Cubs Chairman 'Saddened' By Death Of Clubhouse Manager
To many Chicago Cubs players, coaches and team personnel, Tom “Otis” Hellman was a piece of the fabric of the team.
USA Today reported that the long-time clubhouse manager died on Wednesday. While the Cubs did not release an official statement on Hellman’s passing, Cubs co-owner Tom Ricketts talked with USA Today about Hellman.
Tom led the Ricketts family bid to buy the Cubs back in 2009. Hellman was already more than halfway through his tenure with the organization when the purchase was complete. So he got to know Hellman for more than a decade while in charge of the franchise.
"I am saddened by this loss,” Ricketts said. “I can’t think of another person more dedicated to this team and organization than Otis. He embodied the definition of caretaker looking after countless players, coaches and staff that called our clubhouse home.”
To most, Hellman was “Otis.” He spent 50 years in Major League Baseball, 40 of those with the Cubs. He joined the franchise in 1983 when he joined to manage the visiting clubhouse at Wrigley Field. In 2000 he took over the home clubhouse from Yosh Kawano, another beloved figure in Cubs history.
Hellman was a Cubs employee when the team played its first night game at Wrigley Field on Aug. 8, 1988. He managed the clubhouse through countless renovations, including one in 2016 that expanded the Cubs’ clubhouse to 30,000 square feet. He helped assign lockers and, like most team personnel, celebrated the Cubs’ victory in the 2016 World Series.
Last February, the Cubs named Hellman their home clubhouse manager emeritus.
Ricketts wasn’t the only member of the Cubs to celebrate Hellman. Carlos Zambrano did the same on his Instagram.
“This gentleman was the greatest to me in my 11 years with the Cubs,” Zambrano wrote in the caption. “Many people don’t know that because of him we look good on the field.
“RIP Tom (Otis), one last YOU GO CUBBIES will miss you buddy.”
