Ex-Phillies boss dies at age 82
Led Philadelphia to crown in 1980
Dallas Green, the bearish, blustering, boom box-throated manager who in 1980 whipped a talented but complacent Phillies team to the franchise’s first world championship, died Wednesday at 82, a team official confirmed.
Green spent most of his long baseball career with a Phillies organization that signed him as a Delaware high-schooler in 1955. Over the subsequent 61 years, with notable interruptions in New York and Chicago, he would pitch, coach, manage, scout and fill a number of front-office positions for the team.
A commanding physical presence at 6 feet 5, with a thick mane of silver hair and a voice that could penetrate concrete walls, Green seemed born to lead.
As a spot-starter and reliever with the Phillies, Mets and Senators, he was a hardthrowing right-hander who never mastered his control or his temper. Green compiled a 20-22 record and a 4.26 ERA in his playing career from 1960-67.
“I was a 20-game winner,” he liked to say. “It just took me five years to do it.”
Before that career ended, he was a player/coach in the Phillies system. He coached and managed in their minor leagues until 1972, when owner Ruly Carpenter made him director of the team’s minor league system.
For the rest of that decade, Green, a favored protege of general manager Paul Owens, oversaw drafts that produced what was then the greatest era in club history. With a nucleus of homegrown players, those Phillies appeared in six postseasons from 1976-83, winning five National League titles and the first World Series in their 97-year history.
In the mid-1990s, Green spent four losing seasons in the New York Mets dugout before returning for good to the place he considered home, the Phillies front office. His overall managerial record was 454-478.
Cardinals
St. Louis has picked Carlos Martinez to start on opening night April 2 against the World Series champion Chicago Cubs. Martinez went 16-9 last season.
Nationals
Saying his finger finally feels normal, Washington ace Max Scherzer proclaimed himself healed after his first Grapefruit League start of the spring, a 6-1 loss to St. Louis. “It’s behind me now,” Scherzer said. A stress fracture in the knuckle of the ring finger on his pitching hand slowed Scherzer’s development this spring and caused him to grip his fastball with the middle three fingers instead of the usual index and middle fingers as a means to avoid pain.
Tigers
Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera could soon return to the lineup after being sidelined by back stiffness. Cabrera has been out since leaving Venezuela’s game Saturday in the World Baseball Classic. Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said Cabrera might play Friday against Atlanta.
Yankees
New York hopes shortstop Didi Gregorius will be back from his shoulder injury in May, but according to a baseball source, the Yankees are open to trading for a “short-term” answer at the position. Potentially available shortstops include Jose Iglesias of the Tigers, Zack Cozart of the Cincinnati Reds and Nick Ahmed of the Arizona Diamondbacks.