Fred Claire, the former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager whose signing of Kirk Gibson led to one of the most iconic moments in baseball history, died Monday, Oct. 5, the Dodgers announced. He was 91.
Claire took over the Dodgers franchise at a most tumultuous time - after longtime general manager and vice president Al Campanis was fired for racist remarks made on ABC's Nightline. His April 9, 1987 dismissal ended an era of front office stability while the Dodgers embarked on a fourth consecutive year missing the playoffs.
Claire, a former sportswriter and Dodgers PR man, was tabbed to run the front office. A pair of transactions in the year that followed shaped the Dodgers' eventual 1988 championship core: A three-way winter meetings trade
with the Oakland Athletics and New York Mets that netted the Dodgers relievers Jesse Orosco and Jay Howell and shortstop Alfredo Griffin.
And six weeks later, he signed Gibson.
Those Dodgers won 94 games, stunned the Mets in the National League Championship Series and pulled an even bigger shocker in the 1988 World Series, beating the A's in five games despite a battered club that came to rely on ace Orel Hershiser and an itinerant band of ballplayers known as the "Stuntmen."
And they only had Gibson for one at-bat - but he made the most of it. Gibson's two-out, two-run, ninth-inning homer off peerless closer Dennis Eckersley delivered the Dodgers a Game 1 win and the 104-win A's never recovered.
While Gibson and the Dodgers never did reclaim that championship magic, the club remained a player development machine, producing five consecutive rookies of the year - Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo and Todd Hollandsworth - between 1992 and 1996.
Yet Claire's tenure was bookmarked by a pair of big transactions - Gibson's signing and the trade of future Hall of Famer Piazza, a move made over his objections.
Claire was ushered out unceremoniously in 1998, after Fox bought the club and dickered over signing Piazza to a contract extension. When negotiations soured, Piazza's trade to the Florida Marlins was brokered above Claire's head. He was fired weeks later.
Claire remained a well-regarded baseball mind, and later in life documented his journey through cancer treatments, eventually penning an autobiography, "Extra Innings," that detailed his life in baseball and his battle against the disease.
He is survived by his wife Cheryl and children Jeff, Jennifer and Kim.
"The Dodgers are grieving the passing of Fred Claire, a longtime key fixture of our organization,” said Stan Kasten, President and CEO of the Dodgers, in a statement released by the club. "Fred brought many victories and Dodger legends to our franchise, as well as a 1988 World Series title, and we are forever grateful for his leadership during such a memorable era. Our hearts go out to his wife Sheryl and his family."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fred Claire, Dodgers GM whose Kirk Gibson signing created iconic moment, dies
