Former Rangers manager,
baseball legend Don Zimmer
dies at age 83
Staff and Wire Reports
The Dallas Morning News
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Don Zimmer, a most popular fixture in professional baseball for 66 years as a manager, player, coach and executive, died Wednesday. He was 83.
Zimmer was still working for the Tampa Bay Rays as a senior adviser, and the team said he died at a hospital in nearby Dunedin.
Zimmer had been in a rehabilitation center in Florida since having seven hours of heart surgery in mid-April.
He managed the Rangers in the strike-marred season of 1981 and was fired 96 games into the 1982 season. His record was 95-106.
The Rangers were in sixth place when Zimmer was fired, but owner Eddie Chiles said that “something personal” led to his dismissal and would not elaborate. Zimmer agreed to Chiles’ request to run the team for two more games until Darrell Johnson took over.
“Zim’s a good manager,” Rangers outfielder Mickey Rivers said at the time, in remarks reported by The Associated Press. “This team is no good.”
Zimmer played for the Washington Senators — the team that became the Rangers — from 1963-65.
MORE