Kelvin Torve

Kelvin Curtis Torve (born January 10, 1960) is a former Major League Baseball player and current head coach of the American Legion Baseball Post 22 Hardhats in Rapid City, South Dakota. He played with the Minnesota Twins in 1988 and with the New York Mets in 1990 and 1991. He also played two seasons in Japan for the Orix BlueWave in 1992 and 1993. Torve batted left and threw right.

Torve is one of three players to have made it to the major leagues who played for the storied Rapid City Post 22 American Legion baseball program in Rapid City, SD. The other two are Dave Collins and Mark Ellis.

On August 7, 1990, Torve became the first Mets player to wear uniform number 24 since Willie Mays in 1973. Then-team owner Joan Payson had promised Mays that the Mets would not reissue number 24^[1], so that it would not be worn again by a player on a New York National League team in recognition of his years with the New York Giants. The Mets had maintained this tradition of considering number 24 as unofficially retired after Payson died and the team was sold by her heirs. Within a week and a half of Torve's call-up, the Mets had received enough complaints from fans about his wearing number 24 that equipment manager Charlie Samuels realized his mistake and reissued Torve number 39 on August 18.^[2] Since Torve, the Mets have issued number 24 only to Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, who wore it a player (1999–2000) and a coach (2007).

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Mets Database