Soannie Torres RIP

Baseball is a game of numbers.  Those numbers have given millions of people untold joy and wonder for close to a century and a half.  When we focus on the numbers, which we must to understand and fully enjoy the game, it is easy to forget that the people who make those numbers, the players, have lives and families, joys and sorrows of their own.  Today we learn the crushingly sad news that the wife of Andres Torres(who will go down in history as a great Giant, never mind if it was just for one season), Soannie Torres, lost her battle with cancer.

I don't know much about Soannie, but I know enough about Andres Torres to know that he must be devastated.  Andres did not just have a great season on the field and by the numbers in 2010, the first time the San Francisco Giants won the World Series.  He made the entire organization better with his spirit.  When he wasn't on the field, he went around enthusiastically greeting everyone he saw as if they were a long lost friend, and to him, they probably were.  Throughout his career, Andres had to overcome coaches who insisted that he had to be a slap hitter and ADHD, a condition that made it a battle to focus every day.  Now he has to battle through the loss of his wife and the mother of his young daughter.

I've always felt a sense of protectiveness toward Andres.  Underneath the athleticism, the determination, the creativity, and enthusiasm I have always sensed a childlike vulnerability.  He was traded by the Giants to the Mets for Angel Pagan.  The next season, when he was a free agent, he declined a contract offer from the Mets and basically begged the Giants to take him back because he loved the team and the city so much.  I recall feeling a sense of alarm when I read that he sold his World Series ring.  You generally don't do something like that unless you need the money.

Remember Andres Torres in your thoughts.  You might consider contributing to the Soannie Torres Memorial Fund which you can do by going to the story in csnbayarea.com and clicking on the link at the bottom of the story.  I hope the Giants find a way to keep Andres Torres in their family and do what they can to help him succeed in the rest of his life.  And fans, never forget that without that one great season in Andres Torres' career, the Giants probably would not have won that first championship in 2010.  And if they did not win it then, who knows what would have happened in 2012 and 2014?