Longtime MLB manager and exec DALLAS GREEN, a "towering baseball figure" who "paved the way for lights at Wrigley Field" passed away yesterday at the age of 82, according to Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. Green had been "suffering from kidney failure and had been in declining health." Green spent 62 years in baseball as a player, manager, GM, team president, minor league director and scout. Green was known for his "booming voice and strong opinions." Throughout his career, he "never shied from confrontations" (ESPN.com, 3/23). The CHICAGO TRIBUNE notes Green was Cubs GM & Exec VP from '82-87 and was one of the "first advocates for installing lights at Wrigley Field." Green once said, "If there are no lights in Wrigley Field, there will be no Wrigley Field." Then-Chicago Mayor HAROLD WASHINGTON "approved an ordinance allowing lights to be installed" in '88. Green managed the Phillies to their first World Series title in '80 as well as the Yankees and Mets. He most recently worked as a special advisor to the Phillies (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/23). Dodgers Special Advisor to the President & CEO NED COLLETTI said, "He really sent the Cubs on their way. He wasn’t afraid to change the image of the franchise and wasn’t afraid to take on tradition. He knew how important it was to have lights and suites at Wrigley Field in order to compete. He got the best out of people" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/23).
BEFORE THERE WAS THEO: In Chicago, Barry Rozner writes Green "immediately ruffled feathers in Chicago, where losing was tolerated and often celebrated." The marketing slogan -- "Building a New Tradition" -- was as "hated as Green the first couple of years." Rozner: "In some respects, Green was THEO EPSTEIN before there was one" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 3/22). Also in Chicago, Gordon Wittenmyer writes, "Green looked like he was about to pull off the same sea change in the organization -- Theo before Theo." Green was one of the "most influential baseball executives in Cubs history" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/23).
IMPOSING FIGURE: MLB.com's Marty Noble wrote "few who were part of the game in the past half-century cut so distinctive a figure" as Green. He had "presence that commanded recognition" (MLB.com, 3/22). In Philadelphia, Bill Lyon writes Green was "florid-faced and silver-maned, a big, imposing man with a boom-box mouth to match, unwavering in his convictions and straight-from-the-shoulder with his opinions" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 3/23). On Long Island, Mark Herrmann writes Green's "imposing 6-5 figure maintained his robust, blunt personality" (NEWSDAY, 3/23). In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes Green "struggled to recover after the shooting death of his 9-year-old granddaughter, CHRISTINA-TAYLOR GREEN, who was one of six people killed in the failed assassination attempt" on former U.S. Rep. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS in Arizona in '11 (N.Y. TIMES, 3/22).
