Longtime Bay Area Scorer O'Connor Dies

.c The Associated Press

12/20/03 20:28 EST

APTOS, Calif. (AP) - Dick O'Connor, a longtime official scorer for the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics and a former sports writer, has died. He was 73.

O'Connor died Thursday from complications from heart surgery.

``Dick loved baseball,'' said Nick Peters, longtime baseball writer for The Sacramento Bee. ``Long retired as a sports writer, he wanted to keep in touch with the game and would drive 150 miles round trip from his Aptos home to be an official scorer for the A's and Giants, including many playoff games.

``He was an avid sports fan who I think made it a point to see a game in every college stadium in the country. He was proud of the fact he saw college football games in virtually every stadium in the nation. He was an avid golfer and was a frequent golf partner with Jim Davenport and Bobby Bonds.''

O'Connor covered the Giants for more than 25 years for the Palo Alto Times and the Peninsula Times Tribune before retiring in 1984.