Thursday, June 5, 2014

R.I.P. Don Zimmer


The sports world lost a legend yesterday with the passing of Don Zimmer at the age of 83 years old. Zim was involved in baseball his entire life, signing a minor league contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949 at the age of 18 years old.
 
He played for 11 years with the Dodgers (twice), Mets, Reds and Senators plus another season in the NPB with the Toei Flyers. He has coached or managed with an additional 9 teams for another 42 years. Over the combined 66 years he won 2 World Series as a player (both with the Dodgers) and another 4 World Series as a coach or manager (All with the Yankees).
 
I will always remember Zim for his time with the Cubs because at the time I was living here in Arizona and we didn’t have the Diamondbacks yet, my favorite team the Mariners were not shown on television to often so I watched the Cubs on WGN and the Braves on TBS for my baseball fix. Another memory is the 2003 ALCS between the Yankees and Red Sox and the brawl when Pedro Martinez threw Zimmer to the ground (despicable).
 
Zimmer was just an average player and an average manager/coach but no matter what he was always himself, he was always Zim and for that he moves on from this world to the world of baseball lore.

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