RT @stevecarney: WTSP is reporting that #Rays senior baseball advisor Don Zimmer has passed away at age 83. #Rays
ChefDJW said:Seriously, let's take a few minutes and give the man some respect. A real baseball character.
Darnell's Son said:
Tremendoussfip said:This one shows him rolling longer.
Darnell's Son said:That was well done.
Darnell's Son said:
staz said:"Well, at least he lived to see the Sox win it all."
Despite his best efforts.
RIP
RIP truly one of a kind. I forgot about him being Hobson'a bench coach. Frankly I've tried my best to forget about Hobson being the manager for years now.fenwaypaul said:
Pretty good run for a true baseball lifer. RIP, Zim.
tl;dr version:mabrowndog said:So just days after Joe Buck told viewers of the Sox-Rays game that Zimmer had been hospitalized, with Buck going on to give Gerbil an epic tongue bath as one of the nicest, most awesome, most incredible, most adored, most lovable, most supremely knoblickalicious people ever associated with the sport, Zimmer's gone?
Heh. How appropriate.
My upbringing taught me not to trample on the graves of the dead, especially if they're not even buried yet. But my experience as a fan who watched him manage this club into the ground more than three decades ago is winning the battle of conscience and morality.
This was the guy who put Spaceman in his doghouse and ultimately forced him out of town. Bill Lee was one of the 7 best lefty starters this franchise has ever had, but because Zimmer didn't like him personally, he kicked him to the curb. Imagine if Tito had decided to bench Manny Ramirez for all his bullshit, and the front office let him get away with it.
The guy who similarly ensured the club dispatched Carbo, Willoughby, Jenkins, and even Luis Tiant among countless other capable players in the latter half of the 70s.
The guy who decided Bob "Beetle" Bailey would be an adequate replacement for Carbo down the stretch in '78. (Bailey would end being being the guy that Zimmer sent up against Goose Gossage with the season on the line on October 2nd, but instead of being hot shit in a champagne bottle Bailey was, quite predictably, lukewarm diarrhea in a Dixie cup.)
The guy who gave us The Bobby Sprowl Experience (which, in retrospect, he might deserve a shred of credit for since it also gave us a damn fine eponymous SoSH Dope). This kid was reputed to be Clemens before Clemens, except he was still pitching in AA when the club jumped him all the way to Boston at age 22. His first start? Against Jim Palmer & the Orioles in Baltimore on 9/5, with the Sox already in a death spiral. His second start? Against the Yankees at Fenway on 9/10. Poor kid didn't make it out of the first inning (4 BB, a Reggie Jackson RBI single), and by the end of that game the Sox' one-time 14.5 game AL East lead over the MFY had completely evaporated. And Sprowl, clearly damaged goods in the team's eyes, was shipped off to Houston over the winter.
The guy who had screwballing closer Bill Campbell throw 140 relief innings in 69 games in '77 (He'd also been burned out by the Twins the year before he signed with the Sox as their first high-profile free agent, but he'd gotten through '76 healthy. Soup dealt with chronic elbow soreness in '78, but Zimmer ignored it and kept pitching him. Soup was never the same thereafter).
The guy who insisted on playing Butch Hobson day after day, night after night (speaking of chronic elbow soreness...) despite the fact that his third baseman's throwing arm had multiple sets of craps dice rattling around within the joint, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn on his throws to first.
They guy who presided over one of the most stunning regular-season collapses in baseball history.
I might shed a tear for this lifelong baseball figure at some point. But right now? Nope.
PaulinMyrBch said:I wonder if Zim died in silent protest of the David Price fine?
@DAVIDprice14: We/the game of baseball lost a very special man tonight in Don Zimmer! His presence around the clubhouse made everyone better! #thankszim
@infinity111111: @DAVIDprice14 ur still a douche.
Probably figured it was quiet enough already.Soxfan in Fla said:I was at the Rays game tonight when it started buzzing through the crowd. Really surprised they didn't announce and ask for a moment of silence.
RIP
moretsyndrome said:Anyone who told the great Bruce Hurst to take his bible and go back to Utah deserves no respect. God only knows how many careers that prototypical lifer/hack ruined.
Wow, much respect to Zimmer. He gained a fan today.moretsyndrome said:Anyone who told the great Bruce Hurst to take his bible and go back to Utah deserves no respect. God only knows how many careers that prototypical lifer/hack ruined.
StuckOnYouk said:
What's the story here? Never heard of this.
So well said.mabrowndog said:So just days after Joe Buck told viewers of the Sox-Rays game that Zimmer had been hospitalized, with Buck going on to give Gerbil an epic tongue bath as one of the nicest, most awesome, most incredible, most adored, most lovable, most supremely knoblickalicious people ever associated with the sport, Zimmer's gone?
Heh. How appropriate.
My upbringing taught me not to trample on the graves of the dead, especially if they're not even buried yet. But my experience as a fan who watched him manage this club into the ground more than three decades ago is winning the battle of conscience and morality.
This was the guy who put Spaceman in his doghouse and ultimately forced him out of town. Bill Lee was one of the 7 best lefty starters this franchise has ever had, but because Zimmer didn't like him personally, he kicked him to the curb. Imagine if Tito had decided to bench Manny Ramirez for all his bullshit, and the front office let him get away with it.
The guy who similarly ensured the club dispatched Carbo, Willoughby, Jenkins, and even Luis Tiant among countless other capable players in the latter half of the 70s.
The guy who decided Bob "Beetle" Bailey would be an adequate replacement for Carbo down the stretch in '78. (Bailey would end being being the guy that Zimmer sent up against Goose Gossage with the season on the line on October 2nd, but instead of being hot shit in a champagne bottle Bailey was, quite predictably, lukewarm diarrhea in a Dixie cup.)
The guy who gave us The Bobby Sprowl Experience (which, in retrospect, he might deserve a shred of credit for since it also gave us a damn fine eponymous SoSH Dope). This kid was reputed to be Clemens before Clemens, except he was still pitching in AA when the club jumped him all the way to Boston at age 22. His first start? Against Jim Palmer & the Orioles in Baltimore on 9/5, with the Sox already in a death spiral. His second start? Against the Yankees at Fenway on 9/10. Poor kid didn't make it out of the first inning (4 BB, a Reggie Jackson RBI single), and by the end of that game the Sox' one-time 14.5 game AL East lead over the MFY had completely evaporated. And Sprowl, clearly damaged goods in the team's eyes, was shipped off to Houston the following summer.
The guy who had screwballing closer Bill Campbell throw 140 relief innings in 69 games in '77 (He'd also been burned out by the Twins the year before he signed with the Sox as their first high-profile free agent, but he'd gotten through '76 healthy. Soup dealt with chronic elbow soreness in '78, but Zimmer ignored it and kept pitching him. Soup was never the same thereafter).
The guy who insisted on playing Butch Hobson day after day, night after night (speaking of chronic elbow soreness...) despite the fact that his third baseman's throwing arm had multiple sets of craps dice rattling around within the joint, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn on his throws to first.
They guy who presided over one of the most stunning regular-season collapses in baseball history.
I might shed a tear for this lifelong baseball figure at some point. But right now? Nope.
FelixMantilla said:He must have been a great guy because he was a terrible manager who kept getting hired.
RIP.