USD Magazine, Spring 2004

THE VETERAN If Theo Epstein is a baseball outsider unac– customed to hoopla, Bill Bavasi is quite the opposite, a classic insider who grew up around the game. His father, E.J. "Buzzie" Bavasi, served as fo unding president of the San Diego Padres, and general manager of the California Angels and the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. As a child, Bavasi says he often sat quietly during discussions between his father and baseball executives. "If you're young enough and keep yo ur mouth shut," Bavasi says, "you're not per– ceived as any danger. I think my brothers and I all had the sense that if we were ro ask questions, they'd say less. If we kept our mouths shut, they'd talk about real sensitive things about the ball club. You definitely got che inside information. " It's not surprising, then, that several of the Bavasi brothers have enjoyed successful careers in baseball. Bill's brother, Peter, served as general manager of the Padres and president of the Toronro Blue Jays and

Cleveland Indians. Another brother, Bob, owned and operated the minor league Everett, Wash., AquaSox from 1984 to 1998. Bavasi learned the game from the bottom up after his father left the Dodgers in 1968 to join the expansion Padres. While a student at Un iversity of San Diego High School in 1974, he began performing game day duties such as co unting ticket stubs and turning in payroll sheets for the ushers. Eventually he joined the grounds crew. "They said, 'Go down and put on a brown suit and help the grounds crew drag the infield between innings,' " Bavasi says. "So I did." Bavasi continued to work for the team while he was a student at USD, where he met his fu ture wife, Tracy Drake '81. The couple lived in San Diego until 1980, when Bavasi graduated and joined the California Angels, where his father was general manager. Starting as a baseball administrator with the Angels in l 980, Bavasi was named director of minor league operations in 1984, assistant

Bavasi was general manager

ofthe Anaheim Angels for five

years, and vows to make the

most of his second GM stint, this

time with the Seattle Mariners.

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USO MAGAZI N E