As baseball's version of "Forrest Gump," Zim saw it all and did it all with his self-effacing good humor, never ceasing to remind everyone that he was a lifetime .235 hitter. Zimmer's favorite saying, "If you're early, you're never late" — which sounded like he borrowed it from his close pal, Yogi Berra — was something he practiced his entire life. Beginning in 1949, when he passed up a scholarship to play quarterback for Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky to sign with the Dodgers, in his 66 years in uniform right up until these past few seasons as a special assistant with Tampa Bay Rays, he could always be counted on as being one of the first people to arrive at the ballpark. Day games, however, put a bit of a crimp on him as he was unable to spend his customary lunchtime at what Soot called "the office" — either a nearby racetrack or an off-track betting parlor.