Later he became a pitching coach, working with the Minnesota Twins and the Phillies. He came to Philadelphia in 1991, left in '96 for health reasons, and remained with the club as a part-time roving instructor.
Still, Mr. Podres always will be recalled as the man whose near-mythical Yankee Stadium victory in 1955's Game 7 gave perennial bridesmaid Brooklyn - seven times a World Series loser - its first and only world championship.
"I guarantee, there was more celebrating in Brooklyn that day than there was for the end of World War II," Buzzie Bavasi, the Dodgers' general manager, once said.
Mr. Podres, who took part in that celebration and many, many more during his colorful half-century in the game, was the MVP of that World Series. Forever afterward, the personalized license plates on his cars read "MVP-55," a rare display of vanity from the self-effacing man who was a dead ringer for silent-film comedian Buster Keaton.
Four decades later, he was manager Jim Fregosi's pitching coach when the 1993 Phillies won their unlikely NL pennant. His ace was Schilling, who had come to Philadelphia the year before as a reliever uncertain of his stuff and his future.
Schilling, who became a disciple of Mr. Podres and his low-key but hyper-positive style, loved to tell the story of how that transformation began during their first meeting.
"I was coming from a bad situation in Houston," Schilling recalled in a 1995 interview. "The stadium was empty that day, and it was raining as we walked down to the bullpen. He asked to see my fastball, so I showed him a two-seamer, which is what I threw then."
"What the hell was that?" Podres barked.
"A fastball," Schilling said.
