Rays to Retire Don Zimmer’s Uniform Number
The late baseball legend will be honored in a ceremony at Tropicana Field on Opening Day.
Baseball legend Don Zimmer is set to be immortalized by the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays announced on Tuesday that the late Zimmer will be honored in a ceremony and have his uniform number retired at Tropicana Field on April 6 before the Rays’ Opening Day contest with the Baltimore Orioles.
“Don Zimmer enriched the lives of everyone in the Rays family, and he played a significant part in the growth of our organization,’’ Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg said in a statement. “Zim’s presence has been a gift to the game of baseball, and his influence will be felt for years to come. It has been a true privilege of my stewardship of the Rays to have had Don as such an important part of our organization. It is with great pride that we honor him and the game by retiring his number.’’
Zimmer, who died last June at the age of 83, was a veteran of 12 major league seasons as a player and won World Series titles with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers in 1955 and 1959. He was named a National League All-Star as a member of the Chicago Cubs in 1961.
After his playing days were over, Zimmer stayed in baseball through the end of his life, including 13 years as a manager, where he had stints with the Padres, Red Sox, Rangers, and Cubs. Dubbed “the gerbil’’ by Sox pitcher Bill Lee, Zimmer skippered the Red Sox during their 1978 season, which ended in a one-game playoff loss to the New York Yankees. He was also on the bench for the Yankees during their four World Series championships from 1996 through 2000.
Zimmer had been a part of the Rays organization from 2004 through 2014 and was with the club for all four of their postseason appearances, including their trip to the World Series in 2008. He was serving as a senior advisor for the Rays at the time of his death.
Zimmer’s No. 66 – which signified his total years in baseball – becomes the third number retired by the Rays after Wade Boggs’s No. 12 and Jackie Robinson’s No. 42.
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