BREAKING: DON ZIMMER HOSPITALIZED

(Don Zimmer)

***UPDATE:  According to Marc Topkin of Tampa Bay Times, Don Zimmer was been released from the hospital this afternoon.  Great news!***

Former Yankees coach and current Rays senior adviser Don Zimmer has been hospitalized for the last week because of kidney problems and will start dialysis treatment immediately, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times.  "His kidneys are bad," son Tom Zimmer told the Times Wednesday. "But dialysis is something you can get for a long time. He's going to be fine."

The 81-year-old Zimmer has been hospitalized three times over the past five weeks for various ailments, the paper said, but should be released from his current stay on Thursday. He hasn’t been at Tropicana Field since the season-opening series against the Yankees, but his son said that Zimmer would be back as soon as he was comfortable.  "I imagine he's going to want to come down there as soon as he can," Tom Zimmer said. "We'll see how it goes."

(Zimmer & Torre)

The 2012 season marks Zimmer’s 63rd year in professional baseball. He served as a coach with the Yankees in the 1983 and 1986 seasons, and then returned from 1996-2003 to serve under Joe Torre. He has been a Rays senior adviser since 2004..

(Zimmer goes after Pedro, 2003)

Zimmer was Torre's right-hand man in the Bronx for years and I think Torre would be the first to tell you that.  And who can forget the father/son-like relationship between Zimmer and Jeter?  And, of course, the infamous game in 2003 at Fenway when Zimmer went after Pedro Martinez!   We all wish you a speedy recovery Zim!  Get well soon, baseball's not the same without you!

--Mikey Blue, BYB Senior Writer
Email: DonnieBaseball2323@gmail.com
Twitter: @MikeyBlu23


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