Don Zimmer, iconic coach, manager, dies at 83

scottcarter · Jun 4, 2014

Don Zimmer, a revered figure in his 66 years in Major League Baseball, died Wednesday, less than two months after undergoing heart surgery.
He was 83.
Zimmer's colorful personality and a deep love of the game prompted him to say he never worked a day in his life, and commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement Wednedsay that Zimmer was "one of our game's most universally beloved figures."
He had a 12-year major league playing career, but rose to notoriety in more than 30 years as a coach, manager and advisor, most recently with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Zimmer was a senior advisor for the Rays and still suited up with the club during spring training.
He had been hospitalized since having heart surgery on April 16. His son Tom told theTampa Bay Times that Zimmer "went peacefully."
Zimmer's health was not far from the Rays' minds. Third base coach Tom Foley took to wearing a jersey with Zimmer on the back in tribute to the ailing icon.
Tampa Bay was but a final stop on a true baseball odyssey, where Zimmer bounced from franchise to franchise before gaining a greater measure of fame as Joe Torre's right-hand man with the great New York Yankees teams of the 1990s.
"I hired him as a coach, and he became like a family member to me," Torre said in a statement released Wednesday night. "He has certainly been a terrific credit to the game. The game was his life. And his passing is going to create a void in my life and my wife Ali's. We loved him.
"The game of Baseball lost a special person tonight. He was a good man."

festeringZit · Jun 4, 2014

festeringZit · Jun 4, 2014

Don coached the Red Sox the couple years I listened to every game... including 1978 the 14 game collapse, and Bucky Dent's homer.

However, he is best remembered among Red Sox fans for the team's dramatic collapse during the 1978 season. After leading the American League East by as many as fourteen games, the Red Sox stumbled in August. By early September that lead was reduced to four games.[SUP][10][/SUP] That lead evaporated in a four-game series against the surging New York Yankees which is still known as "the Boston Massacre."
The Red Sox spent the last month of the season trading first place with the Yankees, forcing a one-game playoff on October 2. In that game, the Yankees took the lead permanently on a legendary home run by Bucky Dent over the Fenway Park Green Monster.

JohnnyMac · Jun 4, 2014

He was only 83? He looked 83 in the 80s.

MikeB · Jun 4, 2014

By all accounts he was one of the true good ones.

RIP

carlspackler · Jun 4, 2014

JohnnyMac said:
He was only 83? He looked 83 in the 80s.

Well he looked pretty good for someone who should be dead.

" Zimmer nearly died after being hit with a pitch in the temple while with St. Paul in 1953. He was not fully conscious for 13 days, during which holes were drilled in his skull to relieve the pressure of swelling. His vision was blurred, he could neither walk nor talk and his weight plunged from 170 to 124. He was told his career was finished at age 22.

Zimmer was beaned again in 1956 when a Cincinnati Reds fastball broke his cheekbone, but he persevered. Because of these beanings, it has been widely reported that he had a surgically implanted steel plate in his head.[SUP][3][/SUP] This rumor is false, although the holes drilled in the surgeries following the 1953 beanball were later filled with four tantalum metal corkscrew-shaped "buttons."[SUP][4]"

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Danny_Boy · Jun 5, 2014

RIP....amazing he spent 66 years in baseball. How can you not respect this guy! Great memories

festeringZit · Jun 5, 2014

Pretty amazing, unconscious for 2 weeks:

During a minor league game on July 7, 1953, Zimmer was struck by a pitch thrown by pitcher Jim Kirk, causing Zimmer to lose consciousness. He suffered a brain injury that required surgery. He woke up two weeks later, thinking that it was the day after the game where the incident took place. This led to Major League Baseball adopting batting helmets as a safety measure to be used by players when at-bat. Phil Rizzuto was the first player to use the batting helmets.[SUP][1][/SUP]