Career
As manager of the Philadelphia Phillies (1973 through August 31, 1979), Ozark led the Phils to three consecutive National League East Division championships (1976-1977-78), but each year his team fell in the National League Championship Series. A native of Buffalo, New York, Ozark was a minor league first baseman who spent his playing career (1942. 1946–1961; 1963) in the labyrinthine Brooklyn Dodgers farm system.
He batted and threw right-handed.
In 1956, Ozark became a playing manager with the Dodgers" Class B Wichita Falls farm club (Big State League) and rose through their system in succeeding years all the way to the American Automobile Association level, winning a division championship with the 1963 Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League. In 1965, he came to the Major Leagues — and the Los Angeles Dodgers — as a coach for Walter Alston.
Ozark served eight years (1965-1972) on Alston"s staff until his hiring as manager by the last-place Phillies in October 1972. Managerial career
The Phillies showed steady improvement in Ozark"s first three seasons, and in 1976 broke through by winning 101 games, a club record at the time.
The Philadelphia club featured a core of players led by two future Hall of Famers: third baseman Mike Schmidt and left-handed pitcher Steve Carlton.
This time, against the Dodgers, they were poised to take a 2–1 game Series lead when Los Angeles rallied for three runs in the ninth inning of Game 3 to steal the victory. Again the Phillies lost in four games. During the 1978-1979 offseason, the Phils signed free agent Pete Rose away from the Reds.
Fresh off his 44-game-hitting streak season, Rose was expected to put Philadelphia over the top in 1979.
But the Phillies—plagued by injuries and a lack of pitching depth—played poorly all season and were still two games under.500 on August 31 when Ozark was replaced by Dallas Green. Tommy Lasorda knew Ozark from the Dodgers organization.
Lasorda selected Ozark to serve as a coach for the National League team for the 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle. After the Phillies fired him, Ozark returned to the Dodgers to coach under Lasorda until the two had a falling-out during the 1982 season and Ozark was released.
Throughout his managerial career, he was frequently lampooned for his malapropisms as a public speaker.
Two of his most famous were "Half this game is 90% mental" and "Even Napoleon had his Watergate."
On the morning of May 7, 2009, Ozark died at age 85 at his home in Vero Beach, Florida. In 2010, Danny Ozark was inducted posthumously into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.
