St. Louis, MO – January 15, 2023 – When I woke up today, I didn’t expect to be writing this remembrance for a man I admired, but an hour ago I learned from a former front office colleague that Ted Savage has died.

Ted was a special man who touched the lives of so many people. If you knew him or even just met him, there is a good chance he called you “babe” and would tell you story.

I have many found memories of Ted from my time with the St. Louis Cardinals, but will relate one story in particular that involved Kevin Costner and Ozzie Smith. But before I do, let me share some key facts for those who may be unfamiliar with him.

Ted was a St. Louis area native. Born in Venice Illinois in 1936. He was an outfielder from 1962 to 1971. He played for eight teams in his nine-year career. He was in uniform with his hometown team of the Cardinals from 1965 to 1967. He was teammates with some of the greatest players of his era.

But I think he made is real mark on the game of baseball with his 25 years of work within the front office of the St. Louis Cardinals as Director of Target Marketing in Community Relations and his tireless work in promoting MLB’s RBI program (Reviving Baseball in the Inner City).

Cardinals Care has an annual golf tournament that bears his name. Over the years, he has raised millions of dollars to support getting kids to play baseball in some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in our community.

Ted was always kind and generous with his time with me when I joined the Cardinals front office in 2001. Marty Hendin introduced us. I quickly learned that he could tell a good tale and was a fixture in the Cardinals Club bar on game days. I also learned along the way, that like my wife, Ted was diabetic. On a couple of occasions, I found myself delivering stepping in to help him with an orange juice or soda if his sugar dropped.

In early 2015, Pete Maniscalco, a friend from high school who works within the film industry reached out about Kevin Costner coming to St. Louis to promote his new movie Black & White that he self-funded. I believe he chose St. Louis to debut the movie because of Ferguson and the national conversation about race that the death of Michael Brown helped fuel.

I was able to convince Ted Savage and Ozzie Smith to join Bill DeWitt III and a few others at the premiere at Ronnie’s in South County on January 12, 2015. As we gathered in the green room awaiting our opportunity to meet Costner, I remember Bill DeWitt asking Ozzie and me in jest if we thought Costner would ask about #BirdToTheFuture, a silly Instagram series we debuted in September 2014.

When Costner arrived, he personally greeted everyone in the room. He was down to earth and kind. But what I learned in the next few minutes changed my perspective on both Ted and Costner.

While Costner was delighted to meet Ozzie Smith, he was literally overjoyed to meet Ted. He was almost kid a Christmas. He was meeting a celebrity from his childhood. How about that?

He had lots of questions for Ted. I had no idea that Kevin Costner grew up in Compton and was a big St. Louis Cardinals fan. I knew Costner was a baseball fan, and was knowledgeable about the game, but I didn’t know about his affinity for our 1967 team that included Ted, Kurt Flood, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson etc.

Listening to Ted call Costner Babe was the best! In talking to the Hollywood celebrity in the room, Ted was so matter of fact like he was with everyone. If Ted was star stuck, you wouldn’t have known it. It was one of my fondest memories from my time with the team.

Following our personal meet and greet in the green room, Bill DeWitt, Ozzie and Ted participated in a movie premiere celebrity red carpet photo opportunity presenting Costner with an authentic Cardinals jersey with “Crash” 8 on the back. For those who may only see Costner as John Dutton (his character on Yellowstone), he played Crash Davis in Bull Durham, a baseball classic.

When I was with the team, we used the “take it one day at time…good lord willing…” media training scene with Costner and Bull Durham co-star Tim Robbins in our player media training.

Costner was grateful for the gift and made it point to talk about Ted in his remarks to the media before we made it into the theater to watch the film.

It is hard for me to believe that the premiere was eight years ago this week. It seems as fresh as yesterday.

When I learned the news of Ted’s passing this afternoon, my mind went back to this time and some of the conversations I had with Ted. I am saddened by his passing and regret the fact that I lost touch with him when I left the team in 2018. I want his family to know I loved him, will miss him, and that I can attest to the fact that Ted Savage touched many in his time on this earth. I’ll miss you babe.

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