SPORTS

Longtime baseball fixture Don Zimmer dies at 83

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Yankees players and coaches with bench coach Don Zimmer, center, after Zimmer was thrown to the ground by Boston Red Sox's Pedro Martinez during an altercation.

Longtime baseball fixture Don Zimmer dies at 83Yankees players and coaches with bench coach Don Zimmer, center, after Zimmer was thrown to the ground by Boston Red Sox's Pedro Martinez during an altercation.

AP Photo/ JULIE JACOBSON

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Don Zimmer, a popular fixture in professional baseball for 66 years as a manager, player, coach and executive, has died. He was 83.

Zimmer was still working for the Tampa Bay Rays as a senior adviser. The team confirmed Wednesday night that he had died.

Zimmer had been in a rehabilitation center in Florida since having heart surgery in mid-April.

After starting as a minor league infielder in 1949, Zimmer went on to have one of the longest-lasting careers in baseball history.

Zimmer played for the only Brooklyn Dodgers team to win the World Series and the original New York Mets, nearly managed the Boston Red Sox to a championship in the 1970s and was Joe Torre's right-hand man with the New York Yankees' most recent dynasty.