Former Columbus minor league baseball teams general manager John Dittrich dies
Former Columbus minor league baseball executive John Dittrich has died.
Dittrich, the general manager of the Columbus Indians and Columbus RedStixx from 1991-95, died Wednesday morning, according to Facebook posts from family and friends.
The location and cause of his death wasn’t available before publication, but friend Ted Barker of Carrollton, Texas, wrote in his post that Dittrich was “surrounded by his family” when he died.
A spinal cord bleed in 2019 left Dittrich “paraplegic overnight and ultimately cut short his remarkable life way too soon,” Barker wrote.
Dittrich was 73 and residing in Tempe, Arizona, according to online public records.
No obituary has been published, but Dittrich’s daughter, Jenny, wrote Friday on Facebook about the family’s plan for his funeral: “Dad donated his body to science and we will have more more information once we receive his ashes. We are tentatively planning for something in Illinois in the fall.”
Jenny also wrote in that post, “The outpouring of love we have received over the last few days has filled our hearts. The stories being shared have brought back so many wonderful memories. The words of encouragement have filled our souls. We can’t thank everyone enough for their love and support during this sad and stressful time.”
John Dittrich’s impact on Columbus
Kathy Gierer, former official scorekeeper at Golden Park, noted Dittrich arrived in Columbus at a critical juncture in the city’s professional baseball history.
She said that after the “ultra-successful” Mudcats moved to North Carolina following the 1990 season, the Columbus minor league franchise dropped from Class AA to Class A and changed major league affiliations from the Houston Astros to the Cleveland Indians.
Dittrich, however, persevered through the transition.
“I always compared John to the ringmaster in a circus who was a born salesman,” Gierer wrote to the Ledger-Enquirer. “You felt compelled to buy tickets, sponsorships, or whatever he was peddling!! He was a master juggler with multiple balls flying through the air at any time of day or night. He always had to worry about the fans, employees, players ... and the weather.”
Gierer is grateful Dittrich respected the separation between their domains.
“As official scorer, my job was intense and sometimes controversial,” she said. “Happily, John left me alone to do my job and never interfered, only providing support when needed.”
Gierer also appreciates Dittrich and his family for their involvement in the Columbus area while they lived here.
“The now-grown-up kids, Robbie, Jenny and Jamey, along with John’s devoted wife Lois became a part of the fabric of our community,” she said.
For example, Dittrich led the initiative that enabled the RedStixx to become Partners in Education with Mathews Elementary School, where Gierer taught before retiring.
“The one-of-a-kind adoption ceremony was held at Golden Park with the entire school student body bused there for the occasion,” Gierer said. “The players and front office staff were frequent participants in a variety of Mathews activities.”
Former Golden Park public address announcer Steve Thiele called Dittrich “influential” in the community.
“He made himself known by joining several civic organizations and pushing baseball to really get people coming back to minor league baseball at Golden Park,” Thiele, a retired visual information specialist for the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), said. “… People got to know John because he was a very easy guy to like, and he was well respected.”
Dittrich sometimes would “get upset” and “emphatic” if the staff didn’t perform to his standards, but he never would belittle anyone, Thiele said. And no matter how frustrated Dittrich got with the multitasking operation of a game night, when Thiele played during rain delays the recording of Dittrich’s favorite song, “Minnie the Moocher,” he returned to his “awesome personality,” Thiele said.
Jim White, a retired executive from Tom’s Foods and Synovus, was a RedStixx season-ticket holder when he agreed to team owner Charlie Morrow’s request in 1995 to join the organization as vice president for finance of the baseball team and the minor league hockey team, the Columbus Cottonmouths.
“I remember John as a long-term baseball man, a great promoter of the game, knew how to put people in the seats and entertain the fans,” White told the Ledger-Enquirer in a text message.
Former Ledger-Enquirer columnist Guerry Clegg, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker, Kennon, Parker, Duncan & Davis, told the L-E in an email, “I loved John’s passion for minor league baseball. He was my go-to for anything related to minor league baseball. What impressed me about John was how invested he became in every community where he worked. I think that was due to his positive nature in general. He was a huge asset to Columbus when he was here.”
In an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce partner representative Rick Jacobson, who worked for the RedStixx as vice president for sales and marketing, described Dittrich as “stout a family man as I’ve ever known,” with a “tendency to leave cities and teams after their first successes, so he could open up new baseball territory. . . . He wasn’t a guy who liked to hang around ‘maintaining’ baseball franchises, having grown them to maturity.”
Former RedStixx radio broadcaster Mark Littleton, now president and CEO of Kinetic Credit Union in Columbus, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email, “John was the perfect example of a baseball guy, a baseball lifer. He loved the purity of the game, especially at the minor league level. He was a baseball salesman and never missed an opportunity to promote the RedStixx in the Chattahoochee Valley. He was mentor to me and many others and will be greatly missed.”
John Dittrich: ‘a baseball lifer’
On his LinkedIn account, Dittrich also described himself as a “baseball lifer.”
During 42 years as an executive at all levels of professional baseball, including four seasons in the front office of the major league Texas Rangers, Dittrich was general manager of more than a dozen minor league teams. His teams were affiliated with six major league organizations (Padres, Rangers, Reds, Yankees, Indians and Mariners). He also was assistant to the president of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues for three years.
“He may be the only person to ever lead teams at AAA, AA, A, Rookie & Independent levels,” Barker wrote.
And wherever baseball brought Dittrich — 14 cities, 11 states and two countries — he and his family made many friends, as evidenced by the GoFundMe page that raised $15,469 from 131 donors to help pay for the home modification he needed to accommodate life in a wheelchair.
This story was originally published July 19, 2023 at 11:12 AM.
