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AL LOPEZ: 1908-2005

Al Lopez, A Legend

By JOEY JOHNSTON jjohnston@tampatrib.com

Published: Oct 30, 2005

News Channel 8

TAMPA - Al Lopez, Tampa's athletic patriarch and one of its most beloved citizens, died Sunday morning at St. Joseph's Hospital, leaving behind a legacy of love for his hometown, his family and friends, and the game that made him famous.

Lopez, who had been the oldest living member of Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., was 97.

A record-setting catcher and ironman whose managerial excellence produced World Series teams in the 1950s with the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, Lopez is survived by his son, Al Jr., his daughter-in-law, three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Lopez's wife, Connie, died in 1983.

The family will hold a private funeral this week. In lieu of flowers or other sympathetic gestures, the family requested donations to Jesuit High School in Lopez's name.

His son said Lopez was hospitalized after an apparent heart attack Friday night, shortly after they had dinner together. Lopez never regained consciousness, but his son was at his bedside at the time of death.

"I think, in recent years, he was starting to come to grips with [the possibility of death]," said Lopez Jr., a Tampa attorney. "When you're 97, the body is breaking down. You have trouble walking. You have trouble hearing.

"But my father enjoyed life so much. He loved telling stories and visiting with people. Right until his last days, he was surrounded by his friends and his family."

With the White Sox last week winning their first World Series since 1917, Lopez had been the subject of recent attention. Lopez, his son said, had done several media interviews to recount his memories of managing the 1959 White Sox, the American League champions.

"He really enjoyed that," Lopez Jr. said. "He knew the White Sox had won the World Series. He thought that was an absolutely wonderful story."

So was Lopez's life. The son of Spanish immigrants by way of Cuba, he emerged from a working-class background to become Tampa's first nationally known athletic hero.

Usually with a smile, Lopez often said he would have played major-league baseball for free. Money wasn't his object. His top annual playing salary was just $16,500 -- a laughable figure when you consider the million-dollar payoffs for some of today's marginal performers.

But that's missing the point. Lopez's memories were priceless, for him -- and for everyone in Tampa.

"Al was always the No. 1 baseball man in Tampa," said St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, a Tampa native. "He was the biggest name in town."

A Remarkable Career

Lopez's influence is everywhere. His baseball success helped to fuel Tampa's passion for the sport, which, at last count, had produced 66 major-league players and dozens of championship teams in the youth leagues.

"People who grew up around Tampa rooted for Al and his teams," said Brandon resident Tony Saladino, whose annual high-school baseball tournament set up an Old-Timers Day to honor Lopez and players from past eras. "He never forgot where he was from. He stayed true to his roots, and I believe that's a reason why he was so loved around here."

When his 19-season playing career for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland Indians ended with his 1947 retirement, Lopez held the record for most games caught -- 1,918 -- in the major leagues, a mark later broken by Bob Boone. He did it the hard way, breaking every finger on his hand, some twice.

Lopez later became manager of the Indians and White Sox, during a time when the New York Yankees ruled the American League.

Lopez's 1954 Indians won a league-record 111 games to win the AL pennant, but were swept by the New York Giants in the World Series, memorably highlighted by an over-the-shoulder catch by Giants center fielder Willie Mays in Game 1.

The Yankees, who seven times finished ahead of Lopez's second-place clubs during the 1950s, won 103 games and finished eight games back. No other Yankees team won 100 games that decade.

"It wasn't like the Yankees blew it," Lopez once said. "The Yankees were great. We just beat them that time."

Lopez's managerial career ended with 1,410 wins and 1,004 losses for a .584 winning percentage, which was eighth on the all-time list. In a poll of retired major-leaguers in the mid-1980s, Lopez was voted the seventh-best defensive catcher and the seventh-best manager of all time.

"He knew about catching, he knew about defense, he knew about pitching," Al Rosen, the Indians' third baseman in 1954, once said of Lopez. "He was one of those people who just had a great feel for the game.

"I think every player who ever played for him must feel the same way: He was the consummate gentleman, and you knew he was always in your corner."

Devotion To Tampa

Lopez made his reputation -- of athletic toughness and a gentlemanly demeanor -- during his many baseball travels around the country. Through it all, he always returned to his hometown.

When named manager of the Indians in 1951, he received a parade from the locals. In 1954, the city's new spring-training stadium was named Al Lopez Field. It would become home for the Cincinnati Reds and the Florida State League's Tampa Tarpons. It also hosted a rally for President Kennedy in 1963, days before he was assassinated in Dallas.

Al Lopez Field, razed in 1989, was on the parcel of land now occupied by the south end zone of Raymond James Stadium. Lopez had the stadium's dedication plaque and its home plate among his memorabilia. A group of citizens, seeking another way to honor Lopez's legacy, funded construction of a bronze statue of Lopez, the catcher, at the southeast corner of what is now Al Lopez Park.

"To be remembered like that is one of the highlights of my life," Lopez once said.

That life began when many of Tampa's main thoroughfares were dirt roads. Lopez was born in Ybor City. His father, Modesto, worked in a cigar factory before dying of throat cancer at age 54.

Lopez had just been offered $150 a month to play for the Tampa Smokers, thus beginning his climb toward the major leagues. His father never saw any of the storied baseball career.

From start to finish, it was one to remember.

Lopez had been the only surviving player from the second All-Star Game, in 1934. On Aug. 20, 2003, he became the first person enshrined at Cooperstown to turn 95, breaking the previous longevity record of 94 years, 363 days held by Elmer Flick, who began playing in the 19th century.

He once caught Walter Johnson. In spring training, he played against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. He was managed by a young Casey Stengel. He saw the end of Joe DiMaggio and the beginning of Mickey Mantle.

Later -- much later, actually -- he threw out a ceremonial first pitch at the Devil Rays' inaugural game. He constantly watched Tampa Bay games on television and, in recent years, remained hopeful that manager Lou Piniella would turn around the team's fortunes.

Love For Game Never Waned

For two decades, Lopez lived alone in his waterfront home. He used to love golf -- sometimes, he would shoot his age at Palma Ceia -- but back problems derailed that hobby. So he looked elsewhere, to old friends and daily games of gin rummy.

His mind was clear and his memory excellent. He always told great stories and loved to talk baseball.

"He'd ask you about yourself, with genuine interest," Saladino said. "Here was this man who had seen and done it all. And he wants to know about you. The way he lived, the way he treated people, that's why Al Lopez is my role model."

Saladino's sentiments are widely shared by Lopez's friends.

"It's very sad to hear the news of Al's passing," said Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, a Tampa resident. "But there aren't many men who had such a full and rich life as Al Lopez. He made an impact on so many people."

WHO'S AL LOPEZ?

•The first Tampa native to play major league baseball (1928-47).

•As a manager, he took two teams (the 1954 Cleveland Indians and the 1959 Chicago White Sox) to the World Series.

•In 1977, he became the first person with Tampa roots to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (Wade Boggs was inducted in July).

•At age 97, he had been the oldest living member enshrined at Cooperstown, N.Y.

•He is the namesake of Al Lopez Field (razed in 1989) and Al Lopez Park.