Los Angeles Dodgers Bavasi began his baseball apprenticeship under his father and
Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Dodgers from 1950 to 1979. Bavasi graduated from
Saint Mary's College of California with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. He was appointed on June 18, 1976. Bavasi was considered the orchestrator of Blue Jay Mania. Bavasi's strategy from the beginning was to seek public involvement in Blue Jays development. A name the team contest was held in which Blue Jays was the winning selection. When it came to the development of a team logo, Bavasi sought a symbol as easily recognizable as former Padres owner
Ray Kroc's
McDonald's golden arches. Bavasi, however, selected Hartsfield, who had enjoyed great success managing the Padres'
Triple-A farm team, the
Hawaii Islanders, leading them to consecutive
Pacific Coast League titles in 1975–76. The Blue Jays were one of the worst teams in the Majors in the first half of the season, as the Blue Jays had a record of 16 wins and 42 losses, a percentage of .276. Although the Blue Jays had future stars
Jesse Barfield,
George Bell, and
Lloyd Moseby in the lineup, the team continued to struggle. The result was one of the more controversial times in franchise history. Bavasi went to see the team in Anaheim against the
California Angels. Bavasi's father,
Buzzie Bavasi was the president of the Angels, and his team had gotten off to a lacklustre start. Buzzie wanted to fire Angels manager
Jim Fregosi, and Peter Bavasi had the idea to fire his manager,
Bobby Mattick. Both thought it would be big news if father and son fired their manager on the same night. One of the Blue Jays executives advised the Jays Vice-chairman of the Board,
Peter Hardy. After a brief conversation, Hardy made it clear to Peter Bavasi that Mattick would not be fired in this way. On November 22, 1981, Hardy forced Bavasi to resign from the Blue Jays., with the resignation announced to the public on November 24, 1981. During the season, the team had an 84–78 record, its best since , and attendance of 1.47 million, its highest since . ==Life after Major League Baseball==