Tuesday’s MLB: Molitor, Lovullo managers of year
Paul Molitor has won the American League Manager of the Year award after his Twins became the first team to make the playoffs following a 100-loss season.
Molitor won the honor Tuesday in voting by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Torey Lovullo of the Diamondbacks won the NL award. In his first full season as a big league skipper, Arizona reached the playoffs a year after going 69-93.
Molitor joined Frank Robinson as the only Hall of Fame players to win a manager of the year award, which was first presented in 1983.
The Twins went 85-77 this season and earned their first playoff spot since 2010 before losing to the Yankees in the AL wild-card game. Last year, the Twins led the majors with 103 losses.
Molitor, 61, was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, and got the last of his 3,319 career hits with the Twins in 1998.
Around the horn
Bobby Doerr, the Hall of Fame second baseman dubbed the “Silent Captain” of the Red Sox by longtime teammate and friend Ted Williams, has died. He was 99.
Doerr died on Monday in Junction City, Oregon, the Red Sox said Tuesday in a statement. The Red Sox said Doerr had been the oldest living major league player.
“Bobby Doerr was part of an era of baseball giants and still stood out as one himself,” Red Sox owner John Henry said in the statement. “And even with his Hall of Fame achievements at second base, his character and personality outshined it all. He will be missed.”
... “Jungle Jim” Rivera, an outfielder on the 1959 “Go-Go” White Sox pennant-winning team, has died.
He was 96. The team says he died Monday night in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Rivera, The AL leader in triples in 1953 and steals two years later, “Jungle Jim” played for the White Sox from 1952 to 1961. He was part of the 1959 team that captured the franchise’s first pennant since 1919.
... Two-time Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay was remembered as an amazing husband, father, friend and teammate who was one of the best pitchers of his generation but an even better man.
A 91-minute “Celebration of Life for Roy Halladay” attracted more than 1,000 people to Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Florida, the spring training home of the Phillies, one of two franchises Halladay played for during a stellar 16-year career.
Halladay died Nov. 7 at age 40 when a plane he was piloting crashed.