Posted on 06/04/2014 6:36:24 PM PDT by Kevin in California
The Tampa Bay Rays say former major league manager, coach and player Don Zimmer has died. He was 83.
Zimmer died Wednesday. He had been in a rehabilitation center in Florida since having heart surgery in mid-April.
Zimmer spent more than 60 years in baseball. He was a senior adviser for the Rays.
I met him in a restaurant in Rochester NY. He was a gracious gentleman.
I remember that!
The episode starts around the 1:10 mark in the video here:
It's actually pretty hilarious. LOL.
I remember the camera cutting to him laughing his a%s off after Tommy Lasorda was knocked down by a broken bat in the 2001 All Star game. He was like a naughty boy, laughing in church.
Great baseball. Great memories.
Clearly, and the play-by-play guy called it, Zimmer charged Martinez.
The 1st major league game I ever attended was a double header Dodgers vs Braves in the coliseum. Zimmmer played SS both games for the Dodgers. RIP Don.
How terribly sad! The pride of Cincinnati’s Western Hills High School. A hero to fellow West High alums Eddie Brinkman and Pete Rose who followed him. A World Champion with the Brooklyn Dodgers and a loveable loser with the expansion New York Mets.
Tonight the Queen City mourns the loss of one of our favorite sons. Rest in Peace Zim. Come on home. Everyone from Delhi to Bridgetown and Cheviot carry you home in our prayers.
All the teams Zimmer played or managed for over his career:
As Player
Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers (1954–1959)
Chicago Cubs (1960–1961)
New York Mets (1962)
Cincinnati Reds (1962)
Los Angeles Dodgers (1963)
Washington Senators (1963–1965)
As Manager
San Diego Padres (1972–1973)
Boston Red Sox (1976–1980)
Texas Rangers (1981–1982)
Chicago Cubs (1988–1991)
As Coach
Montreal Expos (1971)
San Diego Padres (1972)
Boston Red Sox (1974–1976)
New York Yankees (1983)
Chicago Cubs (1984–1986)
New York Yankees (1986)
San Francisco Giants (1987)
Boston Red Sox (1992)
Colorado Rockies (1993–1995)
New York Yankees (1996–2003)
Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays (2004–2014)
RIP.
Got the Cubs to playoffs in ‘89, one of few Managers to have any success with them, and they canned him when he asked for a contract extension early in the ‘91 season, smart!
RIP, Zim. One of only two persons both to have played in an All-Srar Game as a Cub and managed te Cubs in the post-season (HOF catcher Gabby Hartnett was the other).
Maybe Pedro can pick a fight with him at the funeral, since this time he knows for sure that he won’t fight back. What a coward.
Actually, not so smart.
I was being sarcastic of course, it was a major fail.
The Cubs didn’t have a noteworthy manager again until Jim Riggleman.
The Cubs are not kind to managers, they made Lou Pinella hate baseball! I swear you should have seen him when he left, he had completely checked out.
I know you were.
I heard on the radio that “The Theo” (using his contacts in the BOS media) is starting to get “his side” of the CHC mess out by saying the Ricketts family doesn’t want to spend $$$.
He took the $$$ based on an entirely exaggerated resume of accomplishment* and now realizes he can’t “perform” another miracle.
*The 2004 BOS team was mostly put together by Dan Duquette (who’s doing a MUCH better job today in BAL than “The Theo” will ever do in CHC). Fact.
*The 2007 BOS team’s biggest trade (Beckett and Lowell from FLA) that really allowed them to win was after “The Theo” quit for a couple months as GM due to a power struggle with Larry Lucchino. Fact.
I've been hearing a lot of that. While true to some extent, it doesn't absolve Theo. This is not a team that's a couple pricey free agents away from winning. Our local sports media expects progress, no one expected them to start winning this year but they're the worst team in the NL (some teams with better records are much worse in run differential). If Theo continues to fail he'll be chewed up and spit out.
“This is not a team that’s a couple pricey free agents away from winning.”
Exactly! CHC are worse off then before they hired him.
I heard on the radio that “The Theo” (using his contacts in the BOS media) is starting to get “his side” of the CHC mess out by saying the Ricketts family doesn’t want to spend $$$.
He took the $$$ based on an entirely exaggerated resume of accomplishment* and now realizes he can’t “perform” another miracle.
*The 2004 BOS team was mostly put together by Dan Duquette (who’s doing a MUCH better job today in BAL than “The Theo” will ever do in CHC). Fact.
*The 2007 BOS team’s biggest trade (Beckett and Lowell from FLA) that really allowed them to win was after “The Theo” quit for a couple months as GM due to a power struggle with Larry Lucchino. Fact.
Thank You!!!
Cubs were insane to not pick up Alex Jackson. I was laughing hysterically at MLB Network at the pure shock of the commentators.
Their fans go on and on about how amazing Theo is and this vast farm system is. Well, Corey Patterson was proclaimed to be the next Griffey, Felix Pie the next Willie Mays. So they can preach all they want, as they sit in last place getting drunker than skunks at their glorified beer garden!
Sox got a steal with Rondon, and I'm shocked he dropped to 3rd. He was the best bet of any pitcher to reach the Majors on the fast track like Chris Sale and Gordon Beckham.
You’re welcome!
I know nothing about the MLB draft, so I’ll defer to what you folks say.
I know nothing about the MLB draft, so I’ll defer to what you folks say.
Well the two of us are hardcore Chicago sports fans (minus Cubs) however, the two of us know more about the Cubs and their organization than 99% of their fans.
Sounds like you know that Theo is a joke, you should see the fools who have "Trust in Theo" while guzzling beer at Wrigley.
It was absolutely hysterical watching the MLB Draft and all the "experts" reaction to the Cubs draft pick!
Theo on the Cubs benefits the Red Sox and provides humor for us White Sox fans.
You are more knowledgeable than I for sure.
Pete, what do you think of his lordship, Theo Epstein?
I doth think that perhaps the Emperor has no clothes! If the Cubs don’t start improving the love for him won’t last, cubdom will turn on him, big time.
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