EXCLUSIVE: Former Phils Manager Green Still Distraught Over Loss Of Granddaughter
By Pat Ciarrocchi
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Nearly 18 months after the Tucson shooting, Dallas Green still hurts. He doesn't know how it will ever be easy.
He's always been a baseball man, first. Now, the former Phillies 1980 Championship manager is learning how to cope as a grieving grandfather.
Green's nine-year-old granddaughter, Christina-Taylor, was the youngest victim of the January, 2011 attack, that killed six, and wounded 18, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Time has provided Green little healing, but it has given him a renewed sense of purpose. Christina, a wide-eyed, dark-hair beauty, was her grandfather's princess. That's what he called her.
"She just had a great love for life," said Green. "And I think she was going to grow up to be a real special gal... and we're going to miss her."
Dallas Green came to CBS-3's Talk Philly to talk about his life in baseball, and his recently published book, "The Mouth That Roared, My Six Outspoken Decades in Baseball." Green had saved the last chapter for Christina, the daughter of his son, John.
"It's a battle everyday to think about it,' said Green. "I've teared up with the best of them when it comes to Christina and thinking about her. She loved baseball. She was the only gal on her little league team. She wanted to get involved in politics and that's why she decided to go see Gabby."
After Christina's death, it took Green more than a month to talk about it publically. In February, 2011, the first day of spring training was his day. His voice quivered with emotion as he anticipated the pain, Christina's father, John, who is his son, would have to endure, without his daughter.
Now, months later, Green, who described himself as a "second amendment guy" who has been a hunter, is a grandfather advocate for gun control.
"I, for the life of me, can never understand why anyone wants a Glock . Those guns are meant for one thing: Kill somebody. It's time that Congress wakes up and I think faces this head on. There's been so many instances in this country where kids and young people are shot and killed. We just gotta figure a way to stop that."
Green believes, for Christina's sake.
