Baseball Executive Syd Thrift, 77

Syd Thrift, 77, an innovative, colorful and abrasive baseball executive with seven teams, including the Baltimore Orioles, died Sept. 18 at Milford Memorial Hospital in Milford, Del., where he had undergone knee replacement surgery earlier in the day. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.

A drawling Virginian with a garrulous nature and endless fund of baseball stories, Mr. Thrift brought a fresh eye to evaluating baseball talent and building teams. Although none of his teams reached the World Series and he was a combative figure who left many jobs in anger, his ideas had a strong influence throughout the game.

Mr. Thrift helped found a forward-looking academy for training future big-league players in the 1960s, but he enjoyed his greatest success as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1980s. He engineered a dramatic turnaround that led to three first-place finishes in the early 1990s -- but before then, Mr. Thrift had been fired.

From 1994 to 2002, he held a series of front-office positions with the Orioles, including vice president for baseball operations, but his tenure was hardly trouble-free. He endured frequent calls for his dismissal as he presided over a club that sank into mediocrity. Mr. Thrift signed too many overpriced, underperforming veterans, and by the time he resigned in 2002, the Orioles' minor-league system was rated the worst in baseball.

From 1976 to 1985, when Mr. Thrift was not working in baseball, he launched a successful real estate career in Fairfax County. When the Pirates unexpectedly named him general manager in 1985, he closed his $25 million-a-year firm and returned to baseball.

In a 1990 interview with Regardie's magazine -- two years after he was fired by the Pirates and a year after abruptly quitting a job with the New York Yankees -- Mr. Thrift analyzed his career with unabashed bravado:

"My temper can get the best of me, but the bottom line is that I do my job, and I do it damned well. Quite honestly, I don't think anyone is as good as I am in getting along with players, in getting the most out of them and structuring an efficient organization. No question about it: I'm the best here."

Sydnor W. Thrift Jr. was born in Locust Hill, Va., and saw his first big-league games in Washington's old Griffith Stadium. He became a standout first baseman and left-handed pitcher at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., and signed a minor-league contract with the Yankees in 1949.

After a back injury ended his playing career, Mr. Thrift became a scout for the Yankees and later the Pirates. In 1968, when he was with the Kansas City Royals, he helped found a baseball academy in Sarasota, Fla., that resembled a college for future big-leaguers. It became a laboratory for Mr. Thrift's ideas, from pitching and fielding to fitness and visualization methods. The academy produced 14 major-league players before it was disbanded in 1975.

Mr. Thrift spent a year with the Oakland A's, then left baseball to sell real estate in Northern Virginia. After joining the hapless Pirates in 1985, he hired then-unknown Jim Leyland as manager, made 20 trades in two years and increased attendance from 736,000 to 1.8 million.

But his thorny personality led to clashes with other team executives, and Mr. Thrift was dismissed after the 1988 season. Two years later, the team he put in place began a string of three straight divisional championships.

After quitting the Yankees in 1989, when owner George Steinbrenner called him a "good old boy" -- "no one talks to me like that" -- Mr. Thrift briefly returned to his real estate business before becoming assistant general manger of the Chicago Cubs from 1991 to 1994.

When he was with the Orioles, Mr. Thrift was sometimes called the worst executive in baseball, as the team slid to the bottom of the standings. The club has not had a winning season since 1997.

Mr. Thrift retired from baseball in 2004 after a year with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, settled in Kilmarnock, Va., and became the host of a syndicated weekly radio show.

Survivors include his wife, Dolly Thrift; two sons; and five grandchildren.

In 1990, Mr. Thrift wrote a book, "The Game According to Syd: The Theories and Teachings of Baseball's Leading Innovator," in which he expounded on his baseball philosophy, which included a belief in the psychological effects of color. He initiated a change in the color of the underside of baseball cap visors from green to gray, which he believed was more soothing.

Mr. Thrift's greatest ability as a baseball executive might have been scouting young players. He helped sign such stars as Rickey Henderson, Frank White, Al Oliver and Bobby Bonilla.

"Scoutin's like bird-huntin'," he once said in his typical homespun way. "Some guys see the birds, maybe, couple a hundred feet away. Some guys don't see 'em till they're right on top of 'em. Some don't see 'em till they're flyin' away."