Obituary: Syd Thrift

Obituary: Sydnor W. 'Syd' Thrift Jr. / General manager who resurrected the Pirates
Feb. 25, 1929 - Sept. 18, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sydnor W. "Syd" Thrift Jr., who through a series of productive trades in the late 1980s laid the foundation for the success of the Pirates in the early 1990s, died Monday night in Milford, Del., of an apparent heart attack. He was 77.

Mr. Thrift had knee replacement surgery in Milford Monday afternoon. The official cause of death is undetermined pending an autopsy, according to Mr. Thrift's widow, Dolly.

"I'm shocked," said Jim Leyland, whom Mr. Thrift hired as the Pirates manager in 1985 and who now manages the Detroit Tigers. "I just talked to him two weeks ago. He called to tell me to keep going. He's the guy who gave me my chance. He was the one guy who believed in me. I'm forever indebted to him."

Mr. Thrift was named Pirates general manager Nov. 7, 1985 -- one of the worst times in franchise history.

Baseball's drug trials in Pittsburgh had rocked the franchise. On the field, the team had just finished a 104-loss season and finished last in the National League East for the second straight year.

"It ain't easy resurrecting the dead," Mr. Thrift said then.

Two weeks after being named general manager, Mr. Thrift hired Mr. Leyland, then the Chicago White Sox third base coach, as the Pirates manager.

That hiring began with this legendary telephone conversation.

"Jim, this is Syd Thrift," Mr. Thrift said.

"Yeah -- and I'm John McGraw," said a disbelieving Mr. Leyland, referring to the Hall of Fame New York Giants manager (1902-32).

The Pirates finished last in the NL East again in 1986 but won 27 of their final 38 games in 1987 after Mr. Thrift began making his trades and finished in a fourth-place tie.

They challenged the New York Mets for the division title for most of the 1988 season. In 1990, they began their run of three consecutive division championships.

However, Mr. Thrift was gone by then, having been fired Oct. 4, 1988, after a power struggle with management.

In Philadelphia in September 1988, Mr. Thrift, aware there was talk that he could be fired, said: "They talk about me leaving Pittsburgh. That would be like [Wayne] Gretzky leaving Canada."
As it turned out, Mr. Thrift did leave Pittsburgh and Mr. Gretzky did leave Canada when the hockey superstar was traded to Los Angeles.

Mr. Thrift, however, accomplished a lot with the Pirates before his firing.

In May 1986, he went to Arizona to watch outfielder Barry Bonds play for the Pirates' Class AAA Hawaii affiliate. Mr. Bonds, the Pirates' top draft pick in 1985, impressed Mr. Thrift so much that Mr. Thrift brought him back to Pittsburgh with him.

He brought outfielder Bobby Bonilla back to the Pirates organization in July 1986. In November 1986, he made a trade with the New York Yankees that netted the Pirates pitchers Doug Drabek, Brian Fisher and Logan Easley.

On April 1, 1987, he traded popular catcher Tony Pena to St. Louis for center fielder Andy Van Slyke, catcher Mike LaValliere and pitcher Mike Dunne.

Later in 1987, Mr. Thrift acquired pitchers Jim Gott and Jeff Robinson in separate transactions. In August 1987, he traded second baseman Johnny Ray to the Angels to make room for second base phenom Jose "Chico" Lind.

A year later, he acquired outfielder Gary Redus from the White Sox.

"He wasn't afraid to make a deal," Mr. Leyland said. "You have to tip your hat to him. The [Pena] trade was the one that got all the pieces together, but the Drabek trade quietly was one of the best he made."

"He was a smart baseball guy," Mr. Van Slyke said. "He pulled the trigger [on trades]. You can say what you want, but it could not have been an easy decision to get rid of Tony Pena."

"We had a lot of tough times, a lot of good times and a lot of laughs," said Rich Donnelly, hired as the Pirates bullpen coach in December 1986. "He made us laugh probably more than any other general manager we've had. Every day, something was hilarious."

Mr. Thrift also worked for the Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Devil Rays throughout a nearly 50-year baseball career.

Known as an innovator, Mr. Thrift was a major part of the Kansas City Royals' famed baseball academy in Sarasota, Fla. That project, designed to make baseball players out of athletes who had little or no baseball experience, ran only four years (1970-73) but produced 14 major league players, including standout second baseman Frank White.

"He was a fine baseball mind," said Cam Bonifay, hired by Mr. Thrift as a National League scout Sept. 5, 1988, and who later would become the Pirates general manager. "He was always looking for ways to innovate the game. He was never opposed to any new ideas no matter how off the wall other baseball people thought they were."

"He was flamboyant," Mr. Van Slyke said. "He was a politician more than he was a general manager. He was one of the reasons -- not the only reason, not the main reason -- but certainly one of the reasons we were successful.

"Syd, Jim [Leyland] and the coaching staff got the right players and got them to play. His track record was better than the recent track record [in Pittsburgh]."

"He was an entertaining guy, a fun guy and he wanted to win," Mr. Donnelly said. "He was a modern-day Bill Veeck. He was a baseball character. Don Zimmer is a baseball character. Casey Stengel was a baseball character. And Syd Thrift was a baseball character."

"He stuck out his neck for me," Mr. Leyland said. "Nobody [in Pittsburgh] knew who I was. He stuck with me after that first year.

"We had a lot of fun. We had a long way to go, but everybody chipped in and we turned it around pretty well. It was very rewarding."

Mr. Thrift, born Feb. 25, 1929, in Locust Hill, Va., was a 1949 graduate of Randolph-Macon College. He played in the minor leagues in the Yankees system for four years before beginning his off-the-field career.

In addition to his wife, Dolly, Mr. Thrift is survived by sons James, of Sarasota, Fla., and Mark, of Fairfax, Va.; two sisters, Lucy Chenery, of Glen Allen, Va., and Louise Owens, of Richmond, Va.; and five grandchildren.

Graveside funeral services for Mr. Thrift will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Middlesex Memorial Cemetery in Urbanna, Va. The family will receive friends Friday at Bristow-Faulkner Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 15 C.F. Edwards Lane, Saluda, Va., from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Virginia Special Olympics, 3212 Skipwith Road, Suite 100, Richmond, VA 23294.

(Paul Meyer can be reached at pmeyer@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-1144. )