LOS ANGELES — Buzzie Bavasi, who built Dodgers teams that won four World Series titles in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, died Thursday at his home in La Jolla, outside San Diego. He was 93.
His death was announced by the Seattle Mariners, whose general manager is Bill Bavasi, a son of the former Dodgers GM.
Another son, Bob Bavasi, is a former owner of the Everett AquaSox.
“Buzzie was one of the game’s greatest front office executives during a period that spanned parts of six different decades,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. “He loved the game, and he loved talking about it.”
Emil Joseph Bavasi’s Dodgers teams included future Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. With the Dodgers, he helped assist players breaking the major league color barrier. Bavasi later was part owner and president of the San Diego Padres, then became executive vice president of the California Angels.
Bavasi spent 44 years working in baseball, including 34 in the major leagues. He began as a traveling secretary and publicity director for the Dodgers in Brooklyn in 1939.
After serving in various posts for the team, he was promoted to GM before the 1951 season.
During his tenure as GM from 1951-68, first in Brooklyn and then Los Angeles, the Dodgers won eight National League pennants. They won their only World Series in Brooklyn in 1955. After the move West, the Dodgers won the World Series in 1959, 1963 and 1965 with Bavasi as GM.
Former manager and coach Don Zimmer said Bavasi “was like a father to me, from the time I was 19 years old. All my life, really. I can’t describe how much he meant to me.”
Bavasi was selected major league executive of the year in 1959. He was with the expansion Padres from 1969-77 and the Angels from 1978-84.
After serving four years as an infantry machine gunner during World War II, he ran the Dodgers farm club in Nashua, N.H. starting in 1946.
Though tucked away in a small town in the New England League, Bavasi immediately found himself at the center of the Dodgers’ effort to integrate the major leagues.
Former Negro Leagues players Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella were signed and sent to the team in 1946, and Bavasi was assigned to handle their potentially tough arrival and development.
There were some ugly incidents — Campanella said a catcher for the Lynn Red Sox threw dirt in his face and that the team used racial slurs with him and Newcombe.
But Bavasi and the two players handled the circumstances so well that all three would end up with the big league team in a few short years.
Bavasi eventually succeeded Branch Rickey as Dodgers GM.
His survivors include his wife of 68 years, Evit; sons Peter, Chris, Bob and Bill; nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements will be private. The family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Baseball Assistance Team or Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation.
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