PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies manager Rob Thomson was joined on the field by friend and mentor Joe Torre on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park -- but the reunion had nothing to do with baseball.
Torre, founder of the Safe at Home Foundation, was on hand for a special pregame ceremony to help raise awareness about domestic violence. He was joined on the field by Thomson, as well as Susan Higginbotham, CEO of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV).
“It’s so important to support these programs, an organization like (PCADV), I think it’s wonderful,” Thomson said. “They need the support, and we’re there for them at all times.”
Torre has been there for kids dealing with domestic violence for more than 20 years since founding Safe at Home in 2002 -- but it’s been part of his life for much longer.
The Hall of Fame manager has been open about his firsthand experience with domestic violence as a child. His father, Joe Sr., was abusive toward Joe’s mother, Margaret, often creating an environment in which neither Joe nor his siblings felt comfortable being home when their dad was there.
“I thought I was the only one having to deal with this. I didn’t realize how widespread it was,” Torre said. “When we first started, we went to this one middle school, and I got in front of the class and said, ‘We’ll talk baseball in a minute, but I want to explain what we’re here for,’ and I explained how my dad was abusive to my mom and how it affected me.
“And I looked out there, and there were probably seven or eight kids [nodding their heads].”
That was in a classroom of fewer than 20 children. Torre and Co. delivered their message Sunday in a ballpark with more than 40,000 people.
“Days like this are so huge,” Higginbotham said. “We are so grateful to everybody with the Phillies and to Joe for telling his story and all he’s doing for this cause. Non-profits like ours don’t get a lot of money to raise awareness, and by partnering with the Phillies and Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation, it allows us to reach so many more people -- and that’s so important because domestic violence thrives in silence.”
Torre stayed silent about his own situation for years. He didn’t realize it had left him with emotional “scars” until experiencing a life-changing moment at a self-help seminar in his mid-50s. It was at that point that Torre started to understand the long-lasting impact some of those traumatic experiences had on his life.
“You just want to make people aware. It’s a very tough subject to talk about,” Torre said. “I think every single person either has dealt with it or knows someone who is dealing with it, but I think a lot of people would rather not talk about it because they don’t know how you solve it. But you need to talk about it.”
Torre, along with his wife, Ali, founded Safe At Home in an effort to save children’s lives and end the cycle of violence and abuse through education. It was important to Torre to provide not just a space for children to go after experiencing abuse, but to provide resources to help them recognize domestic violence and seek out help instead of suffering in silence.
“Joe is a wonderful man, and he’s put a lot of time and effort to provide safety for kids in schools and to support kids that are involved with violence in the home,” Thomson said. “It’s huge for children to be able to feel like they’re safe.”
One of the signature programs of Torre’s foundation has been providing safe spaces within schools, which are named for his mother: Margaret’s Place. Safe At Home currently has 30 Margaret’s Place sites that operate across the country. The foundation has served more than 275,000 young people since its inception, including nearly 50,000 this year alone.
“I know what we do works,” Torre said. “The only thing we need to do is reach more kids.”