Jaffe: In remembrance of Don Zimmer
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at SI.com on June 5, 2014:
Baseball lost one of its lifers on Wednesday. Don Zimmer, who had been part of the game since 1949 as a player, coach, manager and advisor, passed away at age 83. Zimmer, most recently a senior advisor to the Rays, had undergone surgery to repair a leaky heart valve on April 16 and had been on a ventilator since. With the blessing of Major League Baseball, Rays third base coach Tom Foley had recently taken to wearing Zimmer’s number 66 jersey — representing the years of his tenure in baseball — in tribute.
Zimmer’s influence went far beyond Tampa Bay. Simply put, he touched just about every corner of baseball. He played for five different franchises during his 12-year major league career (1954-65), managed four others — famously overseeing the Red Sox’ collapse in 1978 and winning a division title with the Cubs in 1989 — and coaching five more. Most notably in that latter role, he served as the bench coach for Joe Torre during the Yankees’ run of four world championships and six pennants from 1996-2003. He even spent 36 games as New York’s interim manager in 1999 while Torre underwent treatment for prostate cancer.
Read the full article here: http://mlb.si.com/2014/06/05/don-zimmer-dies-at-age-83/
Originally published: June 5, 2014. Last Updated: June 5, 2014.