Former Phillies World Series Manager Passes Away at 82

One of baseball’s most vibrant personalities, Dallas Green, died peacefully this afternoon. He was 82.

Dallas dedicated 62 years of his life to the game he loved, 46 of them coming with the Philadelphia Phillies. Most recently, he served as senior advisor to the last four Phillies general managers. Throughout his professional baseball career, he was a player, coach, manager, scout, farm director, general manager and team president. In all of these roles, Dallas brought with him the uncanny ability to tell it like it was.

Born on August 4, 1934 in Newport, Del., Dallas graduated from Conrad High School in 1952 and attended the University of Delaware until he signed with the Phillies as a pitcher in 1955.

Dallas played 13 years of professional baseball (1955-67), including parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Phillies (1960-64; 67), Washington Senators (1965) and New York Mets (1966). He finished his major league career with a 20-22 record and a 4.26 ERA in 185 games. Dallas had 12 complete games in 46 career starts.

In 1967, Dallas became a player-coach for double-A Reading and also pitched in eight games for the Phillies that season. He made his managerial debut in 1968 at single-A Huron and the following year guided Pulaski to the Appalachian League championship.

Following his three years as a minor league instructor, Dallas was named assistant to Paul Owens, the Phillies’ director of minor leagues at the time. He was promoted to director of minor leagues in 1972, a position he held until taking over as Phillies manager on August 31, 1979. The following season, he became the 17th rookie manager in major league history to take his club to the World Series and the fourth to win it, leading the Phillies to their first world championship. He was also the winning manager in the 1981 All-Star Game.

“The game lost a great baseball man today,” said Phillies Chairman David Montgomery. “Dallas held many different positions in baseball and his passion and love for the game was evident in every role he played.

“He was a big man with a big heart and a bigger-than-life personality. Having known Dallas since 1971, he was one of my first phone calls upon becoming Phillies president because of his perspective and advice. All of us at the Phillies had tremendous respect for Dallas as a baseball man and friend. We will miss him dearly. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Sylvia, and his children, Dana, John, Kim and Doug.”

Dallas joined the Chicago Cubs in 1982 as general manager and took on the additional role of team president from 1985-87. In 1984, he was named Baseball Executive of the Year by The Sporting News, UPI and ESPN, as well as Chicago’s Man of the Year by the Chicago Press Club.

In addition, he was only the fourth person in major league history to manage both the New York Yankees (1988-89) and the New York Mets (1993-96).

Dallas is survived by his loving wife of 59 years, Sylvia, four children – Dana Ressler (Mark), John (Roxanna), Kim and Douglas (Elin) – and five grandchildren – Holly and Hunter Ressler, Benjamin, Fin and Dallas. In 2011, Dallas and Sylvia lost their 9-year-old granddaughter Christina-Taylor when a gunman in Tucson, Ariz., attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Shortly after losing their beloved Christina-Taylor, Dallas told the media, “I’m supposed to be a tough sucker, but I’m not very tough when it comes to this.” He admitted that he would never fully recover from the tragedy.

The Green family will celebrate Dallas’ life at a private funeral service.

***From Phillies Press Release***