David Hall: Maris Roomed with Mantle's Bags

[weams]

https://pilotonline.com/sports/baseball/article_6b5fcbb8-53b9-11e8-a3f1-db081a9b79b6.html

Lee Thomas, the most interesting Oriole Executive.

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If you know Thomas at all in the twilight of his days as a revered baseball man, the most shocking thing about him may be his old nickname: Mad Dog.

The unassuming Thomas, gentle and disarmingly pleasant as an 82-year-old , a welcoming smile always at the ready, earned the moniker during his playing days. Apparently, he had quite the temper.

“I don’t show that, do I, now?” Thomas said, laughing as he ate steak off a paper plate in Norfolk Tides manager Ron Johnson’s Harbor Park office earlier this season. “Yeah, I had a few temper tantrums. It mostly was on the golf course. I don’t play golf anymore.”

At his age, there is, naturally, a lot Thomas doesn’t do anymore. But he remains involved in a game that he played at its highest level from 1961-68, next to some of its greatest performers.

The Phillies’ GM from 1988-97, Thomas now serves as a special assistant to Baltimore Orioles vice president Dan Duquette. In that role, he usually makes two trips a year to the club’s top four minor league affiliates, including Norfolk.

And he might be the most interesting man in baseball you may have never heard of."