Margarita Mota, wife of Dodgers great Manny Mota and baseball family matriarch, dies at 81
Margarita Mota, the wife of Dodgers great Manny Mota and matriarch of a baseball family, died Saturday. She was 81.
She had been in ill health in recent years and died of natural causes at home in La Crescenta, according to her son José, a former major leaguer who works on the team’s Spanish-language broadcasts.
Manny Mota, who is 85, is baseball’s No. 3 career pinch-hitter who won World Series titles with the Dodgers in 1981 as a player and ’88 as a coach. The Dominican outfielder played parts of 13 seasons from 1969 to ’80 and 1982 with the Dodgers. He served as a coach for the team from 1980 to 2013 and continued working for the club as a Spanish-language TV broadcaster until 2020.
Manny Mota, respected for his pinch-hitting exploits on the field and his character off of it, is being inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball on Saturday.
The couple was married for 60 years. They created the Manny Mota International Foundation, a nonprofit that has raised money to build a medical clinic, baseball fields and a school in the Dominican Republic.
“I applaud her,” José said. “A woman of the people. She loved the needy and taught us to take care of them.”
Margarita is survived by seven other children: Cecilia, María, Rafael, Andy, Domingo, Gary and Tony, as well as 20 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Andy also played in the majors, while Domingo, Gary and Tony played in the minors. Tony also coached for the Dodgers.
José recalled his mother shepherding her eight children back and forth from the Dominican to Los Angeles to be with their father during his playing days.
“A strong woman,” he said. “A wonderful woman.”
Angels announcers José Mota and Daron Sutton look back fondly on the experiences they had while tagging along with their dads during their careers.
Margarita was known for cooking meals for Dodgers players participating in the Dominican Winter League.
“She made sure the American families went to our house for the holidays,” José said.
The Dodgers set a framed photo of the smiling couple, with Margarita’s arms around her husband, and a bouquet of white roses in the stadium press box. There was a moment of silence before the team’s game against the San Francisco Giants.
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