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

. On April 9, he was traded to the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

for minor league

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Tommy Alexander. He batted .262 with 28 home runs and 150 RBIs over three seasons in the Orioles' farm system.

Minnesota Twins

After the season, Torve signed as a

Free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the Minnesota Twins. He spent most of the season in triple A with the

Portland Beavers The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL. Franchise history Many baseball teams ...

, but came up to Minnesota in late June. He hit the only major league home run of his career on June 27 off the California Angels' Stew Cliburn. His only other RBI came on July 5 to blow a save for Hall of Fame closer

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. He went 3-for-16 in his one month stint with the Twins before returning to triple A in late July. He spent the entire season in Portland, where he batted .291 with eight home runs and 62 RBIs.

New York Mets

Torve signed with the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

for the season. He made his Mets debut on August 7, and in his first Mets plate appearance, he was hit by a José DeJesús pitch. More importantly, he made his Mets debut wearing number 24. Torve was the first Mets player to wear number 24 since the legendary

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

played for the Mets in . Then-team owner Joan Payson had promised Mays that the Mets would not reissue number 24, so that it would not be worn again by a player on a New York

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

team in recognition of his years with the New York Giants. The number remained unofficially

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

after Payson died and the team was sold by her family to

Doubleday and Company Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...

and to

Fred Wilpon Fred Wilpon (born November 22, 1936) is an American real estate developer and former baseball executive. He was principal owner of the New York Mets from 1987 to 2020. Early life and education Wilpon was raised in a Jewish family

, chairman of the board of

Sterling Equities Sterling Equities in Great Neck, New York, is a diversified, family-run group of companies whose portfolio consists primarily of holdings in real estate, sports, and media in the New York area. These include the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclon ...

. Equipment manager Charlie Samuels realized his mistake after receiving complaints from fans, and reissued Torve number 39 during the California road trip that began August 17. Torve kept the number for the remainder of the Mets' home stand, however, and batted .545 with two doubles and two RBIs in his short stint in Willie Mays' number. Number 39 batted .185 with no RBIs. Torve joined the Mets again in in late June. He had eight at bats without a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

Orix Blue Wave

In , Torve signed with the

Orix BlueWave , styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan. ORIX offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment an ...

, where he became teammates with eighteen year old phenom Ichiro Suzuki. His first season in Japan got off to a slow start, but he turned it around, and led the team with a .305 batting average. His eleven home runs and 58 RBIs were third on the team (behind Satoshi Takahashi & Kazuhiko Ishimine in both cases). In his second season with Orix, Torve batted .232 with nine home runs and 35 RBIs.

References

External links

, o
The Ultimate Mets Database
*The Greatest 21 Days Interview

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torve, Kelvin 1960 births Living people Major League Baseball first basemen Minnesota Twins players New York Mets players Orix BlueWave players Clinton Giants players Shreveport Captains players Phoenix Giants players Rochester Red Wings players Charlotte O's players Portland Beavers players Tidewater Tides players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball players from South Dakota Sportspeople from Rapid City, South Dakota