ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — The Dodgers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays will salute Don Zimmer's 59 years in professional baseball tonight with the Dodgers donning uniforms from the mid-1950s, when Zimmer made his big league debut with Brooklyn.
Among those joining in the tribute are Hall of Fame member Duke Snider and former Dodgers pitchers Johnny Podres and Carl Erskine, teammates of Zimmer on the Dodgers' first World Series winner in 1955.
"For them to take time to come down here for this, it makes you feel pretty good," said Zimmer, who had breakfast with Snider and Podres on Friday. "They're not both in the greatest of health. And to think that they would fly down here for this, it makes you feel pretty good that the guys think that much of you."
The Dodgers will ditch their light double-knits for gray flannels modeled after the 1955 Brooklyn road uniforms and the Devil Rays will wear replicas of the St. Petersburg Saints' minor league uniforms of the same period. The flannel got a less-than-favorable review from Dodgers pitcher Randy Wolf, tonight's starter.
"It's a weird material," Wolf said. "If feels like you're wearing a paper towel. Feel is a very important thing. But it's the same for everyone."
Zimmer said Wolf should consider himself lucky he doesn't have to wear flannel every day -- especially outside climate-controlled Tropicana Field.
"Go in St. Louis in July," he said. "It is so hot those uniforms must have weighed 10 pounds from the sweat. It was something. They were hot."
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Also on hand tonight will be Roger Kahn, author of the seminal baseball book "The Boys of Summer" about Zimmer's Dodgers. Kahn says he remembers asking to meet former Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese when the book, a then-and-now look at those Dodgers in the 1950s and the same players more than a decade later, was in the works.
Reese may have been a Hall of Fame player, but he would have had trouble making ends meet as a literary agent, Kahn joked.
"Pee Wee said, 'You're wasting your time because nobody will want a book about a bunch of old ballplayers,' " Kahn said.
The author said the book has sold more than 3 1/2 million copies since its debut 35 years ago.
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The Dodgers will oppose a familiar face Sunday when right-hander Edwin Jackson starts for Tampa Bay. Jackson, 23, was one of the Dodgers' top pitching prospects before he was sent to Florida as part of a five-player deal in January 2006.
