The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are set to play the first game at the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Saturday. While this is the first spring training facility to be built on Native American land, that fact is likely to be overshadowed by what commissioner Bud Selig reveals in a news conference at the inaugural matchup.
Major League Baseball said on Friday that Selig will make a major announcement during the conference at the new training complex, and according to reports by ESPN and MLB.com, the major news is that Joe Torre will be named the MLB's new executive vice president of baseball operations.
Torre, 70, retired last season after a three-year stint as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Prior to that, he had a successful 11-year tenure as the manager of the New York Yankees, where he won four World Series titles.
Since retiring, the Yankees' former skipper has said that he would like to remain in baseball, but not in the dugout.
Torre would be taking over the position formerly held by Jimmie Lee Solomon, who is now MLB's executive vice president for baseball development.
