Pete Reiser - Later Life

Later Life

Reiser managed in the minors for several years (including the Kokomo Dodgers in 1956-57, among others), winning the 1959 Minor League Manager of the Year Award from The Sporting News. He served as a coach on Walter Alston's Los Angeles Dodger staff from 1960 to 1964 (including the 1963 world championship team). However, he was forced to step down in 1965 as skipper of the AAA Spokane Indians as the result of a heart attack. His replacement was Duke Snider — the man who had once replaced Reiser as the center fielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

When Leo Durocher was named manager of the Chicago Cubs in 1966, he brought many of his former players to coach on his staff. Reiser was one of them (1966–1969; 1972–1974). He coached for the California Angels (1970–1971), as well.

In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. They explained what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome," where a truly exceptional player had a career curtailed by injury, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, should still be included on their list of the 100 greatest players.

Reiser died in Palm Springs, California, of respiratory disease, at age 62, and was buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.