Davey Lopes, part of Dodgers’ long-running infield, dies at age 80
Davey LopesThe no-nonsense, base-hitting second baseman who played for a record 8½ seasons at the historic Dodgers home plate died Wednesday at the age of 80, the Dodgers announced.
The first 10 years of Lopes’ 16-year major league career were spent with the Dodgers, and he returned to the organization in 2011, serving as first base coach for five years. Lopes was a four-time All-Star who won two stolen base titles, a Gold Glove and helped the Dodgers to four World Series, including the title in 1981.
Evaluation received in the second round of the 1968 Dodgers draft the most talented player in baseball historyThe 6-foot-1, 170-pound Lopes became the team’s everyday second baseman and leadoff hitter in 1973 after a grueling workout in Rhode Island.
Lopes played outfield in the minor leagues but was part of the Dodgers manager’s bold move Walter Alston Before the 1973 season: Lopes would move to second base, bill russell from midfielder to defender and Steve Garvey from the third stage to the first stage. Ron Cey It will be established thirdly. Dodgers fired longtime coach and scout Monty Basgall – known as an outstanding on-field trainer – helps players adjust to their new roles, from the front office to the field.
The four appeared on the field together for the first time in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds at a sold-out Dodger Stadium on June 23, 1973. They remained together through the 1981 World Series championship season, after which Lopes was traded to the Oakland Athletics. lance hudsona utility player who never made it to the major leagues.
Lopes continued to play well and did not retire until 1987, at the age of 42. He stole 557 bases and was successful on 83% of his attempts; That’s one of the best odds in major league history. He also displayed power for a leadoff hitter, hitting 155 home runs, including a Dodgers’ career-high 28 in 1979.
Although Lopes had a lifetime batting average of .263, he had an excellent eye, walked nearly as many times as he struck out, and recorded a stellar .349 on-base percentage. He scored 1,023 runs in 1,812 career games.
As games progressed, Lopes often batted after the pitcher at the bottom of the order. He mastered stalling tactics that gave pitchers plenty of rest when they returned to the dugout after running the bases.
Houston Mitchell, assistant sports editor for the Times and a lifelong Dodgers follower, described what happened next: “Lopes was a magician who would take the time to help the pitcher dry himself with a towel and cool down a bit. Especially if two men were out. Lopes would spend an extra minute or two in the on-deck circle. He would take the time to pick up the round weight of his bat. Then he would slowly walk toward the batter’s dugout.”
David Earl Lopes was born May 3, 1945, and grew up in East Providence, RI, a town populated by Irish, Portuguese, and Cape Verdean immigrants who sought work in factories and on the waterfront. One of 12 children, Lopes was a toddler when his father died. Lopes’ mother, Mary Rose, worked as a maid.
Lopes frequently describes her upbringing as difficult, describing her neighborhood as a “ghetto” and describing it to Times columnist Jim Murray as full of “cockroaches, rats, poor living conditions, drugs as common as sugar.”
“There’s no telling what I would have been or where I would have been without sports,” Lopes told The Times’ Ross Newhan in 1973.
Long before he became a successful thief, Lopes said he specialized in burglary. “I never stole anything important, just clothes, baseballs and bats,” he told Murray.
Lopes needed an adult role model, and one came along with the coach from the opposite high school. Mike SarkesianHe grew up in an apartment in Providence but became a basketball coach and athletic director. Iowa Wesleyan College The year Lopes graduated from high school.
“Sarkesian provided everything I missed because I didn’t really have a father,” Lopes told Newhan. “He was able to relate to my problems and my environment. His drive and determination not to surrender to the ghetto, to make something of my life, stemmed from my relationships with him.”
Sarkesian recruited Lopes to play baseball at Iowa Wesleyan. Two years later, Sarkesian became the athletic director at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. Lopes went with him. Lopes was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the eighth round of the 1967 MLB draft but chose to return to Washburn, where he played baseball and basketball well enough to be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1987.
The Dodgers drafted him in the second round a year later, and Lopes signed for $10,000. He skipped spring training for his first two minor league seasons to complete his classes at Washburn and graduated in 1969 with an elementary school diploma.
Lopes spent the 1968 and 1969 seasons at Class A Daytona Beach and married Linda Lee Vandover during his first season. The night before the wedding, he struck out a late-inning no-hitter in both doubleheader games.
In 1970 came promotion to triple-A Spokane. His manager was Tommy Lasorda and the team was outstanding, posting a 94-52 record. His teammates included Garvey and Russell, as well as other future major leaguers Bill Buckner, Bobby Valentine and Tom Paciorek.
Lasorda recalled that Lopes was too shy to talk to anyone. “It took two years, but he finally came around,” Lasorda said. “[He] “He finally got to the point where he felt like he belonged.”
Lopes improved in his second year in Spokane, batting .306 with Cey as his teammate. The Dodgers moved their triple-A team to Albuquerque in 1972, and in his third season at that level, Lopes displayed the blend of power and speed that would become his calling card, posting a .476 slugging percentage while stealing 48 bases.
Five years in the minor leagues after going to college meant Lopes was 27 when he made his major league debut in September. He became the second baseman on opening day the following year and turned 28 a month into the season.
Lopes quickly made up for lost time, his stolen base totals rising from 36 to 59 to 77 in each of the first three seasons. On August 24, 1974, St. He stole five bases in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, becoming the first NL player to do so since 1904.
The Reds’ Johnny Bench, soon to become baseball’s best catcher, praised Lopes, saying: “He’s the best at stealing. Lopes has not only knowledge and speed, but quick acceleration. He’s got it all.”
The once taciturn Lopes also showed his leadership qualities as early as 1976, when he hit a late-hit miss by Dodgers new outfielder Dusty Baker.
“We don’t play that way,” Lopes told Baker.
“Hey, I almost threw him out.” The Dodgers’ new player answered.
“We don’t play that way,” Lopes emphasized.
Baker recalled the incident: “I’ve never let a player get in my face like that, and I didn’t much like it.” “I looked up and the whole team was coming out here to support Davey.”
It was also popular with Lopes fans. In 1980, he received 3,862,403 votes to lead all MLB players and start at second base in the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. This was his third of four consecutive All-Star appearances.
The Dodgers were perennial winners with Lopes, Garvey, Russell and Cey on the field, but they lost the World Series to the Athletics in 1974 and the Yankees in 1977 and ’78. But they had a breakthrough in 1981, beating the Yankees in six games to win the Fall Classic for the first time since 1966.
“They can do anything they want with us now,” said Lopes, who broke the postseason record by stealing 10 bases in 10 tries. “I have the ring. They can’t take it from me.”
But young Steve Sax got the job. Lopes, 36, was traded to the A’s in the offseason. He played six more seasons and even stole 47 bases in 99 games in 1985, making him the first 40-year-old player for the Chicago Cubs to steal more bases than his age.
Lopes retired after the 1987 season and spent the next four years as a coach with the Texas Rangers under Valentine. He then coached for three years under another former teammate, the Baltimore Orioles manager. Johnny Oates, and four years with the San Diego Padres under Bruce Bochy.
In 2000, Lopes got his chance at management, signing a three-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, who set records in his first two seasons. Lopes was fired after the Brewers won just three of their first 15 games in 2002.
“Many people encouraged me to take [the Brewers job] Lopes told The Times’ Ross Newhan that he felt the odds were closing in on him, “but I was determined to show them I could do it.”
Lopes returned to the Padres as first base coach from 2003-2005. He spent one season as the first base coach and baserunning consultant for the Washington Nationals and served in the same capacity with the Phillies from 2007 to 2010.
The Phillies led the major leagues in stolen base percentage three times during his tenure and won the 2008 World Series championship, but that season began with a serious health scare for Lopes. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer days before spring training. He was in remission as of opening day.
In 2011, Times columnist Bill Plaschke lobbied for the Dodgers to add Lopes to their coaching staff. General manager Ned Colletti did just that. Lopes stated that he empathized with the young players, saying, “I was there, I know what it’s like to be young, and you have to know that someone has your back. Sometimes you feel lost and you need a coach or a manager to alleviate that.”
Lopes served as the Dodgers’ first base coach for five years and immediately improved the team’s base-stealing ability before wrapping up his five-year baseball career in 2017 as the Nationals coach under former teammate Baker.
Lopes said about retirement in a podcast: “I’m not doing much. I’m retired, I’m taking it easy.” “It wasn’t a difficult decision to make, but I was a little hesitant to make it. But everything went well.
“I had the opportunity to play, manage or coach for a long time. I’m extremely grateful. I was one of the lucky ones in the major leagues for 45 years. That’s a long time. I have no complaints.”
Lopes is survived by two brothers, Patrick and John, and four sisters, Jean, Judith, Mary and Nina.
