Saturday, June 02, 2007

Obituary: Irving Zeiger, 89; businessman and Dodgers fan

From the LA Times (reg.):

Before the Dodgers came west from Brooklyn, N.Y., Irving Zeiger was the guy who mailed in a deposit check for season tickets, eventually securing front-row seats at Dodger Stadium for 43 years.

In 2005, four new rows were installed in front of his seats. Moving up to the seats right behind the dugout would have cost Zeiger an additional $100,000. Instead, he was the guy who staged a protest nobody saw by keeping the same seats but refusing to attend the home opener....

In 1991, [Zeiger and his wife] spent three months interning in Washington for Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), a friend since Zeiger's college days. Zeiger studied the cancellation of a Navy jet program and performed research that led to a bill on low-income housing. He also played first base on Metzenbaum's office softball team after having his Boog Powell glove express-mailed from home.

"I started loving baseball in elementary school," Zeiger wrote in his self-published memoir. Growing up, he could afford only bleacher seats and vowed to sit closer to his heroes if he had the chance.

He passed ownership of the four Dodger season tickets to his son.

Enjoy the Dugout Club in the sky, Irving.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Irv Zeiger was the most dedicated fan the Dodgers have ever had. He was passionate about them. I cherish a picture postcard he sent to us which has him on the stadium field in his uniform ready to 'Play Ball'. He was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and a friend to so many to were fortunate to have met him.