When Tim Tanner Jr. talks, people listen. When he says he’s going to do something, believe him.
As a junior last season, the 6-foot-1 Sylmar High quarterback in his rookie passed for 2,343 yards and 31 touchdowns and ran for 661 yards and nine touchdowns. If you like quarterbacks who improvise, Tanner is your guy. Then, in basketball, after breaking his collarbone, he returned to play in 16 games (Sylmar went 15-1 with him in the lineup) to average 20 points and help the Spartans reach the Division V state championship game.
This season, he intends to be busier than ever with football, basketball and he hopes a return to baseball, the sport he played since he was 4 until high school. He’s a pitcher and plans to join the team but baseball coach Ray Rivera has never seen him pitch.
“He told me get through football, get through basketball, then we’ll talk,” Tanner said.
The maturity Tanner has achieved in recent years through dealing with adversity has enabled him to be selected a captain for the football team, so he knows he has to keep his composure and show others how to respond in a time of need. He’s growing up after once being academically ineligible.
He has so much sports equipment in his room at home that he could hold his own backyard games. “Footballs everywhere, cleats everywhere, basketballs, jerseys,” he said.
He’s going to need lots of skills in trying to balance his sports commitments with academics. But the coaches know they have someone passionate about succeeding.
You know him. Baseball icon. Hall of Famer. The only big leaguer with 2,000 hits as a player and 2,000 wins as a manager, he steered the New York Yankees to four World Series championships — and the Dodgers to consecutive National League West crowns and NLCS appearances in 2008 and 2009.
So you’re well-versed on Torre’s baseball bonafides, but you might not be aware of the most meaningful part of his legacy: He’s spent the past 24 years helping people who actually would need to be introduced to him.
Kids who are too young to know Torre the player, manager, color commentator — but who can, unfortunately, relate with what he went through when he was their age. Kids who, like him, are growing up afraid and anxious because of domestic violence at home, and who need what Torre didn’t have — somewhere safe to go to for help.
Since 2002, Torre and his wife, Ali, have been behind the expanding the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation. Across the nation, they’ve set up safe spaces in schools, specialized classrooms that feel more like living rooms and that are manned by professional counselors trained in domestic violence intervention.
San Francisco Giants assistant manager Ron Washington hugs Joe Torre before a game at Dodger Stadium on May 14.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
They’re at schools in New York, Cincinnati, Tahiti and in L.A., at Bellflower Middle/High School and John Adams Middle School, John H. Glenn High and McKinley Elementary School, Palisades Charter High, Santa Monica High, Waite Middle School and Washington Preparatory High.
And they’re open to all, whether you’re a kid experiencing violence or you want to be able to help peers who are.
This past year, the foundation says it reached more than 28,000 students. And since it began, more than 425,000 young people, families, schools, and communities.
These Safe at Home spaces are all named “Margaret’s Place,” in honor of Joe’s mom, who was for years the victim of his father’s violent ire.
“It’s a tough subject to talk about,” Joe Torre said. “But you can’t run away from it.”
He did, though. He’s 85 now, but until he was 54, Torre didn’t reveal that baseball had been his refuge when he was growing up. He didn’t tell anyone that when he was a kid, if he saw his dad’s car in front of his house, Joe would go to a friend’s house and wait until he left for his job as a New York police detective. Joe didn’t share memories like he would later, of seeing his big sister, armed with a knife, standing between their mother and their father, who was going for his pistol.
St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Joe Torre poses swinging a bat prior to a game in 1971.
(Dave Pickoff / Associated Press)
He didn’t recognize what those traumatic experiences he’d tried to bury did to him, not until he started to talk about them.
“I thought I was born with this shyness and this nervousness,” Torre said before a Dodgers game in May, when the club introduced him and Ali and players and coaches wore T-shirts during batting practice that read: “Everyone deserves to be safe at home.”
“During my playing career,” Torre continued, “if we lost a game and I didn’t get any hits, I’d beat myself up. I was fortunate, I had a good career, but there was always something missing. I really probably could have enjoyed it a lot more than I did.”
That didn’t change until 1995, when he started talking about the domestic violence he experienced. He was surprised, he said, to find himself sharing his story, opening up for the first time at a “Life Success” seminar in Cincinnati, Ali’s hometown.
“Ali, she says, ‘You want to go to this Life Success symposium with me?’” Joe said. “And she’s eight months pregnant with our daughter and I’m not about to say no to anything she asks me to go. So we go in and they separate you, and they put you in groups of six strangers — and I’d just been named manager of the Yankees, so I’m very self-conscious.
“But after a day or so, you’re in it, you know? And then we went home and I called my sisters and asked them questions. Because they always tried to protect me, so I had to drag it out of them … ‘Did dad hit mom?’
“The biggest thing for me was knowing that my dad bringing fear down on the home was what caused my feelings that I was embarrassed to have. Once I went through that, I was able to go deeper.”
Yankees manager Joe Torre bumps fists with catcher Jorge Posada after a win in April 2004.
(Brian Kersey / Associated Press)
Speaking about what was previously unspeakable helped him cope with his trauma. He said it made him a more empathetic manager and a more confident man. It also made him want to speak out publicly and to encourage others to do the same, to break the cycle of silence.
So they’re getting the word out at — where else? — ballparks. There was the stop at Dodger Stadium in May, and before that, in 2025, seven major league teams had activations at games, as did 63 minor league clubs who hosted a “Safe At Home Awareness Game.”
Because often we do need an introduction, to connect kids with people who can keep them safe, who can assure them they’re not the only ones in their position.
“He’s talked about this many times: If he had access to a program like Margaret’s Place, he wouldn’t have felt like he had to carry this burden alone,” said Rose Robles, the foundation’s senior director of programs. “That was one thing he’s really stressed, he felt he was the only one that was going through this.
“And he would have had some options, some choices for how to respond to what he was experiencing and how to understand it. One thing that we say is that violence thrives in silence, and that is basically what he was experiencing.”
Forty-four percent of the kids Margaret’s Place counselors helped in 2024-25 were dealing with some form of violence at home. Twenty-seven percent have experienced some form of relationship or dating violence. They also help kids who’ve been exposed to community violence or other traumatic events, or who are grieving a traumatic loss.
Dodgers manager Joe Torre pauses for a moment while answering questions in August 2010.
(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
At Bellflower Middle and High School, Principal Jessica Cummings said a Teen Dating Violence Awareness Week and parent workshops focused on fostering healthy relationships increased awareness on her campus.
“We are grateful,” she wrote in an email, “for this partnership and the positive impact it has had.”
Of the students surveyed after receiving services, Safe at Home indicated that 99% reported feeling safer and 93% said they used the tools they learned in counseling.
Torre has absorbed decades of anecdotal feedback too — the knowing nods he sees in the crowd when he’s talked to groups of kids about this, the cameraman who slipped him $20 to put toward the foundation, the interviewer who shared his account of having grown up in a violent household.
“Anyone can become a victim,” Ali Torre said, “Our goal is to intervene and prevent. There are little boys we can have conversations with: ‘You don’t have to repeat the cycle.’ To little girls, ‘There’s an option for you…’
“And Joe has opened a lot of doors for us.”
When you think of Joe Torre, it’s as a former Dodgers skipper. A nine-time All-Star and the 1971 National League Most Valuable Player.
You should also think of him as a champion of children who now know that they aren’t alone, and that they have people who will go to bat for them.
Ever ambitious and eager to test new horizons, Keegan announced midway through the 1976-77 season that he would leave Liverpool at the end of the campaign.
It brought some criticism from supporters, but was another example of deception never being part of Keegan’s character, allowing Liverpool time to line up Kenny Dalglish as his replacement.
He went out on the highest high in his final game, running the great German defender Berti Vogts ragged as Liverpool won the European Cup for the first time, beating Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 in Rome.
Keegan left having scored 100 goals in 323 appearances.
There was talk of a move to Real Madrid, but in the end his destination was Hamburg, where he was a major success as they won the Bundesliga in 1978-79, though disappointment followed when they lost the European Cup final to Nottingham Forest the following season.
Keegan confirmed his world-class credentials at Hamburg, winning the Ballon d’Or in 1978 and 1979.
Hamburg was a surprise choice when Keegan left Liverpool, but after early struggles to win over team-mates, he became hugely popular, not just with his club but in the country, where they appreciated the Englishman’s down to earth approach and his willingness to integrate.
It all added to Keegan’s status as a global superstar, one of the most marketable sportsmen around, not just seen on the pitch but in adverts and advertising hoardings worldwide.
He famously did an advert for Brut aftershave with British boxer Henry Cooper, as well as the “Green Cross Code” road safety campaign.
While in West Germany, Keegan had another crack at music with the track Head Over Heels In Love. It peaked at number 31 in the UK, but climbed to number 10 in the German charts.
Keegan returned to England in 1980 with a shock move to Southampton, showing his enduring quality by winning the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year award in 1982.
He did not win trophies at The Dell, but was still a player of the highest class in Lawrie McMenemy’s team, built around experienced stars such as Keegan, Alan Ball and Saints’ great Mike Channon.
Pete Wicks has opened up on his “magical” holiday with Olivia Attwood after they were pictured in a passionate snog on the beachCredit: TikTok/@stayingrelevantpodcastPete and Olivia Attwood went Instagram official as he shared snaps of their time in IbizaCredit: Instagram
Pete, 37, spoke candidly about his romance as he chatted to his pal Sam Thompson, 33, on their Staying Relevant podcast.Credit: TikTok/@stayingrelevantpodcastPete joked that he was a bigger fan of LIv than Sam wasCredit: GettyPete shared stunning snaps of them enjoying their holiday togetherCredit: InstagramThe pair – who host a KISS FM radio show together – began dating back in February, following Olivia’s split from husband Bradley DackCredit: Rex
A smitten Pete added: “We had a fabulous time. I have really hurt my back because I was backflipping off boats.
“We went for lovely dinners, we went to clubs, we drank a lot, it was magical is probably the best way to describe it.”
Sam was delighted and explained that it was a lovely moment to hear about him and Liv.
He added: “I’m a huge fan of Liv’s”
Pete joked: “Not as big a fan as I am,” as Sam cheered his reponse.
OLLY Murs left talkSPORT hosts Andy Goldstein and Gabby Agbonlahor in stitches after impersonating Ross Kemp’s emotional reaction to England playing during the World Cup.
The singer was asked if he had seen the moment EastEnders star Ross went wild watching the Three Lions play DR Congo and whether he would be willing to replicate the moment.
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Olly Murs did a hilarious impression of Ross Kemp going nuts after Harry Kane scored for England in the World CupCredit: Talk SportRoss posted a video of himself celebrating the win online which has cracked people upCredit: Instagram
The Heart Skips A Beat singer pulled out all the stops to deliver an equally passionate performance, as Andy asked: “Is there any way you could deliver us a Ross Kemp style rallying cry for England against Mexico?”
Scrunching up his face and changing his voice to sound more like Ross, Olly dived right into the task, yelling: “Come on England, we can do this.
“Stop doing this to me, stop it. I’m telling ya, we can do it. He’s coming home.”
Olly then dramatically walked out of frame, leaving Andy in stitches while asking where he had gone.
Olly gave the impersonation his all, altering his voice and pulling funny facesCredit: Talk SporttalkSPORT host Andy then jokingly told Olly he needed to do it again because the video cut outCredit: Talk Sport
Ross filmed himself wearing an England shirt in his living room, shouting at the camera: “Yes! Yes! Harry Kane! Harry Kane!
“That’s what we’re talking about. Great changes made – a massive difference. Come on, England! Close it down. Close it down!”
Punching the air in triumph, he went on: “Four minutes! Four minutes! Plus extra time!”
Looking out of breath, the actor added: “My God, why do you do this to me? Come on, England!”
He captioned the Instagram video, “Harry Kane,” with football and England flag emojis.
A slew of celebs flooded the comments with their amusement, with actor and presenter Adil Ray joking, “Watch the ticker Grant!!!!!” while presenter Rav Wilding posted, “Love you Ross!” and Sky Sports host Adam Smith commented: “Legend.”
Fans also shared their appreciation, with one asking: “Please can I come and watch the next match with you?”
“Grant Mitchell shouting down his phone has made me feel more patriotic than when I was watching the game,” someone else joked.
A third user suggested Ross should join the England coaching team, declaring: “Get him on the team as assistant manager.”
Harry scored two goals in nine minutes during Wednesday’s match, delivering England to a 2-1 win and sending the Three Lions to Mexico City.
You can listen to all FIFA World Cup 2026 matches for free on the talkSPORT app, with live commentaries via talkSPORT’s YouTube and TikTok.
