He is dead. The head coach of the Milwaukee Brewers team has just announced the death of his best player.
Sal Bando, 78, died Friday in Oconomowoc after spending the last five seasons of his decorated playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers and then serving as general manager for another eight seasons. Bando’s relatives stated that he had been battling cancer for five years. The three-time World Series winner as a player with the Oakland Athletics made four all-star teams during his playing days with the A’s and signed a five-year contract worth $1.5 million with the Brewers after the 1976 season, the first major free-agency additions in Brewers history.
It’s impossible to exaggerate Sal’s importance in Brewers history, both on and off the field,” said former Brewers owner and baseball commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig. “I can’t express that enough. When he joined us as a player, it was a watershed moment in our history. He helped us turn the corner and was all we hoped for, as well as playing a significant role in developing our younger players into stars like Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. He was undoubtedly our captain.
