"A switch-hitting outfielder with the power potential the Yankees have lacked in recent years, Rusty batted .290 with 19 homers and 71 RBIs at Syracuse last year. He appeared in nine games with the Yanks at the end of the season, batting .385 and tagging two homers.
Born in New York City, September 30, 1948, Rusty still lives there in the off-season."
-Hal Bock, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1972 Edition
"Rusty Torres, a product of New York's sandlots, is ready to stake a claim on one small piece of New York real estate - right field in Yankee Stadium.
The All-Star switch-hitter with a rifle arm, who devastated International League pitching last season, blossomed into one of the top prospects in baseball. Suddenly called on to join the Yankees last September when Danny Cater was hurt, Rusty hit a lusty .385 with a pair of homers in only nine games.
As a schoolboy young Torres played anyplace they'd let him: Little League in McCarren Park, the United Action League, the Puerto Rican Athletic League, the Greenpoint Cliffords, the Brooklyn Cadets and East New York High in Brooklyn, where he got his diploma. Now he would like his last and lasting stop to be with the New York Yankees. So do the Yankees."
-The New York Yankees Official 1972 Yearbook
"A product of the New York sandlots, Rusty Torres has catapulted himself into prime contention for the regular right field job with the Yankees for the 1972 season. He is a fleet, switch-hitting outfielder with a very strong arm, whose career was hindered somewhat in 1970 when he suffered torn ligaments in his knee and also a broken wrist.
Rusty came back strong last year, however, as he hit .290 at Syracuse (ninth-best in the league) with 19 homers and 71 RBIs, in addition to leading International League outfielders with a .982 fielding percentage. He reported to the Yankees last season on September 7, after the International League season, and enhanced his future as he hit .385. He had not played in three weeks when he reported, and had just one hit in his first eight at-bats, but played the last four games of the season and went 9-for-18, a .500 clip, with three doubles, two homers and three RBIs.
A graduate of East New York High School in Brooklyn, Rusty played on the Brooklyn Cadets, the famed sandlot team which produced such famous major leaguers as Sandy Koufax, Joe Torre and Bobby Aspromonte in addition to many more. Rusty hopes to join this illustrious group starting in 1972. He has spent the past two off-seasons playing in his native Puerto Rico and was voted the top rookie in the league in 1970."
-1972 New York Yankees Press/TV/Radio Guide
"Torres is the best of all possible prospects for the Yankees, a home-grown product and a switch-hitter who is tailor-made for the short rightfield porch in Yankee Stadium when he bats left. The Yankees are counting on 23-year-old Rusty to be their rightfielder.
He's not big (5-10, 175), but he showed good power while hitting 19 homers, driving in 71 runs and batting .290 at Syracuse. The Yankees liked what they saw when he came up for nine games at the tail-end of the '71 season to hit two homers and bat .385."
-Phil Pepe, 1972 Baseball Annual Grand Slam
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