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Joe Klein, who served as GM for Rangers, Indians and Tigers, dies at 75

PHILADELPHIA -- Joe Klein, who was a general manager for three Major League Baseball teams before spending the past two decades as executive director of the independent Atlantic League, has died. He was 75.

The Atlantic League said Klein died Wednesday at Temple University Hospital after complications from heart surgery.

Klein had been with the league since its inception in 1997, when he became executive director a year before teams started play.

League founder Frank Boulton says there is a "great hole in the heart of the Atlantic League."

Klein began his pro baseball career as a minor league infielder with the Washington Senators from 1962 to '68.