Don Zimmer began his MLB career with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 and ended it with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014
Don Zimmer spend his entire adult life in professional baseball. Signed by the Dodgers in 1949, he began his career as an 18-year old with Class-D Cambridge. Zimmer spent the next 18 years getting paid to play the game he loved. Along the way Zimmer was part of two Dodger championship teams. The fir
Don Zimmer began his MLB career with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954 and ended it with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014
Don Zimmer spend his entire adult life in professional baseball. Signed by the Dodgers in 1949, he began his career as an 18-year old with Class-D Cambridge. Zimmer spent the next 18 years getting paid to play the game he loved.
Along the way Zimmer was part of two Dodger championship teams. The first title came in 1955 in Brooklyn’s only Fall Classic triumph. Zimmer’s second ring was courtesy of the Dodgers’ first championship in Los Angeles.
In 1960 the Dodgers traded Zimmer to Chicago. He made the all star game in ’61, enticing the Mets to select him in the expansion draft. Zimmer played big league ball until 1965 then took his talents to Japan in ’66. One more season as a minor leaguer in the Reds organization in 1967 marked the end of his playing career.
Zim spent three seasons as a minor league skipper before returning to the bigs as a coach with the Montreal Expos in 1971. He then became third base coach for the Padres in ’72. The move to San Diego reunited him with GM Buzzie Bavasi and manager Preston Gomez who Zim knew from their days with the Dodgers.
Eleven games into the ’72 season Bavasi fired Gomez and elevated the 41-year old Zimmer to his first managerial position. That job lasted until Zimmer was fired after 102 losses in ’73.
The Red Sox made Zimmer their third base coach in ’74. In the middle of ’76, the Sox fired manager Darrell Johnson and installed Zimmer in the post.
Zimmer enjoyed success in his three full seasons at the helm in Boston, leading the team to 97, 99, and 91 victories. The run marked only the second time since World War I that the Red Sox put up three straight seasons with 90-plus wins.
Zimmer is best remembered in Boston for the Red Sox collapse in ’78. His club led the Yankees by as many as 14 games before stumbling in August. In early September the Sox lead over the Yanks dwindled to just four games.
The season came down to a one-game playoff made famous by a Bucky Dent go-ahead homer over the Green Monster at Fenway.
After his time in Boston finished in mid-1980, Zimmer managed the Rangers for three seasons. He also guided the Cubs for four years including the 1989 Eastern Division crown.
Though Zimmer never managed after leaving Chicago in 1991, he remained in the big leagues as a coach. His best run came with the Yankees and Joe Torre from 1996 through 2003. They teamed to win four World Series.
From 2004-2014 Zimmer served as a senior advisor for the Tampa Bay Rays. In Tampa he remained in uniform, assisting during spring training and home games. Zimmer was proud to be the last member of the Brooklyn Dodgers to wear a Major League uniform.
Don Zimmer passed away on June 4, 2014 from heart and kidney problems. The Rays retired #66 in his honor on Opening Day, 2015.
In the collection is this Dodger press release announcing the return of announcer Vin Scully for his 63rd season. Dated August 26, 2011, the release has Zimmer’s handwritten thoughts on the subject in the bottom-right corner.
“To think that Vinny and I started out in Brooklyn all those many years ago and he is still the announcer for the Dodgers is unbelievable!?! He’s not only a ‘Hall of Fame’ announcer but a dear friend. Many, many fans around the world have been touched by his broadcasting. We all are looking forward to his 63rd season in the booth for the Dodgers.”
Zimmer has affixed his signature to the bottom of the press release.
The New York chapter of the BBWAA honored Don Zimmer with the William J. Slocum Award in 2010
The William J. Slocum Award is one of the most prestigious honors baseball has to offer. Created in 1930 by the NY chapter of the BBWAA, it recognizes those with long and meritorious service to the game. Seeing Don Zimmer receive the award in 2010 just makes sense. Zim started in professional baseba
Seeing Don Zimmer receive the award in 2010 just makes sense. Zim started in professional baseball as minor leaguer at age 18 in 1949. From then until his death in 2014, every paycheck he ever earned was from the game of baseball.
Zimmer played 19 seasons in the minors and majors, then went on a coaching and managing odyssey that culminated with the Tampa Bay Rays retiring his jersey in 2015.
By winning the Slocum, Zimmer joins a list of baseball royalty. Other to receive the honor include Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and more than 50 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the collection is the Slocum Award presented to Dodger announcer Vin Scully in 1995. When Zimmer broke into the big leagues in 1954, Scully was behind the mic. The pair built a friendship that lasted all of Zimmer’s life.
The oldest professional sport in the United States, baseball remains America’s National Pastime to this day. The game’s current leagues were flourishing soon after the end of the 1800s. Every city with a team had multiple newspapers reporting their games. Sportswriters worked from stadium press boxes describing their team’s contests in great detail. The widespread news coverage helped grow the game. In 1908 writers banded together to form the Baseball Writers Association of America. The BBWAA’s founding mission was to “ensure professional working conditions for beat writers at all MLB ballparks and to promote uniformity of scoring methods. Early in the 1900s New York City boasted three big league teams, the Giants and Dodgers of the National League, and the Highlanders – who later became the Yankees – in the American League. The Big Apple soon became the hub of the baseball world. One of the writers who covered the New York teams was William J. Slocum. Respected for his baseball knowledge and writing ability, Slocum quickly rose to the top of his profession. Well-liked, he helped organize the New York chapter of the BBWAA. The Bill Slocom Award is one of the most prestigious awards baseball has to offer. The little-known honor has been given to more than 50 members of the Hall of Fame.
