Baseball manager and mentor to Sandy Koufax

LOS ANGELES — Norm Sherry, whose suggestion to Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Sandy Koufax helped the future Hall of Fame pitcher reach his potential, has died. He was 89.

Mr. Sherry died Monday of natural causes at an assisted living facility in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., his son Mike told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

He played just five years in the majors, hitting .215 with 18 home runs and 69 RBIs. He was with the Dodgers from 1959-62 and finished his career with the Mets in 1963.

But it was Mr. Sherry’s contributions without a bat that helped along the careers of Mr. Koufax and Don Sutton, another Hall of Fame pitcher for the Dodgers who

Valuable Player in the 1959 World Series when he and Norm were teammates on the Dodgers.

On May 7, 1960, they became the first Jewish brothers to be Major League Baseball batterymates.

In 1965, Mr. Sherry began his managerial career in the Dodgers minor league system. He scouted for a year with the New York Yankees, and returned to managing in the California Angels’ system in 1969.

He managed the Angels to a combined record of 7671 in 1976 and ’77 before being fired. He was one of the small number of Jewish managers in MLB history.

Mr. Sherry then returned to the coaching ranks, where he worked for the Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres and San Francisco

Giants.

Mike Sherry recalled his father was coaching a minor league game in the South one summer when all the available catchers were injured.

“He had to activate himself, and this was way past when he had been playing,” said the younger Sherry, who served as a batboy. “He hit a double, and he was on second and the guy had a base hit, so he had to round third and go home. He was so gassed, but I was so impressed. That was a cool memory because I didn’t remember him playing.”

Besides his son, Mr. Sherry is survived by daughters Cyndi and Pam from his first marriage to wife Marty. He was predeceased by his second wife Linda.