Former Red Sox manager and baseball legend Don Zimmer has died

(MyFoxBoston.com) --Former Red Sox manager and baseball legend Don Zimmer, 83, died Wednesday.

Zimmer had been in a Florida rehab center since having heart surgery in mid-April.

He spent 60 years in the game, first as a player and then manager.

He's a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, and best remembered for the 1978 season during which his club squandered a 14 1/2 game lead before losing to the Yankees in a one-game playoff.

He was a gregarious guy, but also had run-ins with players like Bill Lee who called him a gerbil and Pedro Martinez who tossed him to the ground in a 2003 playoff game during a benches clearing brawl against the Yanks at Fenway.

Most recently Don Zimmer served as coach and then senior adviser for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Cox Media Group