Los Angeles ? Bill Buhler, who treated every Dodgers player from Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese to Mike Piazza and Eric Karros during a 39-year run that bridged the Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda eras, has died. He was 75.

Buhler died Saturday, the Dodgers announced Sunday.

Buhler, who retired after the 1995 season, joined the organization in 1952 as a minor-league trainer. He was promoted to assistant trainer in 1957 at Brooklyn, then became head trainer in 1960 during the team’s third year in Los Angeles. The Dodgers appeared in nine World Series during his tenure.

“Bill is the standard by which other trainers measure their skills,” said Dodgers’ team physician Dr. Frank Jobe, whose association with Buhler goes back to 1964. “He developed the job of athletic trainer in baseball, and most everybody does it pretty much the way Bill did it. I certainly learned a lot from him.”

Buhler also was an innovator. He was a part of the team that took care of pitcher Tommy John after Jobe performed the landmark reconstructive elbow surgery on the Dodgers pitcher in 1974 that extended his and dozens of big league careers.