Don Zimmer, who retired Tuesday as the bench coach of the Colorado Rockies, is gone but will not easily be forgotten. He was in uniform for 47 consecutive seasons, as a player, coach and manager, a so-called baseball lifer.
“I couldn’t talk him into letting us honor him at home plate,” said Bob Gebhard, the Rockies’ general manager.
“I told him, `Zim, give the people a chance to say thanks.’ The tears were forming in his eyes. I could see there was no way he would pick up a microphone. He said, `I’m the one who should be saying thanks.’ “
It was typical of Zimmer. He was never one to take a bow and was among the most unpretentious diamond celebrities I have known. He loves this game. He managed four big-league clubs, including the Cubs, took his share of the lumps, most of them not justified, and returned the next day, his enthusiasm intact.
“There comes a time when we all have to do it,” Zimmer explained in a telephone interview. “I’ll be 65 in January. It has nothing to do with my health. My health is good. I feel better today than when I went to spring training.
“It’s time for me to go home and spend more time with my wife and play golf and go fishing. And I want to watch my twin grandsons play ball. There are a lot of things I want to do.”
There are also a lot of people who want to say goodbye and extend their best wishes.
“I was a scared kid, 20 years old,” recalled Ron Santo, the Cubs’ longtime star third baseman who surfaced 35 years ago, in 1960.
“He’d take me out to dinner. He told me what to expect from the pitchers. He talked to me, and in those days not many of the older players talked to rookies. There were only 16 big-league teams. The veterans didn’t help rookies.”
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A quarter of a century later, Zimmer was still helping.
“He took a special interest in me,” said Cubs shortstop Shawon Dunston. Like Santo, Dunston was a frightened young player. “Some people help because of the publicity,” Dunston said. “He helped me because he knew I was nervous.
“And he took it a step further. He’d call me up in the wintertime. He sent Christmas cards and birthday gifts to my three kids. I don’t know of any manager who did that.
“After he got fired, I called him and said it was unfair. I remember he said, `That’s OK, Shawon, life isn’t always fair.’ “
It wasn’t the first time Zimmer was fired. He had been dismissed previously as the manager of the San Diego Padres, the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers. Then as now, getting the ax, particularly in baseball, is seldom fatal. More often than not, when a manager is bounced, he is the scapegoat of an ineffective front office.
During his 13 seasons as a major-league manager, Zimmer’s teams won slightly more than half their games. But only the 1989 Cubs, who won the National League East, rewarded him with a championship. It was, in a sense, his career year. The Cubs couldn’t win in spring training and appeared to be such a disaster that most of the experts relegated them to a last-place finish.
“That night in Montreal, when we clinched the title, was my biggest moment in baseball,” Zimmer said. “We fooled everybody. We just got hot. It was a wonderful ride. Wrigley Field and the city of Chicago will always be very special for me.”
Zimmer didn’t go by the book. He was a riverboat gambler who managed by instinct, sometimes by the seat of his pants. He was much more aggressive than most of his colleagues. Nothing delighted him more than the successful execution of a surprise hit-and-run or an unexpected squeeze play.
“All of us learned from him,” said Art Howe, now a coach with the Rockies, and a former manager with the Houston Astros.
“In one game against us, the score was tied, ninth inning, two outs and we had runners at first and second. I brought in a pinch hitter. Zim didn’t like the matchup. He put the guy on with an intentional walk. It loaded the bases. And remember, first base wasn’t open. I admired him for that. It was a daring move.”
“He was a teacher,” said Joe Girardi, the Rockies’ catcher, who also caught for Zimmer when they were with the Cubs. “He was very good in dealing with the different personalities. When things were going bad, he’d put his arm around you. And when you needed a kick, he’d kick you. I’m going to miss him.”
So will hundreds of others.