RICHMOND, VA. ? After Johnny Oates was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2001, he made a commitment to live each day to its utmost.

Knowing his time was short motivated Oates to climb out of bed, even if it was just to see squirrels in the backyard or feel the sun warming his face.

Johnny Oates watches the Texas Rangers work out during spring training in this 1997 file photo from Port Charlotte, Fla. The former Rangers and Orioles manager died Friday at age 58.

Oates died at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center about 2 a.m. Friday with his wife and brother at his side, his son said. He was 58.

“He was very comfortable. He went very peacefully,” Andrew Oates, 28, said.

“I have learned more from him in the last three years than I did in the first 25. I think he’s accomplished more in the last three years and touched more people in the last three years.”

Oates was best known for managing the Texas Rangers to their first three postseason appearances, in 1996, ’98 and ’99. He resigned early in the 2001 season after the team lost 17 of its first 28 games despite the offseason addition of $252 million free agent shortstop Alex Rodriguez.

For Oates, the diagnosis of the aggressive tumor glioblastoma multiforme helped him to focus on the things that mattered most to him, primarily his family.

“Really there’s only one day of the week that has any importance, and that’s today,” he said then.

Oates shared the American League Manager of the Year award with New York’s Joe Torre in 1996, and managed the Baltimore Orioles from 1991-94.