Green, who managed Phillies to first title, dies at 82
PHILADELPHIA — Dallas Green, the tough-talking, nononsense skipper who in 1980 guided the Philadelphia Phillies to their first World Series championship, died Wednesday. He was 82.
The Phillies said Green died at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. He had been in poor health for a while. Green spent 62 years in baseball as a player, manager, general manager, team president and other roles.
In 1980, with Rose playing first base on a team that included future Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton, Green guided the Phillies to a very elusive crown, ending a drought that stretched back nearly a century.
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.
Green also was the GM and president of the Chicago Cubs and made a shrewd trade to get a young infielder from the Phillies, future great Ryne Sandberg.
The deal helped turn a long-dormant franchise into a club that came within one win of clinching the 1984 National League pennant.
Green was known for his rugged reputation and embraced it. Yet he was left in tears in 2011 when his 9-year-old granddaughter, Christina-Taylor Green, was shot and killed outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz., as she went to see U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Six people were killed in the mass shooting as Giffords met with constituents.