For those of us who knew him, it’s hard to believe he’s gone, that we’ll never again be treated to those wonderful stories he enjoyed telling about baseball’s “good ol’ days.”
We’ll miss Danny Ozark. We’ll miss his easy smile, his folksy demeanor, his gentlemanly way. We’ll mourn the loss of another treasured piece of Vero Beach’s baseball past.
But there’s some comfort in knowing how the former Philadelphia Phillies manager spent the last night of his life — at home, watching his old team on TV, talking baseball with a longtime golf buddy.
“We were on the phone, watching the game,” said John Boland, a Phillies fan Ozark befriended after the two met 18 years ago at the downtown post office. “Before we hung up, I told him: ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ ”
But there would be no tomorrow.
Not for Ozark.
When Ginny, his wife of 60 years, tried to wake him Thursday morning, she couldn’t. At age 85, Ozark was dead. And his passing came as a surprise to his friends.
“Danny’s gone?” former umpire Bruce Froemming said from New York before Thursday night’s game at Yankee Stadium, the Vero Beach winter resident’s latest stop as a consultant for Major League Baseball. “I didn’t know. ... I just saw him this spring, and he looked terrific.”
Yes, he did.
I saw Ozark on St. Patrick’s Day, when former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley came to town for a book-signing session. We talked about Dodgertown and his first spring-training experience there as a minor league prospect in 1949. He told me why he decided to make Vero Beach his home in 1960.
“It was a small town, a pretty town, and the people were always so nice,” said Ozark, who also was a Dodgers coach. “It just seemed like a great place to raise a family.”
It’s also a great place to play golf, another game Ozark loved.
In fact, Ozark played three times in the past week and was supposed to join his regular golf group — they call themselves “The Baggers” — on the Vista Plantation course Friday morning.
“He played with us every Monday and Friday, and he hadn’t been complaining about anything,” said Dutch Rennert, one of “The Baggers” and another former umpire who lives in Vero Beach. “He played Monday and was feeling fine. I guess it was just his time.
“We’ve lost a good friend. And he was a very good manager.”
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/may/07/ray-mcnulty-well-miss-danny-ozark-former-phillies
We’ll miss Danny Ozark. We’ll miss his easy smile, his folksy demeanor, his gentlemanly way. We’ll mourn the loss of another treasured piece of Vero Beach’s baseball past.
But there’s some comfort in knowing how the former Philadelphia Phillies manager spent the last night of his life — at home, watching his old team on TV, talking baseball with a longtime golf buddy.
“We were on the phone, watching the game,” said John Boland, a Phillies fan Ozark befriended after the two met 18 years ago at the downtown post office. “Before we hung up, I told him: ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ ”
But there would be no tomorrow.
Not for Ozark.
When Ginny, his wife of 60 years, tried to wake him Thursday morning, she couldn’t. At age 85, Ozark was dead. And his passing came as a surprise to his friends.
“Danny’s gone?” former umpire Bruce Froemming said from New York before Thursday night’s game at Yankee Stadium, the Vero Beach winter resident’s latest stop as a consultant for Major League Baseball. “I didn’t know. ... I just saw him this spring, and he looked terrific.”
Yes, he did.
I saw Ozark on St. Patrick’s Day, when former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley came to town for a book-signing session. We talked about Dodgertown and his first spring-training experience there as a minor league prospect in 1949. He told me why he decided to make Vero Beach his home in 1960.
“It was a small town, a pretty town, and the people were always so nice,” said Ozark, who also was a Dodgers coach. “It just seemed like a great place to raise a family.”
It’s also a great place to play golf, another game Ozark loved.
In fact, Ozark played three times in the past week and was supposed to join his regular golf group — they call themselves “The Baggers” — on the Vista Plantation course Friday morning.
“He played with us every Monday and Friday, and he hadn’t been complaining about anything,” said Dutch Rennert, one of “The Baggers” and another former umpire who lives in Vero Beach. “He played Monday and was feeling fine. I guess it was just his time.
“We’ve lost a good friend. And he was a very good manager.”
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/may/07/ray-mcnulty-well-miss-danny-ozark-former-phillies
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