Ex-Mets, Yankees, Phillies manager Dallas Green dies at 82
He was not on the list.
Below is the press release sent out Wednesday afternoon by
the Phillies:
One of baseball's most vibrant personalities, Dallas Green,
died peacefully this afternoon. He was
82.
Dallas dedicated 62 years of his life to the game he loved,
46 of them coming with the Philadelphia Phillies. Most recently, he served as senior advisor to
the last four Phillies general managers.
Throughout his professional baseball career, he was a player, coach,
manager, scout, farm director, general manager and team president. In all of these roles, Dallas brought with
him the uncanny ability to tell it like it was.
Born on August 4, 1934 in Newport, Del., Dallas graduated
from Conrad High School in 1952 and attended the University of Delaware until
he signed with the Phillies as a pitcher in 1955.
He played as a pitcher and right fielder for the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens baseball team and was a two-year letterman in basketball for Delaware. He also played for the High Point Thomasville Hi-Toms, in North Carolina.
Dallas played 13 years of professional baseball (1955-67),
including parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Phillies (1960-64; 67),
Washington Senators (1965) and New York Mets (1966). He finished his major league career with a
20-22 record and a 4.26 ERA in 185 games.
Dallas had 12 complete games in 46 career starts.
In 1967, Dallas became a player-coach for double-A Reading
and also pitched in eight games for the Phillies that season. He made his managerial debut in 1968 at
single-A Huron and the following year guided Pulaski Phillies to the Appalachian League
championship.
Following his three years as a minor league instructor,
Dallas was named assistant to Paul Owens, the Phillies' director of minor
leagues at the time. He was promoted to
director of minor leagues in 1972, a position he held until taking over as
Phillies manager on August 31, 1979. The
following season, he became the 17th rookie manager in major league history to
take his club to the World Series and the fourth to win it, leading the
Phillies to their first world championship.
He was also the winning manager in the 1981 All-Star Game.
"The game lost a great baseball man today," said
Phillies Chairman David Montgomery.
"Dallas held many different positions in baseball and his passion
and love for the game was evident in every role he played.
"He was a big man with a big heart and a
bigger-than-life personality. Having
known Dallas since 1971, he was one of my first phone calls upon becoming
Phillies president because of his perspective and advice. All of us at the Phillies had tremendous respect
for Dallas as a baseball man and friend.
We will miss him dearly. Our
thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Sylvia, and his children, Dana, John,
Kim and Doug."
Dallas joined the Chicago Cubs in 1982 as general manager and
took on the additional role of team president from 1985-87. In 1984, he was named Baseball Executive of
the Year by The Sporting News, UPI and ESPN, as well as Chicago's Man of the
Year by the Chicago Press Club.
In addition, he was only the fourth person in major league
history to manage both the New York Yankees (1988-89) and the New York Mets
(1993-96).
Dallas is survived by his loving wife of 59 years, Sylvia,
four children - Dana Ressler (Mark), John (Roxanna), Kim and Douglas (Elin) -
and five grandchildren - Holly and Hunter Ressler, Benjamin, Fin and
Dallas. In 2011, Dallas and Sylvia lost
their 9-year-old granddaughter Christina-Taylor when a gunman in Tucson, Ariz.,
attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Shortly after losing their beloved
Christina-Taylor, Dallas told the media, "I'm supposed to be a tough
sucker, but I'm not very tough when it comes to this." He admitted that he would never fully recover
from the tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment