Fred Claire

Fred Claire was born on October 5, 1935, in Jamestown, Ohio. His father owned and ran a drugstore, and he had a brother and a sister. In 1950 his parents, Marston and Mary Francis Claire, moved the family to Torrance, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Claire graduated from Torrance High School. He attended El Camino College in Torrance, where he had a paper titled "Make Way for the Coast League" published in Baseball Magazine in July 1955, and he also earned an associate degree from Mt. San Antonio College, which later honoured him as an outstanding alumnus. He graduated from San Jose State with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1957. In May 2024 Whittier College awarded him an honorary doctorate of humane letters at its 121st commencement.

Claire's first job after San Jose State was with the Whittier Daily News. Through the late 1950s and 1960s he worked as a sports editor and sportswriter for the Whittier Daily News, the Pomona Progress-Bulletin and the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, where he was a baseball beat writer covering the Dodgers and Angels.

Assigned to cover Dodgers spring training in Vero Beach in 1969, Claire applied for an opening in the team's public relations department and was hired in July 1969. In 1975 he succeeded Red Patterson as vice president of public relations. He was central to the branding known as Dodger Blue and the Think Blue campaign, helped coordinate the 1972 ceremony at which the Dodgers retired their first uniform numbers (Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Roy Campanella), directed marketing when the club first passed three million in attendance, and hired broadcaster Ross Porter in 1977. In the late 1970s he visited Australia and helped set up a connection between the Dodgers and the Australian Baseball Federation. He later served as executive vice president in charge of day-to-day operations.

In April 1987 Al Campanis resigned after making racially offensive remarks on ABC's Nightline, and owner Peter O'Malley moved Claire into the general manager role. Claire acted quickly, releasing Jerry Reuss and signing Mickey Hatcher, then adding John Shelby, Tim Belcher, Rick Dempsey, Alfredo Griffin, Jay Howell, Jesse Orosco and Mike Davis. He also hired an analytics expert and held regular calls with scouts and minor league coaches. On January 29, 1988, he signed free agent Kirk Gibson after outbidding the Detroit Tigers. Gibson was named National League MVP and hit the famous pinch-hit home run off Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. The Dodgers beat the heavily favoured Oakland Athletics in five games, and The Sporting News named Claire its Major League Executive of the Year, the fifth Dodgers executive to win it after Larry MacPhail, Branch Rickey, Walter O'Malley and Buzzie Bavasi. His later teams featured draft picks Mike Piazza and Eric Karros, international signings Pedro Martinez, Raul Mondesi, Chan Ho Park and Hideo Nomo, and five straight National League Rookies of the Year from 1992 to 1996. After News Corporation bought the club, new executives traded Piazza and Todd Zeile to Florida in May 1998 without his knowledge. Claire said publicly that he had not made the deal, and on June 21, 1998, he and manager Bill Russell were dismissed, replaced by Tommy Lasorda and Glenn Hoffman.

Claire remained a mentor to many baseball executives. In March 2014 Baseball New Zealand named him a special advisor, working with chief executive Ryan Flynn to grow the game there. He wrote about the game, shared memories of former colleagues on social media, and appeared on many podcasts and broadcasts to talk about the 1988 team.

Around his 80th birthday in 2015, skin cancer on Claire's lip spread into his jaw and neck. At City of Hope in Duarte, near Los Angeles, he was given a 20 percent chance of survival. When early treatments failed, an immunotherapy given by oncologist Dr. Erminia Massarelli cleared the cancer. Claire made it his mission to celebrate City of Hope as much as his championship team. Supported by his wife, Sheryl, he launched the Fred Claire Celebrity Golf Classic, first held on August 14, 2017, at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, to support City of Hope's head and neck cancer work. MLB.com reported that the tournament raised more than $400,000 in its first three years. The cancer returned more than once, and in 2026 he was again being treated at City of Hope.

Claire married and had three children, Jen, Jeff and Kim. He was married to Sheryl Claire, his wife of 31 years when the Los Angeles Times profiled him in 2017, and she was at his side through his cancer treatment. For many years he lived in Pasadena, California, and in his final year he lived in a retirement home in California. He counted Vin Scully, Tommy Lasorda and Phil Regan among his close friends.

Claire met Jackie Robinson shortly before Robinson's death in 1972, and Robinson's words became his motto: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." He believed in a team-first approach, saying, "In getting through our difficult times, I always believed in 'we.'" Late in life he said the real meaning of the game lay in how people used their lives to help others.

Claire wrote My 30 Years in Dodger Blue (Sports Publishing, 2004). With author Tim Madigan he wrote Extra Innings: Fred Claire's Journey to City of Hope and Finding a World Championship Team (2020), with a foreword by Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke. He appeared in many interviews and podcasts, including Jomboy Media's GM Files and Ross Porter's video series.

Claire built the Dodgers' only World Series champion between 1981 and 2020, and Bill Plaschke called him the most honest, integrity-driven sports executive he had met. Orel Hershiser said he gave the team "that first edge of being progressive, and aggressive." His 1995 signing of Hideo Nomo helped open the door for a wave of Japanese players in Major League Baseball. When he learned the Hall of Fame had few World Series final-out balls, he donated the 1988 ball to Cooperstown.

The Sporting News Major League Executive of the Year (1988). Outstanding alumnus, Mt. San Antonio College. Honorary doctorate of humane letters, Whittier College (2024).

Fred Claire died on Monday, October 5, 2026, his 91st birthday, after an 11-year battle with cancer. His longtime friend Ross Porter announced the news on Facebook, writing, "I lost a close friend today. The world lost a good man." The place of death and funeral arrangements have not been made public.