Following coaching stints with the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, Zimmer managed the Cubs from 1988 through the first 37 games of the 1991 season, when he was fired. After coaching stints with the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies, Zimmer spent 1996 through 2003 as bench coach with Joe Torre’s New York Yankees. Zimmer even managed the Yanks when Torre was sidelined with illness.
Derek Jeter loved Zimmer and his stories. Jeter had a pre-game routine that included rubbing Zimmer’s bare, bald head and replacing his cap a bit sideways.
In 2004 Zimmer assumed the position of senior adviser for Tampa Bay that he held until his passing.
Zimmer leaves tons of friends, family and his wife, Soot. “Her real name is Jean Carol,” he once explained to me in the dugout before game time. “In German, ‘soot’ means little sweetheart. It sounds like the soot that comes in your chimney. Anyways, that’s what many people call her.”
Baseball folks considered Don Zimmer a little sweetheart in his own right.