1. Emil Joseph "Buzzie" Bavasi was an American executive in Major League Baseball who played a major role in the operation of three California baseball franchises from the late 1940s through the mid-1980s, most notably as the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1958 to 1968.
Buzzie Bavasi was previously a key figure in the integration of Minor League Baseball in the late 1940s while working for the Dodgers organization.
Buzzie Bavasi went on to become the first president of the San Diego Padres ; then, between 1977 and 1984, as general manager, he assembled the California Angels teams that made the franchise's first two postseason appearances.
Buzzie Bavasi was born Emil Joseph Bavasi in Manhattan, New York City.
Buzzie Bavasi went to high school at Fordham Preparatory School, in the Bronx, with Fred Frick, the son of Ford Frick, president of the National League.
Buzzie Bavasi attended DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana, where he was a catcher and while at DePauw roomed with Fred Frick, after which Ford Frick recommended Bavasi for an office boy position with the Dodgers to Larry MacPhail.
Buzzie Bavasi was hired by Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail in 1938, for $35 a week, to become a front office assistant with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and after one year was named the business manager of the Dodgers' Class D minor league team in Americus, Georgia, where he spent three seasons.
In late 1945, after serving 18 months, Staff Sergeant Buzzie Bavasi returned to Georgia to rest with his family.
However, the Nashua Dodgers were assured of a predominantly French Canadian fan base, a fact which both Rickey and Buzzie Bavasi believed would help in the integration of African Americans into minor league baseball.
Additionally, Nashua was home to the relatively new Holman Stadium, which Buzzie Bavasi was able to lease from the city.
In March 1946, Buzzie Bavasi received word that Brooklyn had signed former Negro league ballplayers Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, and that they would be sent to Nashua for the season.
Buzzie Bavasi publicly linked the team to Clyde Sukeforth, who had scouted Campanella, Newcombe, and Jackie Robinson for Rickey and who had played minor-league baseball in Nashua in the mid-1920s.
Buzzie Bavasi promoted the team's French Canadian connection through his team's Quebec-born players, and even attempted to hire Frenchy Bordagaray to manage the team.
On one occasion, Buzzie Bavasi was so enraged by the comments of the Red Sox that he met Lynn's manager and players in the Holman Stadium parking lot and challenged them to a fight.
In 1948, Buzzie Bavasi became general manager of the Montreal Royals, one of the Dodgers' top two Triple-A farm teams.
Around that time, as a result of continued prejudice against Brooklyn's African American ballplayers during spring training, the Dodgers sent Buzzie Bavasi to find property at which to establish a permanent spring training facility.
Buzzie Bavasi chose a site outside Vero Beach, Florida, at which to establish Dodgertown, anchored by the newly constructed Holman Stadium.
Buzzie Bavasi would be given the formal title of executive vice president and general manager prior to the 1958 season.
Three world championships occurred after the team's move to Los Angeles in 1958, a move that Buzzie Bavasi did not favor.
Buzzie Bavasi made strategic additions of veteran players who proved pivotal to pennant-winning teams, like Sal Maglie, Wally Moon, Bill Skowron, Claude Osteen, Lou Johnson and Phil Regan.
Buzzie Bavasi strongly recommended Walter Alston to O'Malley as a potential Brooklyn manager after the 1953 season.
Buzzie Bavasi prided himself in giving as little salary to a player as possible.
However, in 1966, tired of being played against each other, Dodger pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale staged a joint holdout in which they were successful in getting Buzzie Bavasi to bend a little.
In June of 1968, Buzzie Bavasi resigned from the Dodgers to become president and minority owner of the San Diego Padres, an expansion team set to debut in 1969.
Buzzie Bavasi selected Dodger third-base coach Preston Gomez as the Padres' first manager and added former Dodgers Craig, Moon and Sparky Anderson as coaches for their maiden season.
Buzzie Bavasi was inducted into the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame in 2001.
Buzzie Bavasi died on May 1,2008, in San Diego, California, near his home in La Jolla, aged 93.