Phillies lose ‘a giant’ of the game
PHILADELPHIA >> Dallas Green had a favorite saying, no doubt repeated a hundred times or so during his long career, which began as a Phillies pitcher and essentially ended as a baseball giant.
“I was a 20-game winner,” Green would so often bellow, “it just took me five years to do it.”
So maybe the 6-foot-5 native of Newport, Del., a selfproclaimed Phillies fan from childhood, wasn’t such the star on the mound. But when he passed away at the age of 82 Wednesday, his status as a Philadelphia sports icon was reaffirmed by the reaction.
“When you think of big, with that deep voice, that booming voice, he could hold a team meeting. Boy, he could scare you right out of your seat,” Cleveland manager and former Phillies manager Terry Francona recalled.
Green, the tough talker who guided the Phillies to their first World Series championship, died Wednesday at Hahnemann University Hospital after a long kidney illness. The West Grove, Chester County resident spent 62 years in baseball as a player, manager, general manager, team president and in other roles.
Phillies Chairman Dave Montgomery called Green, “a big man with a big heart and a bigger-than-life personality.
“Growing up, watching this guy pitch for you, and then the first time you meet him, what a presence,” Montgomery told Comcast SportsNet. “There’s no other way to describe it . ... You have to step back a little when you meet Dallas Green. Not only his size, his personality and his voice ... quite a thrill. But you know what? That never died.”
As a pitcher, Green went just 20-22 in the 1960s. His most notable distinction on the mound might have been giving up the only grand slam launched by all-time hits leader Pete Rose.
In 1980, with Rose playing first base on a Phillies team that included future Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton, and a fiery shortstop named Larry Bowa, Green guided them to the World Series championship, ending a drought that stretched back nearly a century.
“Baseball world lost a giant,” Rose tweeted. “Dallas was a hell of a guy and a real leader.”
Added Phillies bench coach Bowa, who played for and verbally sparred with Green on that championship team and in Chicago when Green was the Cubs general manager, “Dallas was what Philly is all about: toughness, honesty and fairness. Without Dallas, the Phillies would not have won the World Series in 1980. I wish all of our current players would have had the opportunity to meet Dallas. He was a huge impact on my career as a player, manager and coach.”
Indeed, Green got his team’s attention midway through that championship season. After a loss in Pittsburgh left the Phils around .500, his clubhouse tirade was so loud that writers outside the locker room at Three Rivers Stadium swore they could hear every word.
Green later managed the New York Yankees — where bombastic owner George Steinbrenner liked the idea of someone being able to stand up to him — and the Mets.
“Dallas was, pure and simple a ‘true baseball man,’” the Mets said in a statement.
After friend and team owner Ruly Carpenter sold the Phillies after the 1981 season, Green took on an offer from the Cubs to be their GM and president. One of his first moves was to bring in Bowa in exchange for Cubs shortstop Ivan DeJesus, but he only did so after insisting young infielder Ryne Sandberg be included in the deal. The steal of a trade turned the Cubs into a contender; they came within one win of reaching the 1984 World Series.
“He was awesome to be around,” Cubs outfield instructor Doug Dascenzo, who came through the Chicago system during Green’s tenure there, told the Chicago Tribune. “The one thing that caught all of our eyes was just the pure presence he brought. He always backed players, and it’s a sad day and we’re going to miss him.”
Former Phillies and Cubs player Bobby Dernier told the Tribune that Green, “was like John Wayne walking in the room. He was a presence. He was a guy who would pat you on the butt, but he wasn’t afraid to stick his boot there either, if he thought you were short of the right effort.
“While I’m sad, I’m glad he’s in heaven. One of the last sentences he said to me was, ‘They don’t listen to me anymore, Bobby, but I’m still around.’”
Green was inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame in 2006, some eight years after he’d returned to the club as a special advisor. Overall, he’d spend 46 years affiliated with the Phils.
He was always known for his rugged reputation and embraced it. Yet he was left in tears in 2011 when his 9-yearold granddaughter, ChristinaTaylor Green, was shot and killed outside a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, as she went to see U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Six people were killed in the mass shooting as Giffords met with constituents.
“I’m supposed to be a tough sucker, but I’m not very tough when it comes to this,” Green said at the time.
Francona witnessed the effect her death had on Green.
“I know when that happened with his granddaughter, the shooting, I know that that just tore him apart,” he said. “I saw him at a golf tournament for that, about a year and a half ago, and you could tell that just ate him alive.”
“I don’t know if he was sick, but maybe he’s happier now,” Francona said.
Green is survived by his wife of 59 years, Sylvia; four children; and five grandchildren.