DODGERS' LABINE DEAD AT 80 RELIEF PITCHER LOVED PRESSURE.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Former Dodgers pitcher Clem Labine, who as recently as three weeks ago was in uniform at Dodgertown participating in the club's annual fantasy camp, died Friday after a brief illness. He was 80.

Labine appeared in 513 major-league games over a 13-year career, the vast majority of them as a reliever. He was with the Dodgers from 1950-60, a stretch that included the team's move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and ended when Labine was traded to Detroit.

He had a career record of 77-56 with 96 saves and an ERA of 3.63. He pitched in an era when there was little glamor to working out of the bullpen and a time when almost all pitchers aspired to start.

"I always thoguht Clem would have had a great career as a starting pitcher," former teammate Carl Erskine said in a release issued by the Dodgers. "But he told me, 'I didn't want to start. I liked the pressure of coming into the game with everything on the line."

Labine had been a regular instructor at those camps for years.

Labine appeared in five World Series with the Dodgers, winning titles with them in 1955 and 1959. He appeared in four games in that 1955 Series, the first championship in franchise history, going 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA.

"Clem Labine was one of the main reasons the Dodgers won it all in 1955," Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully said. "He had the heart of a lion and the intelligence of a wily fox. He was a nice guy, too. He will be truly missed by all who knew him."

Labine reportedly had been hospitalized since Feb. 13 because of pneumonia and slipped into a coma following brain surgery.