Baseball great Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron, 86, passes into history

By Terence Moore
AJC.com
January 22, 2021

In March of 1954, with his place in the major leagues far from assured, Hank Aaron was granted a start in a Milwaukee exhibition game versus Boston, only because Bobby Thomson, the regular left fielder and Aaron’s idol, had just broken his ankle.

Already possessed of dramatic timing at the age of 20, the rookie promptly drilled a ball that carried the wall, flew over a row of trailers parked outside the Sarasota park and reverberated so loudly in the Red Sox clubhouse that the great Ted Williams emerged, as Aaron recalled, “wanting to know who it was that could make a bat sound that way when it hit a baseball.”

Over the next 23 years, a nation of fans would join in Williams' wonder, as Aaron was transformed from a raw, cross-handed line-drive hitter into the game’s most prolific force. A Hall of Famer, Atlanta’s first professional sports star, and, in a soft-spoken way, an agent of change in the post-Jim Crow South, Aaron came to embody the city as he embodied the Braves.

Aaron, at one time baseball’s all-time home run king, died Friday at the age of 86.

“We are absolutely devastated by the passing of our beloved Hank,” Braves Chairman Terry McGuirk said in a statement released by the team. “He was a beacon for our organization first as a player, then with player development, and always with our community efforts. His incredible talent and resolve helped him achieve the highest accomplishments, yet he never lost his humble nature. Henry Louis Aaron wasn’t just our icon, but one across Major League Baseball and around the world. His success on the diamond was matched only by his business accomplishments off the field and capped by his extraordinary philanthropic efforts.

“We are heartbroken and thinking of his wife Billye and their children Gaile, Hank, Jr., Lary, Dorinda and Ceci and his grandchildren.”

According to the Braves, Aaron passed away peacefully in his sleep.

Aaron told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2006: “I don’t think too many people got a chance to know me through the years, and that was something that was my own doing, because I’m actually kind of a loner, a guy that has stayed to himself”

“A lot of people thought they knew me, but they really didn’t.”

“They pretend that they know me, but I travel alone. I do just about everything alone. I have associates, but I don’t have many friends. I would just want to be remembered as somebody who just tried to be fair with people.”

In a funhouse way, Aaron could be viewed differently from varying angles. To a 19-year-old kid breaking in with the Braves in 1968, Aaron was not a star, but an “extra parent.”

“I’ve always loved the guy,” said Dusty Baker, an Aaron teammate for eight years long before he became a three-time National League manager of the year. “He’d cut those eyes at you, and you knew you had to straighten up and stop doing wrong. He was always full of honor and dignity.”

Bud Selig said that though he and Aaron had little in common, they forged a life-long friendship because of their love of baseball.

“He’s just been held with such reverence by everybody,” said Selig, who in 1999 established the Hank Aaron Award for the yearly offensive leader in both the National and American Leagues. “He got over all of that horrible, horrible hatred of the 1970s when he was breaking Babe Ruth’s [career homerun] record, and he was so classy and so dignified through it all and afterward. I run into people who don’t know him as well as I do, and they just say, ‘Wow, what a wonderful person.’”

To a refugee of the Ohio coal fields, he was a man of amazing grace.

“I never saw him angry,” said Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, who recently died and broke in with the Braves in 1964 and was Aaron’s teammate for 11 seasons. “I never even saw the man get upset. I’m sure it had to have happened, but if he ever was angry, he kept it to himself.”

Aaron’s record of 755 home runs hardly does justice to his extraordinary career, for he retired with 23 major league records. The all-time RBI leader (2,297) also racked up the most extra-base hits (1,477) and finished in the top three for at-bats (second with 12,364), runs (second with 2,174 in a tie with Babe Ruth), games (third with 3,298) and hits (third with 3,771).

Yet for such slugging, he averaged only 63 strikeouts per season and retired with a career .305 batting average. A 20-time All-Star, he won the 1957 NL Most Valuable Player award and was rushed to Cooperstown on the first-ballot in 1982.

His magnificent wrists became a thing of legend.

“There always was a great comparison between Willie Mays and Hank Aaron,” Ernie Johnson, a former Braves teammate before moving to the broadcast booth once said. “I think a Los Angeles writer said it best when we were playing out there, and the guy wrote, ‘Hank Aaron does everything that Willie Mays does, but his cap doesn’t fall off.’”

Yet what Mays could not do and what the typical contemporary player declines to do, is shoulder civic responsibility. An African-American presence in a majority African-American city during the 1960s, Aaron did not flee from the prospect of societal change.

“I was standing there when the parade with the Braves came into town [from Milwaukee],” said two-time Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, recalled of a 1966 welcoming celebration. “There were some of the good old boys standing there with me, and I was sort of wondering what they would say, because he came in, sitting on the back of a convertible. And they said to each other, ‘You know, we’re a big-league town now, and that fella oughtta be able to buy a house wherever he wants to.’ "

Though he had come to the game seven years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Aaron was in the first wave of new Black stars, many of them from the Deep South. Like Aaron, Mays, Willie McCovey and Billy Williams all came from Alabama and all broke into the majors in the 1950s. Only Aaron would stay in the South.

“His coming here opened up the town significantly,” Young said. “That actually was (then-mayor) Ivan Allen’s plan, that big-league sports would bring a big-league attitude to the city of Atlanta. And it was right about that time that we started the campaign of ‘the city too busy to hate.’ So I’ve always said that Hank Aaron made a huge contribution to the successful desegregation of Atlanta. He did so very quietly and very effectively.”

Born into poverty Feb. 5, 1934, in segregated Mobile, Henry Louis Aaron was the third child of Herbert and Estella Aaron. In high school, he mostly played softball.

Aaron never totally abandoned his oldest habits, even while ascending in the corporate ranks in Ted Turner’s old empire, and later as a successful car dealer. He was prone to fry fish and eat it on the porch of his southwest Atlanta home. A life-long Cleveland Browns fan, he occasionally would fly to northern Ohio on game days and sneak into the old Dawg Pound in disguise to watch his team play.

But Aaron’s connection with one number — No. 715 — would bear no disguising. It was the homerun that surpassed Ruth’s all-time total of 714. It marked Aaron forever, for better and for worse. And if he were to need any refreshing of his dark memories of his relationship with breaking Ruth’s record, he only needed to climb the stairs to his attic, where he kept a box of the worst of his hate mail, filled the worst racial epithets people could conceive to spit at him.

“Since I was so close to Hank, I had to look at a lot of that stuff,” Baker said. “It was terrible, but he was still carrying himself with honor and dignity. He treated white kids and Latin kids as well as he did the Black kids. He treated everybody good, regardless. That’s why it bothers me when I hear people say, ‘Well, Hank was bitter.’

“And if he had any bitterness, which I didn’t really see, he had plenty of reason to be, brother. You hear what I’m telling you?”

In an interview for the 20th anniversary of No. 715, Aaron acknowledged the split public image: the smiling baseball ambassador who never tossed his hate letters.

“A lot of people still don’t understand me,” Aaron said. "Some of them view me as a very bitter person. Some of them look and say he’s very angry. And those things are not true. I’ve tried to tell people that. I don’t have time to be angry or bitter. I may have been bitter right after I got out of baseball, but that’s all gone by the wayside. I don’t have time for things like that. …

“Somebody asked me if baseball was good to me. I was as good to baseball as baseball was to me. I think I was better to baseball than baseball was to me. But my life has moved up to another level.”

As with so many baseball careers, it almost never happened. Aaron nearly baled out before ever reaching the majors. In 1952, the Braves signed the skinny second baseman away from the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League for $10,000. Playing 87 games (.336, 61 RBIs) for Eau Claire, Aaron was recognized as the Class A Northern League rookie of the year.

But then came 1953, when the Braves shipped Aaron to Jacksonville, where he was forced to battle more than just breaking pitches and runners sliding spikes high into second base. As one of the first Black players in the Class A South Atlantic League, Aaron saw Jim Crow from a more sinister angle, his white teammates afforded meals and lodging he never saw. One night, a guard fired a gun at him when he returned to training camp after hours.

Still, the stats never wavered; he hit .362 that season as the Sally League’s MVP. Ticketed in 1954 for the Class AA Atlanta Crackers, his spring plans changed when Thomson, hero of the 1951 New York Giants, broke his ankle shortly after being traded to the Braves.

Thomson would return to play, but he would never get his job back. A month after Ted Williams wondered what that big noise in Sarasota was, Aaron was in the majors to stay.

“I just thought I was way out of my league. I mean, it was like a strange dream: Is this really happening?” Aaron said. “Here I was with the Braves in the company of supermen all of a sudden. I really had no idea that I would halfway reach anything near the point in baseball that I had gotten to back then.”

Future Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews was among Aaron’s new teammates, but that didn’t intimidate the rookie.

“He’d only been in the league a few years, and he didn’t have a name,” Aaron said. “Joe Adcock didn’t have a name. Johnny Logan didn’t have a name. Del Crandall didn’t have a name.”

But Warren Spahn had a name — and the club ace, a 33-year-old World War II veteran, would make Aaron doubt his worth. Aaron recalled how Spahn used to join Adcock in uttering racially charged comments in the clubhouse.

The Braves’ first game during his rookie year was in Cincinnati, the home of baseball’s first professional team. It is a proud city that always treats opening day as a religious holiday, and such was the case on April 13, 1954. There was the traditionally loud and colorful parade that moved through downtown to an absolutely stuffed Crosley Field. And, before long, there was Aaron, walking to home plate for his first time in the majors to face the Reds’ Joe Nuxhall. With parts of the overflow crowd literally standing around the outfield, and with his heart skipping more than a few beats, the rookie contemplated making a U-turn back to Mobile.

“I was scared. I was scared. I was scared,” said Aaron. He barely had enough strength in his wobbly legs to chase fly balls in left field, he said. And he was a disaster in the batter’s box. Despite a slugfest, featuring prolific hitting from both teams, Aaron went 0-for-5.

“I hadn’t been overly shocked playing in Jacksonville, but I just thought there was no way that yours truly should be playing with the guys that I was playing with,” he said.

This, in effect, was a downside to Robinson’s entry in Brooklyn. As teams now scoured the countryside for Black prospects, Aaron was among a host of young players who may have arrived before their time.

“Baseball back in those days had not caught on with Black kids,” Aaron said. “Television wasn’t prevalent. The only way you could keep up with it was through radio, and the only somebody that you kept up with was the Dodgers, especially among Black people.

“Although I finally was a player in the majors, the only guys I knew about was Jackie, Campy [Roy Campanella], Don Newcombe and those guys. I didn’t know about anybody on the Cincinnati team.”

It showed. Not until the Braves returned for their home opener did Aaron get his first hit, a double off St. Louis' Vic Raschi. Eight days after that, Aaron faced Raschi in St. Louis to slam the first of what would become 755 home runs.

“I don’t think I ever got to the point during that season of feeling comfortable,” Aaron said, adding, “I always was scared, and I always kept one bag halfway packed, knowing that, if things didn’t work out, they were going to send me be back in Triple-A ball. And that was the way baseball was played back then. You had to really show them something to stick around. It just so happened that they really didn’t have anybody else to play out there but me.”

Not even a broken ankle in early September could budge him from the Milwaukee roster now. He hit .280, which amazingly would be his lowest seasonal average until he hit .279 in 1966. It also would be the only season in which he would play less than 145 games until 1971. He finished with 13 home runs, which would be the only time he would manage less than 20 home runs in a season for the next two decades.

There also were two dramatic switches for Aaron after his first season. He moved from left to right field, where he would become a three-time Gold Glove winner, and he shed his No. 5 to become linked with No. 44 for eternity.

“He didn’t weigh very much, maybe 175 or 180 pounds,” said Johnson. “We just wondered how he would get all of that bat speed until you saw his forearms. He didn’t make hitting very scientific. I remember one time somebody asked him how he hits like that. He said, ‘Well, two things. I look for the ball and I hit it.’ "

Johnson recalled times he would fume over the treatment of Aaron and other Black players into the early 1960s.

“We were playing a game in spring training, and afterward, we pulled up to a restaurant,” Johnson said. “The guys were starved, and the owner came out as we got off the bus, and the owner said, ‘I’m sorry, but the Black players are going to have to eat in the kitchen.’

“Charlie Grimm, our manager, turns, looks at us and says, ‘About face. Let’s get back on the bus. We all eat together.’ Hank ran into those things a lot during that time, but he always could handle those things.”

With Milwaukee appearing in back-to-back World Series in 1957 and 1958, splitting the two with the New York Yankees, stardom came easily to Aaron. He quietly strung together four 40-plus home run seasons over seven years (1957-63) and his total stood at 398 when the team moved to Georgia, where Atlanta-Fulton County quickly earned its nickname, The Launching Pad.

Where the Great Bambino had created his record with a New York-hyped flair, Hammerin' Hank did so in a small market, quietly chipping away at the game’s most prized mark, which had stood since 1935.

He never finished with more than 47 home runs in a season (1971) — an Atlanta record that lasted until Andruw Jones’ 51 in 2005. But Aaron had eight seasons with 40 or more home runs, the last coming in 1973, when he finished the year with 713 homers and an estimated 930,000 pieces of mail. Much of it was racist. There also were enough death threats for the FBI to get involved. Aaron received personal protection through the off-season.

As interest bubbled over in the first week of the 1974 season, Aaron homered off the Reds' Jack Billingham, 20 years to the date and in the same city as his debut. Mathews, then Braves manager, decided to rest his 40-year-old star for the next two games before the Braves went home for their Atlanta opener.

Mathews took a media whipping for the decision, which was seen as a plot to stage history in Atlanta, and after Aaron sat out the second game, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn forced Mathews to start Aaron in Game 3 “in the best interest of baseball.”

But Aaron eventually went hitless, setting up his date with history the following night at soggy Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before national television cameras and celebrities. Pearl Bailey sang “The National Anthem.” Sammy Davis Jr. was in the stands, and so was Gov. Jimmy Carter. Aaron’s parents, Herbert and Estella, made the trip from Mobile to help swell the rocking and rolling ballpark to beyond 54,000.

The moment came in the fourth inning. After Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing threw a low slider toward the middle of the plate, Aaron carved another of his economical swings and watched the ball land over the fence in left-center field. He glided around the bases despite two young fans jumping in his way. He was met at home plate by a mob that included his mother, and a large smile eased across his normally stoic face. He was just relieved that it was over.

During his AJC interview in 2006, Aaron recalled the moment with a renewed sense of pride.

“Really, I’m not as in awe of the moment as I used to be,” Aaron said. “It’s to the point where I look back and I think to myself that I played the game the way that I wanted to play it for 23 years. Instead of 755 home runs, I could have ended up with 775 or more, if I would have really pushed myself during the end of my career.”

Sign Hank Aaron’s guestbook here on ajc.com
Then pausing, Aaron added what he wanted to say the most about his journey as a player from Mobile to Indianapolis to Eau Claire to Jacksonville to Milwaukee to Atlanta and to immortality: “Yeah, I did hit a lot of home runs, but I never struck out 100 times in a season. That’s the thing that I marvel at more than anything I did in the game.”

Aaron retired before the 1977 season, spending the last two years of his career as a faded star for Selig’s Brewers. He was 42 when he finished playing, but he was far from finished with baseball. With Jackie Robinson’s death in 1972, Black players had lost their loudest voice and Aaron was not reluctant to criticize what he saw as remaining inequities in the game.

Aaron mentioned back then how the game was hesitant to hire African-Americans for coaching, managing and executive jobs. He even chastised baseball for refusing to consider him as a candidate for commissioner after Kuhn, his old nemesis, retired in 1984.

Young chastised those who believe Aaron went from soft-spoken to outspoken over night. Young credits him with helping his successful bid to become Georgia’s U.S. congressman in 1973, when Aaron not only contributed money to the campaign but persuaded singer Isaac Hayes and comedian Bill Cosby to do the same.

“It wasn’t that he became any more outspoken and started to pop off. People just began to ask him questions,” Young said. “As long as he was playing, they were asking Hank about balls and strikes and pitchers and hitters. When he stopped playing, the questions changed, and he just responded to them. Hank has always been unappreciated and underestimated.”

Not by everyone. Former Braves owner Ted Turner asked Aaron to become manager of his team on two different occasions during the late 1970s, but Aaron declined both times. He did accept Turner’s offer to become a vice president and director of player development. During his 13-year tenure, Aaron oversaw a farm system that produced the likes of Dale Murphy and the foundation for a divisional title in 1982.

After leaving as director of player development, Aaron spent the rest of his years in baseball as a Braves senior vice president and assistant to the president. He also heightened his role as an entrepreneur, owning eight Arby’s franchises in Milwaukee during the early part of his post-playing career before he turned the bulk of his attention to his two car dealerships (BMW and Honda) in the Atlanta. He also had area after he ran his own restaurant in town.

“To be honest with you, I had all of this planned out, because I knew it was going to be hard for me after 23 years of playing baseball to just get into something else,” Aaron told the AJC in 2006. "I started out in real estate when I first started working for the Braves, and I ended up with the biggest crook in the world, losing about $1 million. I lost everything I had through my insurance and some other things. Whew! And back then $1 million was $1 million.

“But, having said that, I wasn’t going to let that keep me from doing well. I did have some money that I had saved through the years and some deferred money. And the reason I was such a great ballplayer and did some great things is because a lot of people said that I couldn’t do certain things.”

“When I got out of baseball, for instance, I read what somebody wrote in the paper after I got my first dealership, ‘Don’t put too much stock in this, because he’s going to fail.’ I remember that, and I said, ‘If I have to crawl at night, I won’t fail.’ I said, ‘I’m going to make all of these people eat their words.’ I’ll do anything not to fail, and that’s why I kept pushing.”

Along the way, there was a heart-wrenching divorce in 1971 from his first wife of 17 years, Barbara, and then there was his heart-warming marriage from 1973 through the present to his second wife, Billye, a former Atlanta television personality. There also were four children from his first marriage (Gaile, Hankie, Lary and Dorinda), his adoption of Billye’s daughter, Ceci, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Something else motivated Aaron: needy people, particularly youngsters. He developed his “Chasing the Dream” foundation to help 755 underprivileged kids get an education.

“My wife [Billye] gives a lot, and I give a lot” he said. "But that’s what we’re here for. I just feel like nothing that we have belongs to us. It was given to me by God, and when we leave here, I don’t know of anybody who will go with a casket full of money.

“Why not let somebody else enjoy whatever I’ve been fortunate enough to accumulate?”

Don Sutton, Hall of Fame Right-Hander, Is Dead at 75

“When you gave him the ball, you knew one thing,” his former manager Tommy Lasorda once said. “Your pitcher was going to give you everything he had.

”Richard Sandomir
The New York Times
January 19, 2021

Don Sutton, a durable right-handed pitcher who won 324 games over 23 years for five teams, most notably the Los Angeles Dodgers, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, died on Tuesday morning at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 75.

The Hall of Fame said the cause was cancer. Sutton’s left kidney was removed in 2002 after he received a cancer diagnosis, and part of a lung was removed the next year.

Sutton’s major league career began with the Dodgers in 1966. He went on to win 233 games during 16 seasons with the team, the most in franchise history.

“When you gave him the ball, you knew one thing,” the former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda, who died this month, once said. “Your pitcher was going to give you everything he had.”

Sutton also pitched for the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, California Angels and Oakland A’s before retiring in 1988. He was elected to the Hall of Fame on his fifth attempt.

“I wanted this for over 40 years,” he said in his Hall of Fame induction speech in Cooperstown, N.Y. “So why am I shaking like a leaf? Part of it is that I am standing in front of some of the great artists in the world of baseball.”

Sutton is the ninth Baseball Hall of Famer to die since last April, a group that includes four other pitchers, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Whitey Ford and Phil Niekro, as well as Lou Brock, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan and Lasorda.

Sutton’s major league career began in 1966 as part of a stellar Dodger pitching rotation that also included Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. It ended in 1988, after he returned to the franchise as a free agent, on a staff with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela.

The Dodgers won the World Series that season, but Sutton, then 43 and with a 3-6 record, had been released by then.

Sutton won 20 games only once (he had a 21-10 record in 1976), but won at least 15 games a dozen times. He is tied for 14th place in career wins with Nolan Ryan and ranked seventh in both strikeouts, with 3,574, and innings, with 5,282.1, and third in games started with 756.

He holds the Dodger team records not only for career wins but also for strikeouts (2,696), starts (533), shutouts (52), home runs surrendered (309) and losses (181).

“I never wanted to be a superstar or the highest-paid player,” Sutton told Baseball Digest in 1985. All he wanted, he said, was to be “consistent, dependable and you could count on me.”

Donald Howard Sutton was born on April 2, 1945, in Clio, Ala., a small city in the southeast part of the state. His father, Charlie Howard Sutton, was a sharecropper who later worked in construction and became a concrete expert. His mother was Lillian (McKnight) Sutton. The Suttons moved to Molino, in the Florida panhandle, when Don was 5.

Sutton had known he wanted to pitch from childhood, when he was a Yankee fan.

“My mother used to worry about my imaginary friends, ’cause I would be out in the yard playing ball,” he said at his Hall of Fame induction. “She worried because she didn’t know a Mickey, or a Whitey, or a Yogi, or a Moose, or an Elston, but I played with them every day.”

Sutton learned to throw a curveball before his 13th birthday. He excelled in high school and pitched at Gulf Coast Community College, in Panama City, Fla., and Whittier College in California before signing with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1964.

His 23-7 record for the Dodgers’ Class A and Double A minor-league teams in 1965 led to his promotion to the major leagues the next season.

As a rookie, he had a 12-12 record with a 2.99 earned run average but did not pitch in the World Series, when the Baltimore Orioles swept the Dodgers in four games. Eight years later, he had two victories over the Pittsburgh Pirates when the Dodgers won the 1974 National League Championship Series, and one in the Dodgers’ subsequent World Series loss to Oakland.

In 15 N.L.C.S. and World Series games with the Dodgers, Brewers and Angels, he had a 6-4 record and a 3.68 earned run average.

Sutton was not an overpowering pitcher, but he mastered the curveball and changed speeds effectively on all his pitches. He was accused by rivals of doctoring the ball, as was another Hall of Fame pitcher, Gaylord Perry. In 1976, when Sutton had a perfect game through seven and a third innings, the Pirates asked umpires to stop the game several times to determine if Sutton was adulterating the ball.

“It’s been going on for years,” Sutton said afterward. “It’s become traditional. I’m the most accused and least convicted pitcher in baseball.”

Dave Parker, the Pirates’ right fielder, who broke up that perfect game in the eighth inning with a home run, said that Sutton “was getting a lot of abnormal movement” on his pitches.

“It wasn’t a curve and it wasn’t a screwball,” he said. “But it was falling off the table.”

Sutton surrendered one more hit, and the Dodgers won, 5-1, bringing his record to 15-9.

He left the Dodgers to sign with the Houston Astros as a free agent in 1980. He was traded to the Brewers in 1982, to the A’s in 1984 and to the Angels in 1985, remaining with them until returning to the Dodgers for his final season.

Sutton’s survivors include his wife, Mary; his son, Daron; and two daughters, Staci and Jacquie.

After he retired, Sutton spent most of his time as an Atlanta Braves broadcaster, known mostly for his easygoing manner and sharp-eyed analysis of the Braves’ pitching staff, which included the future Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.

Sutton missed the 2019 season with a fractured left femur and did not return to the Braves’ broadcast booth.

“This ball club is amazing, and I feel left out because I’m not there to watch it firsthand,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution during his convalescence. “It’s been nearly 60 years that I’ve been going to the ballpark every day in the summer.”

MLB Pitcher, North Jersey Baseball Icon Tom Acker Dies At 90

Tom Acker, the pitcher from Fair Lawn who spent four years with the Cincinnati Reds, has died. His impact on NJ baseball is lasting.

Montana Samuels
Patch.com
Monday, January 11, 2021 at 12:19 pm ET

NARVON, PA — North Jersey baseball legend Tom Acker, who pitched for four seasons with the Cincinnati Redlegs — now the Reds — died at his home in Narvon, Pennsylvania Jan. 4.

He was 90 years old.

Acker was a star at Fair Lawn High School, where, in 2006, he was inducted into the Fair Lawn Athletics Hall of Fame.

He was well on his way to a career in the big leagues, when, in 1951, he was drafted into the United States Army.

Acker eventually made it to professional baseball, pitching for four seasons in Cincinnati.

According to Baseball-Reference, he appeared in 153 games throughout the course of his career, acquiring 19 wins while appearing mostly out of the bullpen. He finished his career with a 4.12 ERA.

Acker later returned to Bergen County, where, according to Northjersey.com, he built a home in Wyckoff while playing semi-pro ball for the Paterson Phillies and Emerson-Westwood Merchants.

Born in Paterson, but raised in Fair Lawn, Acker also lived in Wyckoff and Mahwah.

After his pro days he worked as a pari-mutuel clerk before becoming a supervisor with the NJ Sports & Exposition Authority and Meadowlands Racetrack, according to an obituary.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two children, Nancy Acker and Janice Crowther; three step-children, Kenneth Okken, Dwayne Okken and Glenn Okken; two grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.

All in-person services are private, but the family has listed a Zoom link to join virtually.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Fair Lawn Police Department.

Donald Eugene Leppert Sr.

Canale Funeral Directors
January 7, 2021

Donald Eugene Leppert, Sr., passed away January 5, 2021. Don was born November 20, 1930 to Charles R. and Evelyn Vance Leppert in Memphis, Tennessee. He is preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Charlotte Lowery Leppert, by his parents, and his siblings James Leppert, Gary Leppert, and Dorothy Ann Leppert. He is survived by his brother, Charles R. (Billy and Carol) Leppert, Jr., his six children, Donn Leppert (Chris Sterling), David Leppert (Angie), Paul Leppert, Tommy Leppert (Debbie), Mark Leppert (Lori), and Amy Taylor (Brian). He had 13 grandchildren; Jacob, Dawn, Thomas, Karmen, Zachary, Tim, Jennifer, Lexi, Jasmine, Seth, Emily, Lydia, Nathan, and 5 great-grandchildren; Nathan, Carter, Charlotte, Penelope, Lucille.

Don and Charlotte were married for 67 years. Don was with the Air Force National Guard, played second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles in 1955, VP for Vann’s Baking Company here is Memphis, and retired from Chattanooga Bakery. Most importantly, Don was part of the Saturday Night Group, the tightest group of friends that is rarely seen today. Don was a resident at Silvercreek Assisted Living Community in Olive Branch, MS and loved by all. He was an avid golfer, hunter, and fisherman.

A family funeral Mass will be celebrated at noon on Friday at St. Brigid Catholic Church.

Pedro González "The Great Captain" passed away this Sunday

CDN.com
January 10, 2021

In the majors he played for the New York Yankees
Santo Domingo. - Remembered for his great leadership within the Tigres del Licey, as a player, and one of the best defenders of second base in the history of Dominican baseball, Pedro González, died this Sunday in his native San Pedro de Macorís.

Reportedly, he died of lung problems at 84 years of age after being hospitalized for 5 days at the De León Medical Center, where his death occurred.

He was the father of 5 children, he lived in San Pedro de Macorís, on General Cabral Avenue 104.

He played 13 seasons in the Dominican ball, 10 with the Tigres del Licey, two with the Estrellas Orientales and one with the Leones del Escogido.

It was the Dominican no. 12 to debut in the majors. He played for the New York Yankees, a team that signed him as an amateur and with whom he made his debut at the age of 25, on April 11, 1963, becoming the first Dominican to play for the bronx mules in the big top.

He was traded on May 10, 1965 to the Cleveland Indians by first baseman Ray Brker staying with the Indians until 1967.

In his career in the majors he hit .244 / .282 / .313 with eight homers, 70 RBIs, 22 stolen bases, 264 hits of which 53 were extra-base hits in 1,084 at-bats.

In the Dominican Republic, playing for the Tigres del Licey, he was part of three blue championships playing for the felines from 1957 until the 1968-69 season. He then played with the Stars in 1970-71, then with the Leones del Escogido for the 1971-1972 campaign and ended his career in the next tournament returning with the Eastern Stars.

His numbers at LIDOM: In 2,519 at-bats, he hit .272 with 22 homers and 213 RBIs.

In 1983-1984 he was the first leader in the history of the Azucareros del Este, today Toros.

He was inducted into the Dominican sports hall of fame in 1982.

Tommy Lasorda, Dodgers icon, dead at 93

Don Burke
The New York Post
January 8, 2021 11:53am

Tommy Lasorda, who claimed to “bleed Dodger blue” from the moment he entered the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in 1949 and decades later became the colorful and very successful manager of the transplanted Los Angeles Dodgers, with which he won two World Series titles, died Thursday night. Lasorda was 93.

The Dodgers announced Friday that Lasorda suffered sudden cardiac arrest at his home in Fullerton, Calif., and was rushed to the hospital. He was pronounced dead at 10:57 p.m.

“Words can not express my feelings,” former Mets manager Bobby Valentine tweeted. “A friend and mentor for 52 years is no longer with us. Tommy no one will ever fill the void you left. Thank you for everything. R.I.P.”

Lasorda had just been released from the hospital Tuesday after being admitted in mid-November for undisclosed reasons.

In October, he was at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, in his role as a special adviser to team chairman Mark Walter to watch the Dodgers beat the Rays and win their first world championship since his 1988 team, highlighted by Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run off Dennis Eckersley, accomplished the feat.

In 20 seasons as Dodgers manager (1977-96), Lasorda led the franchise to two world championships (1981, 1988), four National League pennants and eight division titles.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997 in his first year of eligibility and, at the time of his death, was the Hall’s oldest living member.

Not bad for a left-handed pitcher who appeared in just 26 big league games over parts of three seasons with the Dodgers and Kansas City Athletics. Lasorda, who originally signed with his hometown Phillies, made eight appearances for Brooklyn in 1954 and 1955, then was sent to the minors in June 1955, when the Dodgers brought up an 18-year-old lefty named Sandy Koufax.

“When [general manager] Buzzie [Bavasi] told me I was going down, I told him he was crazy,” Lasorda told MLB.com in 2005. “That guy couldn’t hit a barn door from 50 feet and I won 20 games [in the minors]. So truthfully I can say that it took the greatest left-hander in the history of the game to replace me.

Lasorda made his lone start for Brooklyn on May 5, 1955. He was removed following the first inning after throwing three wild pitches and being spiked on a play at home plate when St. Louis’ Wally Moon scored on that third wild pitch. Lasorda was sent to the minors, where he had a long career, soon after and never pitched for the Dodgers again.

Following his playing career — which also included a stop with the Yankees’ Triple-A team in Denver, where he came under the influence of Bears manager Ralph Houk — Lasorda became a scout for the Dodgers, then worked his way up through the minor league coaching ranks before being named the Dodgers’ third-base coach in 1973.

Following the 1976 season, Lasorda replaced Hall of Famer Walter Alston as Dodgers manager and quickly began carving his own path toward Cooperstown, winning pennants in his first two seasons, when his teams fell to the Yankees in the World Series. During his tenure, he guided nine players to NL Rookie of the Year honors, among them Steve Howe, Fernando Valenzuela, Steve Sax and Mike Piazza.

He also befriended presidents and scores of Hollywood stars — including Frank Sinatra, Don Rickles, Milton Berle and Robert Wagner — and photos of his famous friends filled the walls of his Dodger Stadium office.

“I tell you, only in this great nation of ours could the third-string pitcher on the Norristown, Pennsylvania, high school team, the son of an Italian immigrant, be friends with some of the greatest entertainers in the world,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1984.

“I am the only general manager in baseball,” former Dodgers general manager Al Campanis once said, “who, when he wants to reach his manager, has to call either the Oval Office at the White House, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas or Lasorda’s restaurant in Exton, Pennsylvania.”

In between photo ops, Lasorda managed 3,038 major league games, winning 1,599. While he was known for his salty language at the ballpark, his wife, Jo, claimed neither she nor their children had ever heard that side of her husband. Lasorda’s off-color diatribe when a reporter asked what he thought of Dave Kingman after the Cubs slugger had hit three homers and driven in eight runs in a 1978 Dodgers loss remains a classic.

“What’s my opinion of Kingman’s performance?,” Lasorda said. “What the [expletive] do you think my opinion is of it? I think it was [expletive]. Put that in. I don’t [expletive] care. What’s my opinion of his performance? [Expletive.] He beat us with three [expletive] home runs.

“What the [expletive] do you mean, what is my opinion of his performance? How can you ask me a question like that? I’m [expletive] off to lose a [expletive] game, and you ask me my opinion of his performance?”

Lasorda’s last game came on June 23, 1996, a 4-3 win over the Astros. The following day, he drove himself to the hospital, where he learned he was having a heart attack. He retired five weeks later.

Lasorda came out of retirement to manage the United States national team to a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, beating the heavily favored team from Cuba. He is the only man to manage a team to a World Series title and an Olympic gold medal.

Thomas Charles Lasorda was born Sept. 22, 1927, in Norristown, Pa., the second of five sons born to Sabatino and Carmella Lasorda.

He was a boyhood friend of Vincent Piazza, the father of Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza. Lasorda is godfather to Thomas Piazza, Mike’s younger brother, and it was Lasorda who lobbied for the Dodgers to take the unknown Mike Piazza in the 62nd round of the 1988 draft, the 1,390th player selected.

Lasorda is survived by his wife of 70 years, Jo, a daughter, Laura, and a granddaughter. His son, Thomas Jr., died in 1991.

A tireless supporter of various charities, Lasorda spent many of his offseasons traveling from coast to coast raising money. While he commanded five-figure speaking fees from corporate clients, he said he “never took a dime” from churches or schools.

“I feel I owe the people something,” he once said. “I want to get out and spread the word about the Dodgers and baseball. … You might say it’s like putting something back in the pot. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

John Higgins
Sept. 16, 1955 - Dec. 21, 2020

Published in Times Herald-Record from Dec. 30, 2020 to Jan. 1, 2021.

Newburgh, New York
John Lawrence Higgins, also known as "Higgs," passed away Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, in Newburgh, N.Y., due to COVID-19. He was 65.

Raised in Grosse Pointe, John graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School in 1973. Together with the guys in his class, Higgs could always be found at a baseball diamond or cruising the streets in a friend's orange Mustang.

Higgs traveled to Northern Michigan University to follow his love of playing baseball; there he found his true love – baseball umpiring. He attended the Bill Kinnamon Umpire School in St. Petersburg, Fla., and began his umpiring career in the Gulf Coast League in 1977. He spent 12 years working in Minor League Baseball. Higgs did get to the Major Leagues for one game in 1991 – he worked home plate on opening day in Toronto. He also called five games at the start of the 1995 season. Higgs enjoyed umpiring so much during his early years that he traveled to South America and Puerto Rico to umpire winter ball. He also was an instructor at the Kinnamon School, where he found another love, Anne Butler Montgomery.
John and Anne married and settled in Phoenix.

Higgs left umpiring and began a career in his second love – cooking. He attended the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and served as chef at a number of restaurants. He also ran the restaurant and catering facilities at Arizona's Bank One Ballpark and Sun Devil Stadium.

John was predeceased by his parents, Joseph and Rosalie Higgins; brother, Brian; and sister, Peggy Staudt. John is survived by his siblings, Craig, Molly Brooks and Anne; many cousins, nieces and nephews; and an immeasurable number of friends.

Higgs' family said he touched many lives and everyone who knew him has a Higgs story; he will be missed by many, but not forgotten.
Celebrating the life of George Spriggs

2020 claims another trailblazer.

By Bradford Lee
RoyalsReview.com
December 30, 2020, 10:02am EST

Baseball and Royals Nation lost one of the last trailblazers when George Spriggs passed away on December 22nd at the age of 83, according to his family. Spriggs was on the inaugural Royals team in 1969 and is the only player in club history who once played in the Negro Leagues.

George Spriggs was born on May 22, 1937 in Jewell, Maryland and spent all his early life in the Jewell-Tracy’s Landing section of Maryland. The area is the last piece of open rural space between Washington D.C. and the Chesapeake Bay. A terrific high school athlete, George graduated from Wiley Bates High School in Annapolis and signed a professional contract with the Kansas City Monarchs, who were one of the premier Negro League teams of the day.

Before he could make his mark with the Monarchs, he was called away for a two-year hitch in the United States Army, which was spent in Germany. Once discharged from Uncle Sam, Spriggs signed and played with the Detroit Stars, with his last appearance coming in 1962.

A scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates signed the then 25-year-old Spriggs and assigned him to their Class A squad in Reno, Nevada. George was 26 when the 1963 season began and truthfully, had no right to be in Class A. Based on his talent and service in the Negro Leagues, George should have been at least in AAA. Regardless, he went to work on Class A pitching, putting up an outstanding slash line of .319/.452/.435, collecting 145 hits and 107 walks, while stealing 44 bases. His on-base percentage of .452 is just outstanding at any level of play.

In 1964, the Pirates bumped him to AA Ashville (N.C.) and it was more of the same: .322/.404/.483 with 164 hits, 70 walks, and a league leading 33 stolen bases.

George started the 1965 season at AAA Columbus and got a late-season callup to the Pirates. He made his debut on September 15, 1965 in a game against St. Louis Cardinals at Forbes Field. He entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch runner for Del Crandall, who had singled. The next batter, Jim Pagliaroni stroked a double as George blazed around the bases, scoring the Pirates’ first run of the game.

George collected his first hit as a Pirate on September 20 in a game against the New York Mets at Forbes. He came on as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, and in the bottom of the inning, stroked a Carl Willey pitch into left field for a single.

George once again spent most of 1966 in Columbus. It certainly wasn’t due to his talent. Unfortunately for George, Pittsburgh had two Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell in front of George. Their third outfielder was Matty Alou, who hit .342 in 1966. Their fourth outfielder was Many Mota, who in 116 games hit a robust .332. The 1966 Pirates went on to a 92-70 record and were loaded with excellent outfielders. Once again, George got a late-season call up, getting into nine games for the Pirates.

George continued to excel at Columbus, using his speed to swipe a league-leading 66 bases in 1965 and 46 more in 1968.

Opportunity knocked in October of 1968 when the expansion Kansas City Royals purchased Spriggs’ contract from the Pirates. Royals manager Joe Gordon said of George: “He definitely can help us. He slaps the ball around, plays the outfield all right and learns quickly. He’s a good guy to have on the club.”

By the time George played his first game in a Royals uniform, he was almost 32, an age when most players are ending their careers. Not George. He got the start in left field and collected his first hit as a Royal in a game at Oakland on April 13 with a sixth inning single against John “Blue Moon” Odom, another alum of the Negro Leagues. After hitting just .158 in limited duty, the Royals optioned George to AAA Omaha, where once again he put up sparkling numbers, hitting .311 with an on-base percentage of .382.

Spriggs, now 33, again made the Royals opening day roster in 1970. George had his best game as a Royal on April 17 in a game at California. Batting leadoff and playing right field, Spriggs stroked four hits in five at bats. He also scored three runs and recorded five putouts in leading the Royals to a 7-5 victory. Spriggs was hitting .261 in limited action when Kansas City optioned him to Omaha on April 25. He once again produced terrific numbers at the AAA level: .301/.374/.500 which were good enough to be named the American Association Most Valuable Player.

The Royals brought him back on August 15 and he stroked his first and only big-league home run on September 21 against the White Sox Joe Horlen in a game played in Chicago at Comiskey Park. His last hit as a Royal, and in the big leagues, came on September 29, 1970, when he slashed a first inning single against the Minnesota Twins Jim Perry in a game at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City.

By 1971, the Royals were flush with young outfielders and sold George’s contract to the New York Mets. He suffered a knee injury which ended his 1971 season but rehabbed and came back to play 41 games for Tidewater in 1972, before retiring at the age of 35.

In retirement, George returned to his home in Maryland. He built a baseball field behind his house, named Geno’s Field, for his son Geno, who was playing in the Pirates organization when he was tragically killed in an auto accident.

George Spriggs. A proud man and a terrific baseball player who overcame many obstacles to succeed in the sport he loved. One of the last pioneers, George was among the last five men to make the jump from the Negro Leagues to the Major Leagues. George Spriggs was the only alumni of the Negro Leagues to play for the Kansas City Royals. George left a lasting legacy as he moves onto that Field of Dreams in the sky.

Former Montreal Expos pitcher Derek Aucoin has died of cancer at age 50

The Canadian Press
Sunday, December 27, 2020 11:36AM EST

MONTREAL -- Former Montreal Expos Major League Baseball pitcher Derek Aucoin died of brain cancer on Saturday night.
 
He was 50 years old.

"There are very few words to express the deep pain and sorrow that lives in us as our handsome Derek left us peacefully surrounded by love," his wife Isabelle and son Dawson said in a statement Sunday morning.

"For 18 months, he had been resiliently fighting a hard fight against glioblastoma multiforme. Despite this merciless cancer, he lived in the gratitude of the present moment as only he could.

"We thank you for respecting our privacy during these difficult times."

Hall-of-famer Tim Raines tweeted his condolences.

"I always enjoyed my time with him," Raines wrote. "A great baseball man."

My deepest condolences to the family of @aucoinderek. I always enjoyed my time with him. A great baseball man. https://t.co/nUyqTlgImL pic.twitter.com/emVujQMHtW
— Tim Raines (@TimRaines30) December 27, 2020

The family also indicated that details will be communicated to celebrate Aucoin's life.

A native of Lachine, Quebec, Aucoin was part of the Montreal organization from 1989, including two trips to the mound with the Expos in 1996.

ExposNation est attristé d'apprendre le décès de l'ancien lanceur des Expos et partisan d'Exposnation, Derek Aucoin. Il a touché la vie de tant de gens. Nous offrons nos plus sincères condoléances à son épouse Isabelle et à son fils Dawson. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/D6vpPLTVJ9
— ExposNation (@ExposNation) December 27, 2020

In two and two-thirds innings he allowed one run and three hits, with one walk and one strikeout.

He also worked in branches of the New York Mets in 1998.

Aucoin was the subject of the book "Derek Aucoin, La Tete Haute" by Benoit Rioux, published in April 2020.

Phil Niekro, Hall of Fame Knuckleball Pitcher, Dies at 81

A five-time all-star, he played in the major leagues for 24 seasons, but never made it to the World Series.

By Richard Goldstein
The New York Times
December. 27, 2020

Phil Niekro, the Hall of Fame pitcher who confounded batters with his fluttering knuckleballs for 24 seasons, winning 318 games, mostly with mediocre Atlanta Braves teams, before retiring at the ripe age of 48, died on Saturday. He was 81.

His death, after a struggle with cancer, was announced by the Braves. He lived in Flowery Branch, Ga., about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta, but the Braves did not say where he died.

Niekro joined with his younger brother, Joe, who also threw knuckleballs and pitched in the majors for 21 seasons, to record 539 career wins, a record for two brothers. The previous mark, 529, had been held by Gaylord Perry, also a Hall of Famer, and his brother Jim.

A right-hander, like his brother, Phil Niekro (pronounced NEEK-row) threw a total of 5,404 innings, placing him No. 4 on the major league career list, without ever incurring a sore arm, allowing him to endure in Major League Baseball far longer than most other players.

He tied Andy Messersmith in the National League for the most victories in 1974, when he was 20-13, and he tied Joe for the most wins in 1979, when he went 21-20 (also losing the most games in the league). Joe was 21-11 that season with the Houston Astros.

Phil, who retired after the 1987 season, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. But for all of his achievements, he never made it to a World Series, his Braves teams reaching only the National League Championship Series twice, losing both times. Phil pitched for four teams and Joe for seven. They were teammates with the Braves in 1973 and ’74 and briefly with the Yankees in 1985.

Phil’s knuckleballs were actually thrown with two fingernails, which he allowed to grow unnaturally long. He pressed them into the baseball’s seams, held his wrist stiff and essentially pushed the baseball forward.

The idea was to deliver the pitches with no spin, allowing air currents to make them break up or down, in or out, at the last moment, keeping hitters off balance but often bedeviling his catchers as well.

Bob Uecker, who caught for Niekro in 1967, when Niekro was emerging as a leading pitcher, told Sports Illustrated in 1969 what that was like, drawing on the wry persona that he would later put to use as a baseball broadcaster.

“In those days, Phil had less control,” Uecker said. “Sometimes I’d know before he let go of it that it was going to get by me. I’d just start running and play it off the wall. At least I got to know a lot of the folks in the box seats.”

Niekro himself was not one to explicate his knuckleball, telling Sports Illustrated in 1994: “Nobody has ever given me a good, definite explanation as to why the ball does what it does. The thing that I feel sort of guilty about is that with every other pitch, you try to make the ball do something, spin it to make it curve or sink or sail. All I try to do is make the ball do nothing.”

Philip Henry Niekro was born on April 1, 1939, in Blaine, Ohio, a few miles from his family’s home in Lansing. He was the middle of three children of Joseph Niekro, a coal miner, and Henrietta (Klinkoski) Niekro.

The senior Niekro, who threw a knuckleball pitching in sandlot baseball, taught the pitch to Phil when he was 11 years old or so. (Joe, five years Phil’s junior, was too young to try it back then.) Phil threw his knuckleball and played basketball in high school and was signed by the Milwaukee Braves organization out of a tryout camp in July 1958 for a $500 bonus (about $4,500 in today’s money).

He made his major league debut with the Braves in 1964 and pitched almost exclusively in relief until 1967, the franchise’s second season in Atlanta, when he made 20 starts and led the N.L. in earned run average, at 1.87, while going 11-9.

Niekro was a four-time All-Star with the Braves, who released him after the 1983 season. He won 16 games for the Yankees in both 1984, when he was an All-Star once more, and in 1985, before being released by them as well.

He later pitched for the Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays before the Braves brought him back as their starter for their last home game of the 1987 season. He pitched into the fourth inning of a loss to the San Francisco Giants in his final major league appearance.

Niekro had a career record of 318-274 with an earned run average of 3.35, struck out a league-leading 262 batters in 1977 and led the N.L. in complete games and innings pitched four times. He pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in 1973 and had a league-leading winning percentage of .810 in 1982, when he was 17-4. He received a Gold Glove award for his fielding five times.

Joe Niekro, who pitched for 11 of his 22 seasons with the Astros, had a career mark of 221-204.

After his pitching career, Niekro was the manager and general manager of the Colorado Silver Bullets, a barnstorming women’s baseball team that played against men’s ball clubs, and he managed for the Braves in the minors.

His survivors include his wife, Nancy; his sons John, Philip and Michael; and two grandchildren. Joe Niekro died of a brain aneurysm in 2006 at 61.

Niekro recorded his 300th career victory pitching for the Yankees against the Blue Jays on the final day of the 1985 regular season, stopping them 8-0.

He threw fastballs, curves, screwballs and even “blooper” pitches — not a single knuckleball — until Tony Fernandez had doubled with two out in the ninth inning.

“I always wanted to pitch a whole game without throwing knuckleballs because people thought I couldn’t get people out without throwing them,” Niekro told The New York Times after that game, which he ended by striking out Jeff Burroughs on three knucklers.

As he put it, “I figured there was no other way to finish the game than using the pitch that got me there.”

James William Harris
1943-2020

Watson-King Funeral Home
December 22, 2020

James William “Bill” Harris passed away suddenly December 20, 2020 at his home in Hampstead, NC. He was born November 24, 1943 to James T. Harris Jr and Janet Jones Harris, he was 77 years old. Bill was born and raised in Hamlet, NC.

He was a four-sport standout athlete earning 13 letters at Hamlet High School before graduating in 1962. He was offered a scholarship to play baseball and Basketball at what was then Wilmington College, known as the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. While at Wilmington College Bill was proud to be part of the Baseball team that won the National Junior College Championship in 1963. Ultimately he went on to play professional baseball with the Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals.

Bill was honored and inducted into the UNCW Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 where he swapped stories of long bus rides to play games and the thrill of batting .667 in the JUCO World Series earning All-Tournament honors. He was an active supporter of UNCW baseball and athletics, he was a true Seahawk at heart. His love of sports was immense but above all else was his love for family and friends. He worked at Thomas Bait and Tackle in Topsail Island, NC for many years and loved helping customers and making them laugh. To know Bill was to love him, he made a tremendous impact to all he knew. His health issues of these last few years did not deter him from being his usual cheerful self. He never met a stranger. He will be sorely missed.

He is survived by his son James William Harris Jr. and Daughter-in-law Sherri Harris, grandsons Andrew James Harris and Joseph Jackson Harris of Lillington, NC; his sister Betty Carter and brother-in-law Ernest of Hamlet, NC; niece Renee Grzybowski of Hamlet, NC and son Alex wife Melissa and son Eric; niece Annette Peck and Husband Phillip of High Point, NC and their daughter Savannah and son Mitchell.

Preceded in Death by his parents James T. Harris, Jr. and Janet Jones Harris
In lieu of flowers memorial may be made to William “Bill” Harris SSA Scholarship Endowment at UNCW.
Address; UNCW 601 S. College Rd. Wilmington, NC. 28403-5905

Graveside service will be held Monday December 28, 2020 at Mary Love Cemetery in Hamlet, NC at 2:00. Please follow social distancing guidelines. Watson-King funeral home in Hamlet is caring for the family.


Denis Menke, 1993 Phillies hitting coach, dies at 80

Matt Breen
The Philadelphia Inquirer
12/8/2020

Denis Menke, a three-time All Star and the hitting coach for the 1993 National League champion Phillies, died earlier this month. He was 80.

Mr. Menke, who died on Dec. 1, played 13 major-league seasons for the Braves, Astros, and Reds before becoming a coach. He started all seven games of the 1972 World Series as Cincinnati’s third baseman as the Big Red Machine fell to Oakland. Mr. Menke was an All Star in 1969 and 1970 with Houston, hitting a career-high .304 in 1970 for the Astros. He retired in 1974 with a .250 career batting average and 1,270 hits.

Mr. Menke was the Phillies hitting coach from 1989 to 1996 and was lauded for having an individual approach. He wore No. 4 until midway through his first season when the Phillies acquired Lenny Dykstra, who would take Mr. Menke’s number and become one of the catalysts for the offensive juggernaut Mr. Menke presided over in 1993.

The 1993 Phillies led the National League in hits, runs, doubles, RBIs, walks, extra-base, total bases, on-base percentage, and OPS. Four players drove in 85 or more runs, four players hit 18 or more homers, and eight players had 100 or more hits as the Phillies returned to the World Series for the first time in 10 years.

Mr. Menke is the third member of the 1993 team to die this year. Bullpen coach “Irish” Mike Ryan died in July and infielder Kim Batiste died in October. Larry Bowa, who coached third base, is the only living member of the team’s seven-member coaching staff.

Mr. Menke coached with the Blue Jays and Astros before joining the Phillies. He returned to Cincinnati, where he played two seasons, and was the Reds’ bench coach from 1997 to 2000. Mr. Menke retired in 2000, 41 years after he signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $125,000 as a 17-year-old in 1959.

“I’ve been very fortunate in my life. Baseball has been really good to me,” Menke told MLB.com in 2014. “Things happen. You’re surprised by things, but then you realize that life has to go on. That’s kind of the way I look at it. I still enjoy life.”

“I wouldn’t have changed anything. Grew up on a farm, entered baseball when I was 17 years old, and 40 years later I decided it was finally time to get out. I really did get out on my own terms. After the 2000 season in Cincinnati, I knew it was time to get out. It was a little harder for me to be around some of the high-priced players and the so-called superstars. And I decided it was time to get out. The scout who signed me said if you ever get tired to the point you’re not enjoying the game, it’s time to get out. And that’s what I did.”

Phil Linz, Unlikely Baseball Celebrity, Is Dead at 81

Never a star and rarely a starter as a Yankee in the 1960s, Linz made news not for playing baseball but for playing the harmonica.

By Richard Goldstein
The New York Times
Published Dec. 10, 2020Updated Dec. 14, 2020

Phil Linz played on three World Series teams with the Yankees in the 1960s and spent seven seasons in the major leagues.

But he was remembered mostly for playing the harmonica.

Linz was usually a fill-in at shortstop, third base or second base, and occasionally in the outfield, bringing him the nickname Supersub. But in the summer of 1964 he briefly became a baseball celebrity of sorts.

On the afternoon of Aug. 20, the Yankees were on the team bus heading to O’Hare Airport in Chicago for a flight to Boston to play the Red Sox after losing four straight games to the White Sox while in a tight pennant race.

Linz was sitting at the rear of the bus practicing on a harmonica he had bought earlier in the road trip.

It came with a learner’s sheet, and the first tune was “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Manager Yogi Berra, seated up front, was hardly in the mood for frivolity in view of the Yankees’ slump and shouted toward the back of the bus, “Shove that harmonica up!”

“I wasn’t sure what he said,” Linz told USA Today in 2013.

So he sought help from Mickey Mantle, who was sitting across from him. “I asked, ‘What did he say, Mickey?’”

Mantle, quick to seize an opportunity for a practical joke, told him that Berra had said, “Play it louder.”

So Linz played on.

Berra charged toward Linz, who either flipped his harmonica toward him or had it swatted away by Berra; accounts differ.

“I went in and apologized to Yogi the next day, told him it was disrespectful, shook hands and promised it would never happen again,” Linz remembered. “Yogi said, ‘I still got to fine you.’ He fined me $250. It was all right. I was making $14,000.”

By then, the New York sportswriters who were on the Yankee bus had filed stories describing the episode, and The Associated Press had spread its account to newspapers throughout the country.

Two weeks later, Hohner, the company that had manufactured the offending harmonica, offered Linz $10,000 to endorse its brand. Linz gladly accepted.

Linz’s son, Philip, said he died on Wednesday at a rehabilitation center in Leesburg, Va., where he was being treated for Parkinson’s disease and dementia. He was 81.

After the harmonica incident, the Yankees went on to post a 22-6 record in September, their pitching buttressed by the arrival of Mel Stottlemyre, who went 9-3 following his August call-up from the minors, as well as by Whitey Ford’s recovery from a bruised heel and the September acquisition of the Cleveland Indians’ Pedro Ramos, who was credited with eight saves.

With a rotation that also included Jim Bouton and Al Downing, the Yankees won the American League pennant, finishing one game ahead of the White Sox.

Linz — who often played shortstop that season in place of Tony Kubek, who was limited by back and neck injuries and then sprained a wrist — started against the St. Louis Cardinals in every game of the World Series. He hit two home runs, one off the intimidating Bob Gibson, but the Yankees lost to the Cards in seven games.

Berra, the longtime Yankee catcher who was a future Hall of Famer and a beloved figure in the baseball world, was fired as manager the day after the Series ended and replaced by Johnny Keane, the Cardinals’ manager. Ralph Houk, the Yankees’ general manager, gave no reason for the stunning moves. (The Yankees, heading into some lean times, would not appear in another World Series for 12 years.)

Philip Francis Linz was born on June 4, 1939, in Baltimore, the son of Ben and Frances Linz. His father was a mechanic for Bethlehem Steel. He was signed by the Yankee organization out of high school and made his debut with the team in April 1962.

The Yankees traded Linz to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1965 season. The Phillies sent him to the Mets in July 1967 (by then Berra was a coach for the Mets), and he retired after the 1968 season with a career batting average of .235 and 11 home runs.

In addition to his son, Linz is survived by his wife, Lynn (Parker) Linz, a former flight attendant, and a grandson. Two sisters died before him.

After his playing days, Linz joined with Art Shamsky, his former Mets teammate, as owners of a popular restaurant and night spot, Mr. Laffs, at First Avenue and 64th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He kept the business going for more than 20 years.

“It became the postgame destination for Knicks and Rangers and all those who basked in their reflected glory,” Sports Illustrated recalled in 2005.

Linz also sold insurance in Manhattan while living in Stamford, Conn. He appeared at baseball shows over the years to retell the story of an ordinary ballplayer and his famous harmonica.

When the Yankees’ 1965 yearbook came out, Linz had an encore for Yankee fans. In an advertisement paid for by Hohner, he was depicted on the back cover in his Yankee uniform with a harmonica. The caption read, “Play It Again, Phil.”

Billy DeMars, 1948 Athletic and 1980 Phillies champ, dies

Matt Rappa
FanSided.com
December 10, 2020

Former Phillies coach Billy DeMars, a member of the 1980 World Series championship team, has passed away at 95.

The oldest living Philadelphia Phillies alumnus, Billy DeMars — a member of their coaching staff across the 1969-81 seasons, and specifically the hitting coach on the 1980 World Series championship team — passed away at the age of 95 Thursday morning at his home in Clearwater, Florida.

Fellow 1980 champion Larry Bowa, the team’s starting shortstop, first shared the news on social media. “This is one of my toughest days yet. We lost another Phillies family member, Billy DeMars,” Bowa said. “Besides my dad, he was the most influential coach in my baseball career.”

“Without Billy’s help, I don’t think I would have made it to the big leagues,” Bowa continued. “Rest easy my friend.”

DeMars’ passing comes just days after the passings of Denis Menke — fellow former Phillies hitting coach and 1993 National League champion — as well as the legendary Dick Allen.

Bob Miller, the second-to-last living 1950 Phillies Whiz Kid, also recently passed at the age of 94.

DeMars played three seasons in the majors for the Philadelphia Athletics (1948) and St. Louis Browns (1950-51). A native of Brooklyn, New York, DeMarks fielded second base, third base, and shortstop in his career, and slashed a combined .237/.326/.270 with 50 hits, 14 RBI, 28 walks, and just 16 strikeouts spanning 80 games and 244 plate appearances.

While DeMars’ playing career was short-lived, he went on to have a 19-year coaching career in Major League Baseball — 13 of which with the Phillies, starting in 1969 after spending more than a decade as a Baltimore Orioles minor-league manager.

DeMars was also on the Phillies coaching staff during the 1976, 1977, and 1978 National League East division title seasons. He mentored several Phillies legendary hitters, including Bowa, Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose.

After the 1981 season — the last of four under manager Dallas Green — DeMars went on to join the coaching staffs of the Montreal Expos (1982-84) and Cincinnati Reds (1985-87). Coincidentally, he was on the latter staff under player-manager Rose, just a half-decade after being on the 1980 championship team.

“Following his retirement from full-time coaching, he frequently visited the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla., to continue his tutelage of young Phillies hitters,” the team said in a statement. “Mr. DeMars’ passion for baseball – and, in particular, the art of hitting – was very evident to those who knew him. The Phillies organization sends its condolences to the entire DeMars family.”

Left-handed pitcher Bobby Shantz (95) and infielder Bobby Morgan (94) are now the oldest-living Phillies alumni.

Rest in peace, Billy.

Lorenzo “Chico” Fernandez
(1939-2020)

Sam Gazdziak
Rest In Peace Baseball
December 8, 2020

Chico Fernandez, a utility infielder for the Baltimore Orioles in 1968 has died at the age of 81.

Victor Rojas, an announcer for the Los Angeles Angels, reported on Twitter on November 30, “Lorenzo ‘Chico’ Fernandez passed away this morning. One of the great baseball men the game has ever seen & a true friend to so many in & around the game.”

Additionally, several posts on Facebook from those in the baseball community indicate that Fernandez died from injuries suffered from being struck by a vehicle near his home and later died from his injuries on Thanksgiving day, November 26. He was living in Miami in his retirement.

I just got off the phone with dad and he shared the news Enrique Oliu texted me about…
Lorenzo ‘Chico’ Fernández passed away this morning. One of the great baseball men the game has ever seen & true friend to so many in & around the game. #RIPChico ����
— Victor Rojas (@VictorRojas) November 30, 2020

He is not to be confused with Humberto “Chico” Fernandez, who played from 1956-63 for the Dodgers, Phillies, Tigers and Mets. That Fernandez, who was also born in Havana, was seven years older and died in 2016.

Lorenzo Marto Fernandez Mosquero was born in Havana on April 23, 1939. His father, Lorenzo Sr., was a big baseball fan as well as a well-respected businessman who ran an auto parts company in Havana, so he grew up in a very baseball-friendly home.

Fernandez went to the same high school in Havana that the other Chico Fernandez and Willy Miranda had attended previously. A 1964 article about him stated that Fernandez came to the United States to enroll at Louisiana State University but had to take an eight-week course in English first. During that time, the Detroit Tigers saw him working out with the LSU freshmen baseball team, signed him and sent him to play for the Decatur Commodores of the Midwest League in 1958. “The little shortstop-third baseman speaks little English but always “talks it up” from his position and is one of the finest hustlers in the Midwest League,” reported the Decatur Daily Review in August 1958.

The 19-year-old Fernandez became a popular player in Decatur and hit .285 in his first professional season. He drove in 43 runs and walked 44 times to go with just 36 strikeouts. At the last home game of the season, Fernandez was presented with a watch after being named the most popular player on the team. He then led Decatur to overcome a 7-1 Keokuk lead, hitting a 2-run triple to tie the game and a squeeze bunt to win it.

Playing in Decatur may have saved his life. Lorenzo Sr. reported that soldiers from the Batista regime once searched his house, looking for something. When they couldn’t find what they were looking for, they left. “They could have been looking for Chico,” said Hube Lipe, business manager for the Commodores. He added that Batista’s police had killed thousands of young men in an attempt to intimidate Castro sympathizers during the Cuban Revolution.

In the 1958-59 offseason, Fernandez returned home to play in the Cuban Winter League. He was on the Mariano Tigers team that also included Minnie Minoso, Solly Drake and Bob Shaw, to name a few major leaguers. Fidel Castro took power during this time, and Lipe, who was in Cuba visiting the Fernandez family, was an eyewitness. “Just seeing the happy reactions of the people when they realized there was no longer a dictator was something I’ll never forget,” he added.

Hindsight is 20-20. Fernandez would later make Miami his permanent home rather than return to Castro’s Cuba.

Fernandez remained in the Tigers’ low minors for the next two seasons. Sometimes he would play well and sometimes he struggled, but he was a popular player wherever he went. When he joined the Montgomery Rebels in 1959, it took a while for his bat to warm up. Even so, Montgomery went on a winning streak with him in the lineup, thanks in part to his defense and some timely hitting. The infielder eventually raised his average up to a respectable .264.

A shoulder injury in 1960 derailed what was a sensational season with the Commodores in 1960. Fernandez hit .324 over 56 games and scored 41 runs. After that season, Fernandez found himself on the move frequently. After spending all of 1961 with the Durham Bulls, he split 1962 with AAA teams in Denver (Tigers) and Louisville (Milwaukee Braves). It’s not clear what transaction sent him to the Braves organization for part of a season, but he was back with Detroit to start 1963. He was released and signed by the Chicago White Sox organization in mid-’63. The White Sox became his home for the next several years, as he stayed with the Lynchburg White Sox of the South Atlantic League from 1963 through 1965.

Fernandez hit pretty well in Lynchburg, batting .287 in 1964 and .260 in 1965. Though he had no power, he put on a notable display of defensive wizardry. From the tail end of the 1964 season until July 25, 1965, he had 99 consecutive errorless games. Even more impressively, he did it as a utility infielder, playing all over the infield except first base. It’s one thing to put together an errorless streak at one position; Fernandez had to play flawlessly at second base, third base and shortstop.

The Sox finally moved Fernandez up to the AAA level in 1967, when he was assigned to the Indianapolis Indians. By then, he had spent a full decade in the minor leagues, and most of that at the lower levels of the minors. He’d become a defensive whiz and had a great batting eye, but he had only hit 4 home runs in 10 years’ worth of minor-league games. He hit .251 in Indianapolis and was demoted briefly back to Evansville. The team, as a whole, sent a telegram to the White Sox front office protesting the move. Indianapolis was contending for a pennant in the Pacific Coast League, and the departure of their steady infielder hurt their chances.

By this point, Fernandez was realistic about his hope to play in the big leagues. “I’ll play wherever I can help the club the most. The important thing is that I have my chance at Triple A again, and I want to make the most of the opportunity,” he said before the ’67 season started. He added that he had been approached by several teams to manage in the winter leagues, but they felt he needed more experience at the higher levels of the minors first.

At the end of the 1968 season, the improbable happened. Fernandez was working as a player-coach for the White Sox in the Florida Instructional League in November, and the organization had planned to make him a AA coach and a rookie league manager in 1969. Then the Baltimore Orioles swooped in and paid $12,000 for him in the offseason minor-league draft. Chico Fernandez, who was practically retired, was in the major leagues as a player.

Baltimore scout Jim Frey was the one who recommended that the Orioles sign him. “He has real good hands and a quick, accurate arm… for the big leagues, his bat wouldn’t be much of a threat. But he’s a helluva second baseman,” Frey commented. “Makes the double play great. He could help as a defensive utility man — and he’d be a good defensive man, not just a fill-in.”

“Many, many times I thought of quitting,” Fernandez said. “But I couldn’t go back to Cuba to my folks. Things weren’t normal in Cuba.” Opportunities to make a good salary had become very limited in Cuba. The Castro government took over Lorenzo Sr.’s car parts business, and he had become an employee of his former business. (Fernandez Sr. would eventually make his way to Miami and worked into his 80s as a vice secretary and tour guide for a Cuban baseball museum called La Casa del Baseball Cubano.)

“I can always coach later,” Fernandez added. “My one dream is to play in the majors.”

His dream came true, even if it didn’t work out perfectly. Fernandez spent the entire season on the Orioles’ roster, but he saw relatively little action. He appeared in a total of 24 games, but just 2 of them were starts. He had 2 hits in 18 at-bats for a slash line of .111/.158/.111. When he was on the field, he was used as a shortstop, which was probably his weakest position. He made 1 error in 13 chances for a .923 fielding percentage there. He also had 8-2/3 innings at second base and fielded 3 chances easily.

Fernandez made his major league debut on April 20, in a game where the Orioles were pounding the California Angels 10-1. He came to bat in the top of the eighth inning as a pinch hitter for starting pitcher Tom Phoebus and promptly singled off reliever Bobby Locke. He was then immediately erased on a force out at second base. His next (and last) hit would come almost four months later on August 16. He singled off the Twins’ Jim Kaat in a 5-2 Minnesota victory.

In early August, Orioles reliever John O’Donoghue was demoted, and on his way out the door, he pointed to Fernandez as someone who didn’t deserve to be on the roster. Days later, Fernandez made a beautiful play at second base that gave the Orioles a win over the Twins. With a man on first base and two outs in the ninth inning, he dived to his right to stop a hard grounder by Ted Uhlaender. On his back and facing the outfield, he somehow flipped the ball to shortstop Mark Belanger for the game-ending force play. At a time when the Orioles were in the thick of the postseason race, Fernandez justified his roster spot.

The Orioles made Fernandez a player-coach for the AAA Rochester Red Wings in 1969. He only appeared in four games, and the last one almost turned his baseball dream into a tragedy. He was sent to pinch hit against Tidewater on August 3. He stepped in against pitcher Larry Bearnarth, but without his customary batting helmet with the protective ear flap. He couldn’t find it, so he went out with a helmet that had no flap. Bearnarth let loose with a fastball that sailed up and struck Fernandez below the left ear, fracturing his skull. He was hit right in the spot where the ear flap would have been.

Fernandez underwent emergency brain surgery to remove bone fragments and was unconscious — nearly comatose — for several days. In Montgomery, Ala., the sports editors of the Alabama Journal saw a report that Chico Fernandez was badly injured by a fastball, but they didn’t know which one. Was it “Big Chico,” the one who played for the Tigers and Phillies? No, they learned with dismay that it was “our Chico.” He had played for Montgomery way back in 1959, but he was still a popular presence there whenever his minor-league travels happened to take him into town. Considering how well-traveled Fernandez was, that scene most likely played out in newsrooms across the country.

Nobody — not Rochester Manager Cal Ripken Sr. or Fernandez himself — blamed Bearnarth for the incident. The pitcher left the game following the beaning and accompanied Fernandez to the hospital, in fact.

Fernandez recovered slowly from the injury. An excellent article about the game by SABR member Kurt Blumenau details the recovery. Fernandez had to learn to read and write all over again — both in Spanish and English. His vision wasn’t as good as it once was, and he struggled to remember names of his teammates. He spent a month under observation in a Rochester hospital before he was allowed to travel back to Miami to be with his wife and four children. He had an additional surgery in 1970 to put a metal plate in his head.

“People don’t realize how much I lost that day,” he said in 1970, as he was preparing for a coaching role in Rochester. “I thank God I am able to be here, to be alive, and to be back in baseball,” he added.

The beanball ended Fernandez’ playing career, but Baltimore kept him in their organization for several years. He remained a minor-league instructor for the Orioles through 1976 and occasionally served as an interpreter for the Spanish-speaking players he trained. He joined the Dodgers organization in 1977 as a minor-league coach and roving instructor and remained with the organization for more than 20 years before his retirement.

“When you cannot hit, field and run anymore and God gives you the ability to help move these guys up, it’s a great feeling,” he said of his second career as a baseball teacher.

Former pitcher, Rogelio Moret, member of the Boston Red Sox family, has died

ConlasBasesllenas.com
By Raul Ramos
December 7, 2020

Rogelio Moret was part of the 1975 Boston Red Sox team.
Former Puerto Rican pitcher of the Boston Red Sox, Rogelio Moret died of cancer in Puerto Rico at the age of 71.

Moret is remembered for his good work as a pitcher with the Boston team in the early 1970s. The left-handed pitcher compiled a 41-win-18-loss record with the red-legged. He led the American League in winning percentage in 1975 when he had a record of 14 and 3.

In December 1975, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves for Tom House. He came to the Texas Rangers through a trade, pitched for them for two seasons.

Moret has been battling the demon of mental illness throughout his life.

In nine major league seasons, Rogelio Moret won 47 games and saved 12 with a 3.66 ERA per game in 168 games.

Dick Allen, 78, Dies; Baseball Slugger Withstood Bigotry

One of the game’s best and most honored players in the 1960s and into the ’70s, he nevertheless felt racism’s sting early in his career in Philadelphia.

By Richard Goldstein
The New York Times
December 7, 2020

Dick Allen, who was among baseball’s leading sluggers of the 1960s and early ’70s, playing mostly with the Phillies and Chicago White Sox, but who found himself a target of Philadelphia fans in his early years with the club, an outgrowth of racial animosity, died on Monday in Wampum, Pa. He was 78.

The Phillies announced his death.

Allen, who hit 351 home runs in his 15 major league seasons, was a seven-time All-Star: three times with the Phillies, once with the St. Louis Cardinals and three times with the White Sox. He was named the National League’s rookie of the year in 1964, with the Phillies, and the American League’s most valuable player in 1972, with the White Sox. He batted over .300 seven times, though when he hit .316 with the 1973 Sox a leg injury had shortened his season to 72 games.

The Phillies’ management sought to make amends for the abuse Allen had received from fans in the 1960s. In September the team retired his uniform number, 15.

“Dick will be remembered as not just one of the greatest and most popular players in our franchise’s history, but also as a courageous warrior who had to overcome far too many obstacles to reach the level he did,” the Phillies said in a statement.

Mike Schmidt, the Phillies’ Hall of Fame third baseman, said in a speech at a team ceremony honoring Allen in September that “Dick was a sensitive Black man who refused to be treated as a second-class citizen.”

“He played in front of home fans that were products of that racist era,” Schmidt continued, and alongside “racist teammates” at a time when there were “different rules for whites and Blacks.”

“Fans threw stuff at him,” he said, “and thus Dick wore a batting helmet throughout the whole game. They yelled degrading racial slurs. They dumped trash in his front yard at his home.”

In his first stint with the Phillies, Allen gained a reputation as a difficult personality. He demanded a trade in June 1969 after the team had suspended him for not showing up for a doubleheader against the Mets at Shea Stadium. A month earlier, he had been fined $1,000 for missing a team plane from Philadelphia to St. Louis.

“I wonder how good I could have been,” Allen wrote in his memoir, “Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen” (1989, with Tim Whitaker). “It could have been a joy, a celebration. Instead, I played angry. In baseball, if a couple things go wrong for you, and those things get misperceived, or distorted, you get a label. I was labeled an outlaw, and after a while that’s what I became.”

Allen played with the Phillies from 1963 to 1969 and had a second stint in Philadelphia in 1975 and 1976. He was with the Cardinals in 1970, the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1971, the White Sox from 1972 to 1974 and the Oakland A’s in 1977, playing first base, third base and the outfield.

Richard Anthony Allen was born on March 8, 1942, in Wampum, a small town near Pittsburgh. One of nine children, he was raised by his mother, Era, who supported the family by working as a domestic.

Allen was signed by the Phillies when he graduated from high school for an estimated $70,000 (almost $600,000 in today’s money).

After playing in the minors, he made his major league debut in early September 1963.

During his early years with the Phillies, his teammates called him Richie, a name he disliked. “My name is Richard, and they called me Dick in the minor leagues,” he once said. The name Richie, he added, “makes me sound like I’m 10 years old.”

It wasn’t until 1972, his first season with the White Sox, that he entirely shed his “Richie” moniker. The Sox referred to him in their press book as Dick and instructed their public address announcer to do the same.

When Allen returned to Philadelphia for his second go-round with the team, the atmosphere had changed. A large home crowd welcomed him back on May 14, 1975.

Despite his strong credentials, Allen never received more than 18.9 percent of the required 75 percent vote for Hall of Fame induction in the 14 years he was on the ballot for voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He is considered a strong candidate in future voting by a committee that votes, apart from the writers, on figures who had been passed over.

Allen’s survivors include his wife, Willa; his sons, Richard and Eron; and two brothers: Hank, who played for seven seasons in the major leagues, mostly with the second Washington Senators franchise, and Ron, who played briefly for the 1972 St. Louis Cardinals.

In 1994, Allen was hired by the Phillies as a spring-training batting instructor and a community fan representative.

He was invited by the Phillies to throw the first ball at the opening game of the 2009 National League division series at Citizens Bank Park.

In July 2010, Allen was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. “You see how things turn around?” he said. “You see how rewarding it is? I’m proud of this city. It’s in my heart.”

‘Humble, hard-working and loyal as can be:’ Former Pirates 1B coach Tommy Sandt dies

Kevin Gorman
TribLive.com
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 5:15 p.m.

A baseball lifer with a distinctive bushy mustache and an easygoing personality, Tommy Sandt coached for 21 years in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and was the first base coach for their three consecutive NL East Division championships from 1990-92.

Sandt died Tuesday. He was 69.

“He was a brilliant baseball man & as humble as they come,” said Pirates broadcaster Greg Brown, who tweeted the news.

A 1969 second-round draft pick by the Oakland A’s out of Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, Calif., Sandt joined the defending World Series champions for one game in 1975. Sandt spent the ’76 season with the A’s, playing second base, third base and shortstop and batting .209 (14 for 67) with one double, seven walks, three RBIs and six runs scored in 41 games. He signed with St. Louis the following year, and then was traded to the Pirates for pitcher John Stuper before the 1979 season.

After batting .322 for Triple-A Portland, Sandt served as player-manager for two years. He also coached for the Pirates in the minors at Double-A Buffalo and Lynn (Mass.) and Triple-A Honolulu, where he had a .553 winning percentage in three seasons (239-193), won two division titles and was named Pacific Coast League manager of the year in 1984. Sandt also coached three winters in Venezuela.

“I’ve been everywhere,” Sandt told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. “But it’s not like it was a hard thing for me to do. All that time in the minors makes me appreciate the big leagues.

“I think some of the guys who come in (to the majors) quickly miss out on what it’s like. Like getting the envelope with meal money in it, the fun and the travel.”

Sandt made it back to the majors when he joined Jim Leyland’s staff in 1987 and was the first base and infield coach for the three-time NL East Division champions.

“He had a good rapport with all the players,” Leyland said. “He was one of those special coaches who was a buffer for the manager. If a player had a problem, he knew how to smooth it out. He had this knack for knowing which button to push for every player. He understood people really well. He was a terrific coach.”

Sandt coached All-Stars and Gold Glove winners in Pirates shortstop Jay Bell and second baseman Jose Lind. Pirates broadcaster John Wehner worked closely with Sandt after moving around the infield, from third base to second and then to first, with the Pirates and Marlins.

“I got to know him very well. He was a great guy, a great human being,” Wehner said. “He was humble, hard-working and as loyal as can be. That’s why he stuck around so long.”

Sandt followed Leyland to the Florida Marlins, where he was the first base coach when they beat the Cleveland Indians on Edgar Renteria’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 11th inning for a 3-2 win in Game 7 to clinch the World Series title in 1997.

“I can still see it now, with Renteria getting the hit and throwing his hat off and Tommy is right there jumping in his arms,” Leyland said. “It worked out pretty good for us.”

Sandt followed Leyland to the Colorado Rockies in ’99 before returning to the Pirates as a special instructor on Gene Lamont’s staff in 2000. Sandt was the first base coach under Lloyd McClendon on June 26, 2001, when the Pirates manager stole first base after arguing an out call on a bang-bang play involving Jason Kendall.

Sandt initially challenged the call with first base umpire Rick Reed, then watched as McClendon intervened, finally pulling the bag out of the dirt in frustration and carrying it into the dugout after he was ejected. Sandt stood there looking stunned, not knowing whether to laugh or get angry.

“I think we all fell into that category,” Wehner said. “I was on the bench in the dugout, laughing. I thought it was the funniest thing. I can’t remember exactly what Tommy’s reaction was, but you didn’t see him mad, all those years. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve see him mad. He was an easygoing guy who was serious about his work, but he was light-hearted and liked to have fun. He was friendly with everybody but made sure you got your work in and got your job done.”

Leyland spent Tuesday talking with former members of his coaching staff — from Gene Lamont to Rich Donnelly to Ray Miller — and reminiscing about their years on the staff with Sandt.

“We really lost a great guy, a very close friend and a great coach,” Leyland said. “It’s heartbreaking, really.”

Bob Miller, Phillies 'Whiz Kid', longtime Detroit Mercy baseball coach, dies at 94

Kirkland Crawford
Detroit Free Press
November 28, 2020 5:29 PM EST

Bob Miller, one of the former Philadelphia Phillies' "Whiz Kids" who went on to be the longtime head coach of Detroit Mercy baseball, died on Saturday at the age of 94.

Miller coached the Titans from 1965-2001, leading to 25 winning seasons in 36 years, a 1965 NCAA tournament appearance and winning the first-ever Mid-Continent Conference title in 1997.

The three-sport star at Redford St. Mary's was offered a basketball scholarship at University of Detroit, but was instead drafted into the Army in 1944. He joined Detroit's baseball team in 1947, when he was discovered by a Phillies scout.

He went on to pitch 10 seasons in the majors and was second in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 1950. That year, he — along with former Michigan State star Robin Roberts — lifted Philadelphia to the World Series against the New York Yankees. Miller started Game 4 against another rookie, Whitey Ford.

"I was deeply hit when I heard the news of coach Miller passing," Detroit Mercy athletic director Robert Vowels said in a release. "He was an icon here for so many years and touched so many players. I hear stories all the time of how much he meant to this University and how much he loved U-D. I have had the chance to talk to him and his kids since I have been here and something that always comes across is the love and pride for the University that the Miller family has. He will truly be missed by everyone."

Former Detroit Mercy baseball coach Bob Miller
A broken wrist in 1958 ended his major league career, but not before he'd gone 42-42 with a 3.96 ERA and 1.382 WHIP over 261 appearance and 68 starts.

After a few years into his third career, in insurance, he was asked to become an assistant coach at U-D. When head coach Lloyd Brazil died in a car accident in 1965, Miller was promoted.

During Miller's tenure, 16 Titans were drafted into the major leagues. He was 896-780-2, the most wins of any coach in Michigan college baseball history.

"Coach Miller was a larger-than-life person to generations of Titan baseball players," said Chris Czarnik, one of Miller's former players and assistant coaches who replaced Miller as head coach. "... Decades later, he could make a former player beam with pride by recalling that moment, 'I remember the first time I saw you swing that bat; he would say, and bring alive a detail of a ringing double in Redford or Livonia or East Detroit — and how he wouldn't leave your driveway that night until you told him you would be part of his team.

"Perhaps the thing I'll remember coach most for is how his children looked up to him and how proud he was of them. You could see it in their eyes and hear it in his unforgettable voice. I know I speak for all Titans in expressing our love and condolences to his family upon the loss of this legendary man."

Miller was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame this year.

Lindy McDaniel
1935-2020

Charles W. Smith & Sons Funeral Home
November 17, 2020

Lyndall Dale McDaniel, 'Lindy', passed away on Sunday, November 15, 2020 due to complications with Covid19. He lived in Lavon, Texas and was preaching part time in the Lavon Church of Christ.

Lindy dedicated his whole life serving the Lord in everything that he did. He influenced many people throughout his Major League baseball career and then as a preacher with several church of Christs. His love was God, Family and Baseball, in that order.

Lindy was born on December 13, 1935 in Hollis Oklahoma to Newell and Ada Mae McDaniel (Burk). An excellent athlete, he signed his first professional baseball contract with the Cardinals on August 19, 1955, at the age of 19. He went on to have an amazing career of 21 seasons with different major league teams: St. Louis Cardinals 1955-1962, Chicago Cubs 1963-1065, San Francisco Giants 1966-1968, New York Yankees 1968-1973, and Kansas City Royals 1974-1975. He was the top relief pitcher in the National League in 1959, 1960, and 1963, earning the very first Fireman of the Year Award in 1960 and 1963. His major league totals: 141 Wins, 119 Losses, 172 Saves, career ERA 3.45 in 987 pitching appearances. During his major league career, he wrote and mailed a religious monthly newsletter called Pitching for the Master. He sent this out free to anyone interested and largely funded the mailing personally.

Post baseball, Lindy followed his first passion of serving the Lord, preaching in several churches of Christ in Kansas City, Las Vegas New Mexico, Selma California, and recently in Lavon Texas. He was an elder and part time preacher at the Church of Christ in Lavon Texas at the time of his passing.

Lindy is survived by wife, Nancy (DeShazo) McDaniel, five children, Dale McDaniel, Kathi (McDaniel) Watters, Jonathan McDaniel, Susie (McDaniel) Miles and Joey McDaniel; 11 grandchildren; and 5 great-grandchildren, brother, Kerry Don McDaniel, sister, Anita (McDaniel). Proceeded in death: Father, Newell Grant McDaniel, Mother, Ada Mae (Burk) McDaniel and Brother, Max Von McDaniel.

A private memorial service will be held on Thursday, November 19.

Foster Ephriam Castleman Jr.

Villages-News.com
November 12, 2020

Foster Ephriam Castleman, Jr., 89, Lady Lake, Florida passed away on November 9, 2020 at Freedom Pointe at The Villages.

He was born on January 1, 1931 in Nashville, Tennessee to parents Foster Ephriam Castleman, Sr. and Blanche Marie (Jackson) Castleman. His family moved to Jacksonville, Florida where spent his early years and attended school. Following graduation from high school, Foster was signed to a minor league professional baseball contract by the New York Giants as a promising young infielder. After two seasons in the minor leagues he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Upon his discharge he returned to professional baseball, reaching the major leagues in 1954 where he was a member of that year’s World Series champion Giants team that swept the heavily favored Cleveland Indians. He played all or parts of five seasons in the majors and another three years in the minors before retiring from baseball.

He later worked in the men’s apparel industry with the Arrow Shirt Company and Munsingwear which took him to Atlanta, Raleigh, and finally Cincinnati where he finished his career in real estate sales for Caldwell-Banker. Foster’s early family life offered challenges but he grew to be a man of strong faith and unashamed spirituality. He and Thelma met and married as members of the same church in Cincinnati and spent portions of the last 25 years in central Florida where they they found a warm and supportive home at First Baptist Church of Leesburg.

He lived full time in Florida the last several years and is survived by his loving wife: Thelma Bearden Castleman of Lady Lake, Florida; sons: Craig Castleman of Buford, Georgia, Cary Castleman of Ohio, Joseph “Chip” Bearden of Boonton Township, New Jersey, Mark Bearden of Richmond, Virginia; a daughter: Diane Bearden Zipko of Oxford, Ohio; a brother: Lewis Castleman of Jacksonville, Florida; seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and multiple nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by daughter Kimberly Castleman Murrell and sister Betty Jean Castleman McKibben.

Former Mets pitcher has died of COVID complications

Scott Rogust
FanSided
November 12, 2020

Rick Baldwin, the former right-handed pitcher who spent three seasons with the New York Mets, passed away last week.

The coronavirus pandemic arrived in North America earlier this year, and despite a slowing of the curb this spring, the number of new cases are on the rise at alarming rates on a daily basis. COVID-19 has taken the lives of over 233,000 individuals, some of which were former professional athletes. Unfortunately, we have to add another name to the list.

According to the Mets Rewind Twitter account, former New York Mets pitcher Rick Baldwin passed away last Friday due to complications caused by COVID-19. He was 67-years-old.

Today we lost one of our alumni. Former @Mets pitcher Rick Baldwin passed away at age 67 due to complications from #COVID19. Baldwin pitched three seasons with the @Mets (1975-1977). We tip our cap and pause for a moment of virtual silence. #LGM #MetsRewind pic.twitter.com/ZYpOnHZvAE

— Mets Rewind (@metsrewind) November 4, 2020

Baldwin pitched three seasons with the Mets

Baldwin was a ninth-round draft pick by the Mets in the 1971 MLB Draft out of Downey High School in Modesto, Calif. He was a right-handed pitcher, but once stepping up to the plate, he batted left-handed.

Baldwin made his debut with the Mets organization on April 10,1975 at the age of 22, where he allowed one hit in one inning of work against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets ended up losing the contest 3-2. Baldwin pitched 54 games in his rookie season where he struck out 54 batters in 94.1 innings pitched, while posting a 3.33 ERA and a 3-5 win-loss record.

Overall, Baldwin’s career lasted three seasons with the Mets, where he posted a 3.60 ERA and 4-7 record, while recording a total of 86 strikeouts over 182.2 innings pitched. Additionally, Baldwin was 6-for-22 in hitting situations, where he slashed .273/.273/.273 across the board.

We would like to send our thoughts and prayers to the Baldwin family during this difficult time.


A. Daniel Pfister
Dec 20, 1935 - Nov 9, 2020

Published in Sun-Sentinel on Nov. 18, 2020.

Remembering Dan.

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Dan graduated from South Broward High School in 1954. An outstanding athlete he signed with the Kansas City Athletics in 1957 and pitched to some of MLB's all-time greats until 1964 with time out midway to serve two years in the U.S. Army.

After a career cut short by injury, Dan returned to Hollywood, Florida and joined the fire department where he worked until his retirement in 1994.

Softball became his passion. In fast-pitch softball, Dan and his team twice beat the great Eddie Feiner (King and his Court) and in slow-pitch the fire department teams won the National Championships in Bowie, Md four times. Senior softball brought many accolades and in 1997 Dan was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame. He was the baseball Coach for Biscayne College and well known for his culinary skills as a "Firehouse" chef.

Dan is survived by his two sons, Danny and Scott, his daughter-in-law Laurie and his granddaughter Savannah.

James "Jim" E. Hicks
1939-2020

Published in Houston Chronicle on Nov. 4, 2020.

James "Jim" Edward Hicks, 81, departed this world October 29, 2020, at his home in Missouri City, Texas.

Jim was born May 18, 1939 in Claiborne County, Mississippi, to Gus and Sadie Hicks. He graduated Roosevelt High School (East Chicago, IN), attended the University of Illinois, and played professional baseball for the White Sox, Cardinals, and Angels. He worked for Continental Airlines for over 30 years.

A walk-through visitation will be held from 10-10:55a.m on (Thursday) November 5, 2020. Funeral Service will begin at 11:00a.m. Both services will take place in the chapel of Troy B. Smith Professional Services.

Interment, Houston Memorial Gardens. Pastor Dr. Joe Samuel Ratliff, Officiating.
Johnny Paredes, former Venezuelan big league, died

By Alberth Pina
ConlasBasesllenas.com
November 5, 2020

The former Venezuelan major league, Johnny Paredes , died this Thursday, November 5 after suffering from cancer.

The Zulian was diagnosed with this disease in 2018. The player's family this year made a campaign on the Go Fundme site, to pay for the medical expenses of a second operation.

Paredes, who recently turned 58 (September 2), made his major league debut on April 29, 1988 with the Montreal Expos, where he shared with his compatriot Andrés "El Gato" Galarraga.

The Maracaibo native hit 17 hits, a home run, 10 RBIs, 6 runs scored and 5 stolen bases in his first year in the Big Top. The waiter did not see action the following season, and then played with the Detroit Tigers (1990 and 1991).

Johnny Paredes won the Rookie of the Year in Venezuelan baseball
In Venezuelan baseball, Paredes, at just 20 years old, won the Rookie of the Year award in the 1982-83 season with the Águilas del Zulia , thanks to an average of .270, the product of 10 in 37 at-bats, with three RBIs, three Scored and a stolen base after seeing action in 16 games.

Second baseman was part of the golden age of the aguilucho cadre, which reached three LVBP championships and two Caribbean Series. Paredes was titled champion in the 1982 and 1993 Caribbean classics.

The waiter, who had excellent hands, had a very particular way of throwing the initial from the second cushion by throwing the ball under the arm, as Jesús Marcano Trillo did.

Johnny Paredes , who also played with Tiburones de La Guaira and Caribes de Anzoátegui, had 377 hits, one of them a home run, 115 RBIs, 227 scored and 79 stolen bases after 11 seasons on the Venezuelan circuit. The Zulian played a season in Japan baseball (NPB) with Yakult Swallows.

Julio Becquer, member of Twins' first team in 1961, dies at 88

Becquer's ninth-inning pinch hit grand slam on July 4, 1961 is part of franchise lore. His post-baseball career was known for his community service with the Twins.

By Joel Rippel
Minneapolis Star Tribune
November 2, 2020 — 9:21am

Julio Becquer, a first baseman-outfielder who spent parts of seven seasons in the major leagues with the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins organization, died on Sunday.Becquer, who was in assisted living in Hopkins, was 88.

Twins president Dave St. Peter tweeted: “Sad day for the Twins family. He was one of the original Twins.”

Becquer, a native of Havana, Cuba, was signed by the Senators in 1952. He spent parts of five seasons in the majors with the Senators before the franchise relocated to Minnesota before the 1961 season.

Before that 1961 season, Becquer was selected by the Los Angeles Angels in the expansion draft and he began the year with the Angels. After the first month of the season Becquer was sent to the minors, and on June 2 the Twins purchased his contract.

Becquer batted .238 in 57 games for the Twins over the rest of the season and provided one of the highlights of the team’s first season in Minnesota.

In the first game of a July 4th doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox at Metropolitan Stadium, the lefthanded-hitting Becquer hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Twins to a 6-4 victory. It was Becquer’s third pinch-hit home run of the season.

“I’ve been working with the Twins’ clinics for 13, 14 years, and it’s amazing,” Becquer told the Star Tribune’s Patrick Reusse in 2010. “No matter what town we’re in, someone will come up to me and say, ‘Julio Becquer,’ tell me where they were listening to that home run. “They were just kids then, but they will say, ‘I was at a picnic, listening with my grandpa, and you hit that grand slam, and we were so excited.’ That was 50 years ago, and people still remember.”

After the 1961 season, Becquer played in just one more major league game — in September 1963.

“I was playing for Vera Cruz in the Mexican League,” Becquer said in 2019. “Calvin Griffith called and said, ‘I’ve already bought your contract. Can you get up here?’ I said, ‘I’ll be there.’ Calvin did that for me because I was one week short of qualifying for my major league pension. You needed five years. The Twins put me on the roster for two weeks in September and that gave me my pension. I hadn’t even asked.

“I did have a lot of friends on the team — Camilo [Pascual], Zoilo [Versalles] … Tony [Oliva] was there in September, and we were like brothers. It was a great thing the Twins did for me.”

After retiring from baseball in 1964, Becquer worked for Dayton’s for 30 years. He also worked Twins clinics.

In 2016, the Twins presented Becquer the Kirby Puckett Award for Alumni Community Service.

“This is one of the greatest things I’ve ever received in my life,” he told the Star Tribune.

“He was so proud of that award and the recognition,” said daughter Frannie. “He had stayed committed to the Twins and volunteered for them.”

Becquer batted .244 with 12 home runs in seven major league seasons. He spent 13 seasons in professional baseball.

His wife, Edith, died 14 years ago. In addition to his daughter and her husband, David Osberg, he is survived by son Pedro and five grandchildren.

Longtime Major League Baseball Umpire Has Died At 74

Dan Lyons
The Spun
October 20, 2020 4:02pm

Derryl Cousins, a longtime MLB umpire who worked in the highest level of the sport for over 30 years, has passed away. He was 74 years old.

Cousins entered the MLB in 1979, as a replacement umpire during the Major League Umpires strike that year. He wound up sticking, and worked in the American League through 1999. After that, he spent 2000-12 working in both leagues.

Cousins worked some of the most high-profile baseball games played during his tenure. He was on the crew during the 1988, 1999, and 2005 World Series. In 1987, 1998, and 2008, he worked the MLB All-Star Game. That final game was a famous one at Yankee Stadium, remaining tied into the 15th inning when Michael Young knocked in the game winning run on a sacrifice fly to put the AL ahead 4-3.

Hours ahead of Game 1 of the 2020 World Series, the MLB confirmed Cousins’ passing.

MLB is deeply saddened by the passing of 34-year Major League Umpire Derryl Cousins at 74. The Californian worked nearly 4,500 games & three World Series ('88, '99, '05). He was behind the plate for the White Sox clincher in '05 & the '08 ASG at Yankee Stadium (pictured below). pic.twitter.com/lSRd89ZsxW

— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) October 20, 2020

Derryl Cousins was a native of Fresno, Ca., and attended El Segundo High School, where he played baseball and football. He’d go on to a brief minor league career as a catcher.

In 1967, he made his professional debut for the Statesville Tigers, an A-ball affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. He’d go on to play for the High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms and the Rocky Mountain Leafs in 1968, and the Reno Silver Sox in 1970, a Cleveland Indians affiliate in the California League.

Our thoughts go out to Cousins’ family, and everyone else impacted by his passing.

Longtime MLB umpire Rick Reed, who appeared in 'For Love of the Game,' dies at 70

Chris Cwik
Yahoo Sports
July 19, 2020

Longtime MLB umpire Rick Reed died Thursday. He was 70.

Reed — who was born in Detroit — began his umpiring career in 1979. He became a crew chief in 1999, and remained active until 2009. Following his retirement, Reed worked in the commissioner’s office observing umpires. Throughout his career, Reed umpired seven different postseasons — including the 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves.

On top of umpiring, Reed also worked as an actor. His biggest role came in “For Love of the Game,” a baseball movie starring Kevin Costner. Reed played the home plate umpire in the film.

Veteran crew chief Ted Barrett called Reed a “mentor and a friend,” according to the Associated Press.

“I worked my first game in the big leagues with him and he took me to lunch the next day. We didn’t even talk about umpiring, he talked about being a husband and father while doing this job,” veteran crew chief Ted Barrett, whose son also is a professional umpire, texted to the Associated Press.

“I also worked many years with Rick as my crew chief. He was a great umpire and he was a leader of men,” Barrett said. “Rick groomed many of us to be crew chiefs. He took an interest in our families and invited us into his family. His wife, Cindy, became a trusted confidante to our wives. Rick was more than just a crew chief, he was a mentor and friend.”

MSU two-sport star Tom Yewcic, only man to win Rose Bowl and CWS MVP, dies at 88

Tony Paul
The Detroit News
October 22, 2020

Tom Yewcic, a two-sport All-American at Michigan State who is the only man ever to win a Rose Bowl and be named College World Series Most Outstanding Player, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Yewcic went on to a long professional career punting for the then-Boston Patriots, who announced his death this week. Yewcic lived in Massachusetts.

Tom Yewcic, a former two-sport MSU standout, died Wednesday at the age of 88.
A member of the Michigan State Athletics Hall of Fame, Yewcic was the starting quarterback in 1952 and 1953, guiding the Spartans to a national championship in 1952 and the program's first Big Ten title and Rose Bowl victory over UCLA in the 1953 season. Just months after winning the Rose Bowl, Yewcic, a catcher in baseball, led that team to the Big Ten championship and an eventual third-place finish at the College World Series. It was MSU's first CWS apppearance.

Yewcic earned All-America honors in football in 1952 and baseball in 1954. In his first game as Michigan State's starting quarterback, in 1952, he beat Michigan, 27-13, completing 7 of 14 passes for 171 yards. Also that season, Yewcic became just the second Michigan State quarterback to reach 200 yards passing, with 202 in a 48-6 victory over Texas A&M.

After leaving college, Yewcic was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, but focused on baseball and signed with the Tigers in 1954. He played four seasons in the minors, reaching the majors for just one game and one at-bat — a pop-up to shortstop — in 1957. He eventually switched over to football, starting in the Canadian Football League before he ended up playing six seasons with the Patriots in the 1960s, mostly as a punter but also seeing some time at quarterback.

An interesting stat: Yewcic and Tom Brady are the two Patriots who have punted, thrown a touchdown pass, caught a pass and run for a touchdown.

In his Patriots career, Yewcic, a native of Pennsylvania, threw for 12 touchdowns and rushed for four more.

Yewcic's wife Jane died in 2014. They had two children and three grandchildren.

Arrangements were pending Thursday.

J.W. Porter: 'Court jester of Roger Dean Stadium' mourned as 'a sweet soul'

J.W. Porter, who ushered at Roger Dean Stadium and walked with a cane fashioned from a baseball bat, played with the game's greats

Joe Capozzi
Palm Beach Post
October 13, 2020

He was baseball’s Forrest Gump, a journeyman catcher who played alongside the game’s biggest stars before settling in as a popular Roger Dean Stadium usher known for regaling fans with kindness and colorful stories about shining Satchel Paige’s shoes, pinch-hitting for Roger Maris and chasing rattlesnakes in the outfield.

J.W. Porter died Sunday night at Jupiter Medical Center after a long illness. He was 87. He leaves behind a heartbroken family, legions of fans and a pile of letters on the table of his Palm Beach Gardens home from autograph seekers.

“It continues to amaze me the mail that comes in. There must be seven or eight letters that arrive every single week," said Zee Porter, his wife of 52 years. “He was a sweet soul. I don't know anyone who didn't like him."

Known by friends as "Jay" or "Jay-dub,'' Porter is one of 83 former MLB players who have died in 2020. Among them are six Hall of Famers, including two of Porter’s former teammates, Al Kaline and Bob Gibson.

Porter’s legacy is all the more remarkable considering that he was a career .228 hitter who played in just 229 games from 1952 to 1959. He played for the St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and St. Louis Cardinals.

One of eight surviving players from the Browns, who played their final season in 1953 before becoming the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, Porter was a regular speaker over the years at meetings of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club.

A few days before he died, he was the guest speaker in a Zoom meeting for the club, sharing stories for 125 people attending about Ted Williams and Stan Musial.

“He was a journeyman ballplayer but he was in the thick of everything," said Ed Wheatley, the club’s president.

Wheatley was one of the many fans who hung out in Jupiter during spring training with Porter, who wore a straw hat and walked with a cane fashioned from a baseball bat.

“He was the court jester of Roger Dean (Stadium)," said Wheatley, whose father played American Legion ball with Porter in the early 1950s.
J.W. Porter, shown in 2001, died Sunday.

“I’ll always remember him as a Southern gentleman in the straw hat, two hands on the top of the bat cane, his chin resting on it, telling stories. And they were all true and they were always about great ballplayers."

Porter’s major league career got off to a tragic start, according to a story he started sharing with fans only in the last five or six years.

A native of Shawnee, Okla., he was born “J.W." — the initials didn't stand for formal names. He was a highly regarded prospect living with his first wife in Oakland, Calif., when he signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox. He was traded to the Browns and made his debut on July 30, 1952.

The next day, his wife and her father were killed in an automobile accident in California. The news was delivered to Porter by Browns president Bill Veeck, who wound up letting Porter live in an apartment Veeck had built in Sportsman’s Park.

After taking a week off for the funerals, Porter resumed his baseball career. An early teammate was Paige, the legendary Negro Leagues ace who was pitching for the Browns in the twilight of his career.

It was Paige who gave the young Porter a nickname — “Firefly" — after Porter shined the pitcher's shoes one day, according to a favorite story. When Porter finished the shoeshine, Paige looked down at the freckle-faced teen with red hair and said, “Thank you, firefly.″

Managed West Palm Expos

With Cleveland, Porter once pinch-hit for Maris and hit a home run. He also caught Gibson in the future Hall of Famer’s rookie season of 1959. That was also Porter's final season, and in his last big-league appearance, he entered the game at first base to replace Musial.

Years later, Porter would recall that the most money he ever made in a season was $15,000.

Porter returned to baseball in 1970 when he managed the West Palm Beach Expos in the Florida State League. He guided the team to a 79-50 record, but he is remembered for what he did in the outfield one day at old Municipal Stadium in a game against DeLand.

“All of a sudden DeLand's center fielder came racing in, screaming in Spanish," he recalled years ago. "Following him was a 6-foot rattlesnake. I ran to the dugout, grabbed a bat and conked that sucker. Then I threw it over the fence to a standing ovation.”

Porter became friends with Williams, who had an endorsement deal with Sears. Williams used his connections to get Porter a job at Sears. Porter worked off and on as an appliance salesman for different companies into the 1980s.

Porter enjoyed attending the Browns reunions and fan club events. At a banquet in St. Louis in 1997, he sat next to Bill DeWitt, the St. Louis Cardinals chairman who as a child was a batboy for the Browns.

“We got to talking and he said, 'Where do you live?’” Porter recalled. “And I said, 'About 5 miles from that new stadium they're building for you guys.' He said, 'Why don't you come out to the ballpark and work for me?' I said, 'You know I never thought of it, but I think I'd like that.'"

Porter became one of the most popular ushers at Roger Dean Stadium, where he not only helped fans find their seats but also tried to stump them with trivia questions.
Friend of Jose Fernandez

He was popular with players, too. Jose Fernandez, the late Marlins pitcher, was among those who stopped to sit with Porter in between spring training workouts.

In 2016, Porter shed tears when Fernandez was killed in a boating accident.

"I've met hundreds of young people in my life in baseball," he said. “I never met a nicer one with a bigger love for the game than Jose."

A few years after Porter started working at Roger Dean Stadium, he was approached with an unusual request: Someone wanted the ashes of a family member spread around third base. The deceased woman, an avid Cardinals fan, died of a massive heart attack just before the family came to Florida for spring training.

Porter obliged. The woman's son scattered the ashes and family members shed tears. So did Porter.

"All in all, it's a fun job," Porter said. "99.9 percent of the fans are great people. And those that aren't, you treat with kid gloves."

Porter hadn’t been to Roger Dean for several years as he struggled with declining health.

He had been ill most of this year, including a January bout with pneumonia that hospitalized him for nearly a month, his wife said. She said he did not contract COVID-19.

“On Sunday he was having breakfast. He said, ‘I want you to remind me at 1 o'clock to turn on CBS because I need to watch the football game,'” Zee recalled.

Later that afternoon, she took him to the hospital because of breathing problems. He died late that night. She said she has not been told the cause of death.

She said Porter will be cremated and buried in Cobb County, Georgia. She hopes to host a memorial service at a later date.

On Tuesday, Zee Porter said she intended to help her late husband this week with some unfinished business.

“I looked this morning, and there was some (fan) mail he wasn’t able to get to," she said. “I am going to try to respond for him."

When he was alive, her husband “always wrote a letter and a note to every person who requested an autograph. And people would write back and thank him for the letter," she said with a laugh.

“There are a few cards here that he signed. I'm just going to send them to these people."

Joe Morgan, Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer, dead at 77

By Peter Botte
The New York Post
October 12, 2020 11:19am EDT

Major League Baseball has lost yet another Hall of Famer in 2020. Joe Morgan, a 10-time All-Star and two-time National League MVP for the Cincinnati Reds’ powerful “Big Red Machine” championship teams in the 1970s, has died. He passed away Sunday at his home in Danville, California, a family spokesman told the AP. Morgan was suffering from a nerve condition, a form of polyneuropathy.

“Joe wasn’t just the best second baseman in baseball history, he was the best player I ever saw and one of the best people I’ve ever known,” Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench said in a statement released by the Hall.

The five-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman, who was elected to Cooperstown on the first ballot in 1990, is the sixth Hall of Famer to die in 2020, joining Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson and Whitey Ford.

“Our group shared some very special moments and experiences that will remain with us forever,” Tony Perez said in a statement released by the Hall of Fame. “At the moment, it’s just hard to put into words how much he meant to so many, and how missed he will be.”

The Little General won back-to-back MVP awards, the only second baseman to do so, in 1975 and 1976, winning the World Series in both years alongside Pete Rose, Bench, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, George Foster and Ken Griffey Sr.

In those two seasons, Morgan averaged 22 home runs, 102 RBIs, 110 runs scored and 64 stolen bases, with a slash line of .324/.456/.541 for an OPS of .997. He finished his career with 268 homers, 2,517 hits, 1,650 runs scored and 689 steals.

“The Reds family is heartbroken. Joe was a giant in the game and was adored by the fans in this city,” team CEO Bob Castellini said in a statement. “He had a lifelong loyalty and dedication to this organization that extended to our current team and front office staff. As a cornerstone on one of the greatest teams in baseball history, his contributions to this franchise will live forever. Our hearts ache for his Big Red Machine teammates.”

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred called Morgan “one of the best five-tool players our game has ever known” and close friend and advisor.

“Joe often reminded baseball fans that the player smallest in stature on the field could be the most impactful,” Manfred said in a statement. “On a Big Red Machine roster stocked with greats, Joe earned National League MVP honors during both of Cincinnati’s World Series championship seasons.

“He was a true gentleman who cared about our game and the values for which it stands. Those who knew him – whether as a “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcaster, a Hall of Fame board member or simply as one of the legends of our national pastime – are all the better for it.”

A generation of young fans imitated the 5-foot-7 left-handed batter’s trademark flapping of his left elbow during his batting stance.

Morgan later became a longtime TV analyst for NBC and ESPN and was an outspoken critic of players who used performance-enhancing drugs.

Whitey Ford, Yankees Hall of Famer, dead at 91

Nicknamed “the Chairman of the Board” by teammate Elston Howard for his calm demeanor in pressure situations, Ford spent his entire 16-year career with the Yankees. for whom he went 236-106. The Yankees signed the left-hander out of high school in 1947 for $7,000, outbidding the crosstown Giants and the Boston Red Sox.

Ford, who retired midway through the 1967 season due to a circulation problem in his pitching arm that surgeries failed to correct, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, his second year of eligibility. Waiting that extra year for his enshrinement after falling short by 29 votes allowed Ford to enter the Hall alongside former teammate, close friend and late-night running mate Mickey Mantle.
Whitey Ford Six-Hitter

A 21-year-old Ford arrived in The Bronx in 1950, a year ahead of Mantle, and immediately made his mark. In July of that year, he joined a rotation loaded with veterans Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat, Allie Reynolds and Tommy Byrne and went 9-1 with a 2.81 ERA while finishing second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. He started Game 4 of the World Series that October, recording a 5-2 victory over the Phillies to complete the sweep.

Ford spent the next two seasons in the Army, missing out on two world championships, but returned in 1953 to help the Yankees win their record fifth consecutive World Series. He went 18-6 that season, then averaged 15 wins a season over the next seven years.

While manager Casey Stengel was protective of his ace, never pitching Ford more than 255 innings at a time when staff aces routinely threw more than 275 innings per season, Ralph Houk, who succeeded Stengel in 1961, had no such qualms. The former Yankees catcher promised he would pitch his former teammate every fourth day — as was the custom at the time — and the lefty responded with the best season of his career. He went 25-4 and won his only Cy Young Award in 1961.

The aging Stengel, who was fired after the Yankees lost the 1960 World Series in seven games to Pittsburgh, may have sealed his own fate that October when he bypassed Ford as his starter in Game 1. The Yankees split the first two games at Forbes Field and Ford, whom Stengel held back to pitch the first game at Yankee Stadium, tossed a shutout in Game 3. The Yankees split the next two games and Ford again shut out the Pirates in Game 6. But he was a spectator in Game 7 as the Yankees fell, 10-9, on Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in the ninth.

“It was the only time I ever got mad at Casey,” Ford said in his 1987 autobiography, “Slick,” written with Phil Pepe. “I felt I should have started that game so I could pitch three times if it was necessary. … Casey had this thing about saving me for Yankee Stadium to take advantage of the big area in left field and left-center, Death Valley to right-handed hitters. … I was so annoyed at Stengel, I wouldn’t talk to him on the plane ride back to New York.”

Stengel was fired days later and Ford always believed the Yankees would have won that World Series had he been allowed to start three games. He may have had a point.

When he retired, Ford held a fistful of Fall Classic records, including most games pitched (22), innings pitched (146), wins (10), and strikeouts (94). He also had a streak of 33 ²/₃ consecutive scoreless World Series innings.

The Yankees won the World Series in 1961 and 1962, but lost to the Dodgers and Cardinals, respectively, the next two Octobers before the bottom dropped out on the dynasty. But even during that 1965 season when the Yankees recorded their first losing season since 1925 and finished in sixth place in the 10-team American League, Ford went 16-13.

Battling arm injuries, Ford would go a combined 4-9 in 1966 and ‘67. He walked off the Tiger Stadium mound after the first inning during a May game that final season and kept right on going. Before he headed to the airport, he left a note in Houk’s locker: “Dear Ralph. I’ve had it. Call you when I get home. Whitey.”

Edward Charles Ford — his nickname was given to him by former big-league pitcher Lefty Gomez, his first minor league manager — was born in Manhattan on Oct. 21, 1928. An only child, he moved with his parents — his father worked for Con Edison — to 34th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, at the age of 4. Also growing up in that neighborhood, which Ford described as a mixture of second-generation Irish, Italian and Polish families, was a kid a few years older who liked to sing named Anthony Benedetto. He’d later make his name and fortune as Tony Bennett.

Ford attended the Manhattan School for Aviation Trades because Bryant, his local high school, didn’t have a baseball team and, having already established himself as a pretty fair first baseman, he wanted to play ball.

“There really was no earthly reason for me to be at Manhattan Aviation,” Ford said. “I wasn’t a good student and I wasn’t a very good mechanic. … I think the only reason I graduated was that I never missed a day of school and one of the reasons I didn’t miss school was that I wanted to remain eligible to play baseball.”

Ford said he always regretted never going to college and getting an education.

“I consider myself very lucky to have made my living in baseball,” said Ford, who didn’t really become a pitcher until after he failed to get a ball out of the infield while batting during a tryout at Yankee Stadium. A Yankee scout in attendance quickly — and presciently — asked Ford if he had ever pitched.

Ford and Mantle, who remained close friends until Mantle’s death in 1995, were in the middle of one of the most memorable off-field incidents in Yankee history. During the 1957 season, they were among a group of Yankees who went to the Copacabana nightclub in Midtown to celebrate Billy Martin’s birthday. A fight broke out among some of the Yankees and the members of a bowling team seated at a nearby table.

No charges were filed, although Ford said he, Martin and Mantle were each fined $1,000 by Yankees general manager George Weiss for their involvement in the incident. A month later, Martin — deemed a bad influence on his two infinitely more talented teammates — was traded to Kansas City.

In his autobiography, Ford revealed what had long been suspected, that he doctored baseballs to gain an advantage as his skills began to erode. He’d use spit and dirt or deface the balls with a specially designed ring, his belt buckle or a cooperative catcher’s shin guard

“I want to emphasize that I didn’t begin cheating until late in my career, when I needed something to help me survive,” he said. “I didn’t cheat when I won the 25 games in 1961. … And I didn’t cheat in 1963 when I won 21 games. Well, maybe just a little.”

Ford, whose No. 16 was retired by the Yankees in 1974, is survived by his wife, Joan, son, Edward, and daughter, Sally Ann. His younger son, Thomas, died of a heart condition in 1999.

Former Phillies infielder Kim Batiste, who went from goat to hero in 1993, dies

Matt Breen
The Philadelphia Inquirer
October 8, 2020

Kim Batiste, the popular Phillies infielder who overcame a brutal throwing error to stroke the game-winning hit in the first game of the 1993 National League Championship Series, died Wednesday.

Mr. Batiste, 52, died at a Louisiana hospital of complications from emergency kidney surgery, his family said. He played four seasons with the Phillies after being drafted in 1987 and was a key member of the 1993 team that won the pennant after finishing in last place the season before. He hit .282 that season, but his biggest contributions came with his glove as a late-inning defensive replacement.
Related stories

The Phillies could have a difficult time fixing their bullpen | Extra Innings
Book excerpt: How the 1993 Phillies lived hard, played hard, and bonded in unforgettable season
John Middleton says the Phillies never should have traded Sixto Sanchez if they couldn’t extend J.T. Realmuto’s contract

Mr. Batiste entered Game 1 of the NLCS against Atlanta in the ninth inning to replace Dave Hollins at third base. He fielded the first ball hit his way — a sharp grounder by Mark Lemke — and threw it into right field as he tried to start a double play. Two batters later, the score was tied at 3.

“They all talked to me, encouraged me. They had me feeling relaxed, putting what I did behind me,” Mr. Batiste said that night of his teammates. “Guys were saying, ‘You’re going to win this game.’”

An inning later, he did. Mr. Batiste slapped a grounder down the left-field line with one out, and John Kruk scored the winning run from second base. Mr. Batiste went from goat to hero, and his teammates lifted him on their shoulders to carry him off the turf at Veterans Stadium.

“I see them coming at me and I’m thinking, ‘I’m glad they’re running out to pick me up to celebrate with me, instead of coming out there to kill me,'” he said.
Advertisement

Mr. Batiste played just two more major-league seasons — 1994 with the Phillies and 1995 with the Giants — before spending the final years of his career in China and in the independent Atlantic League. He was on the inaugural Camden Riversharks in 2001 and retired in 2003 after playing 12 games with the Atlantic City Surf.

Mr. Batiste started the 1993 season as part of the team’s shortstop rotation, a job eventually claimed by rookie Kevin Stocker. Hollins’ wrist surgery in June gave Mr. Batiste the chance to play every day at third base for two weeks. When Hollins returned, Mr. Batiste regularly replaced him in the ninth inning as defensive insurance. .

Two days before Game 1 of the NLCS, Mr. Batiste huddled with reliever Larry Andersen during batting practice at Veterans Stadium as the Phillies prepared for their first postseason game in a decade. Andersen, now a team broadcaster, told Mr. Batiste that he could play every day for another team but he respected the way Mr. Batiste bought into his role with the Phillies.

“We started talking and goofing off and one thing led to another,” Mr. Batiste said. “And then we were talking about how if you make a mistake, you sometimes get a chance to make up for it. So when I came up to bat, I kept hearing him in my mind, repeating over and over, that sometimes you get a chance to make up for it.”

Mr. Batiste’s walk-off double gave the Phillies a series-opening win. A week later, they were heading to the World Series. But none of that might have been possible if Mr. Batiste didn’t first pick himself up off the turf. When he did, his teammates lifted him off the field.

“It was just an emotional thing. We all felt so good for him coming back after the error the way he did,” Milt Thompson said that night. “I just looked over and Danny Jackson was holding him up there, trying to carry him by himself. And I said, ‘I better give him a hand. He has to pitch in this series.’”

Frederick "Fireball" Wenz

Published in Courier News from Oct. 7 to Oct. 8, 2020.

Branchburg - Frederick Wenz, 79, passed away on Tuesday, October 6, 2020 at his residence.

Born in Bound Brook, NJ, Frederick resided in Bound Brook before moving to Branchburg 51 years ago.

Fred graduated from Somerville High School in 1959.

Fred was the owner and operator of Garden Oaks Specialties for over 50 years.

Fred was an avid baseball player. He played for the Louisville Sluggers, Boston Red Sox and The Phillies as a relief pitcher. He acquired the nickname "Fireball" because he threw over 100 mph. Not only was Fred a great baseball player, he was also a great story teller. He enjoyed hunting, fishing and snowmobiling. Fred was a large collector of liquor water pitchers. One thing Fred loved the most was spending quality time with his family, especially his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Fred was larger than life itself and will be missed tremendously.

He is preceded in death by his beloved parents Hannah Bartok and Frederick C. Wenz Sr., his grandparents, a son Dr. James Wenz and a daughter in law Dr. Lydia Wenz.

Surviving are his loving wife of 56 years Madeline DeBaro Wenz, who he said was the love of his life, a daughter Lisa Serridge of Lebanon, NJ; five cherished grandchildren Ashley, Brett, Adrianna, James and Madeline, two adored great grandchildren Ryan and Skylar, many loving nieces and nephews and his two canine companions, Slugger and Freddy.

A viewing will be held on Friday, October 9, 2020 from 4-8 pm at the Branchburg Funeral Home 910 Rt. 202 South Branchburg, NJ. A prayer service will being at the funeral home on Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 11am. Burial will take place on Saturday, October 10, 2020 at Redfield Cemetery in Redfield, NY.

Memorial contributions may be made in Fred's memory to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 501 St. Jude Place Memphis, TN 38105.

Former MLB player Charles Haeger, suspected in ex-girlfriend's killing, found dead at Grand Canyon

Haeger, believed to have died by suicide, was sought on suspicion of murder and aggravated assault in an investigation of ex-girlfriend Danielle Breed's death.

Oct. 4, 2020, 10:49 AM EDT
By Kalhan Rosenblatt
NBC News

The body of a former major league baseball player was found Saturday at the Grand Canyon, according to police and local reports.

The man, Charles Haeger, 37, is believed to have died by suicide after having become a suspect in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Danielle Breed, who went by her maiden name, Long, NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix and The Arizona Republic reported.

Haeger was being sought on suspicion of murder and aggravated assault in connection with Breed's death in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Friday night before he fled, according to The Republic.

His body was found at about 4 p.m. on a trail along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Northern Arizona, Scottsdale police said, according to KPNX.

Before his body was discovered, Haeger's abandoned car was found near Flagstaff, Arizona, police said.

Scottsdale police tweeted late Saturday: "This was a domestic violence situation. The suspect was located in Northern Arizona this afternoon and took his own life."

Scottsdale police did not immediately return a request for comment. The police department had tweeted earlier Saturday that it was investigating a homicide.

Haeger was a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was drafted in 2001, according to mlb.com, which reported that he played 83 innings in the major leagues. He was also on the rosters of other teams, including the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Haeger was also briefly a member of the coaching staff of the Chicago Cubs' AA minor league team, the Tennessee Smokies, but his responsibilities were cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the team.

Harold 'Hal' Raether

The Star Tribune
Published on October 4, 2020

Raether, Harold "Hal" Age 87, of Spring Park, MN passed away peacefully on September 26th, 2020. Preceded in death by his brother, Marv and wife, Louise.

Hal grew up in Lake Mills, WI where he enjoyed sports and became an All-State athlete. Hal attended the U of Wisconsin on scholarship after high school and played both baseball and basketball. After graduating from Wisconsin, Hal signed a professional baseball contract with the Philadelphia A's and made his major league debut in Fenway Park.

While playing pro ball, he was drafted and served in the US Army. After his career in baseball and his service in the military, Hal began his teaching/coaching career in the Milwaukee area and married Louise Backer.

Hal was a proud father of three children (Heidi, Rick and Pete) and loved watching sports especially when the Green Bay Packers played. In 1976, Hal accepted a job at the Minneapolis Athletic Club as their athletic director and the family moved to Edina, MN.

After 20 years with the MAC, Hal retired to spend more time playing golf and enjoying his 10 grandchildren. Hal (and his wife, Louise) created a beautiful legacy of faith, family and friends that will live on in our hearts.
Bob Gibson, Cardinals Hall of Fame pitcher, dead at 84

The New York Post
October 2, 2020 11:56pm EST

Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, the dominating St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who won a record seven consecutive World Series starts and set a modern standard for excellence when he finished the 1968 season with a 1.12 ERA, died Friday. He was 84.

The Cardinals confirmed Gibson’s death shortly after a 4-0 playoff loss to San Diego ended their season. He had long been ill with pancreatic cancer in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Gibson’s death came on the 52nd anniversary of perhaps his most overpowering performance, when he struck out a World Series record 17 batters in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series against Detroit.

One of baseball’s most uncompromising competitors, the two-time Cy Young Award winner spent his entire 17-year career with St. Louis and was named the World Series MVP in their 1964 and ’67 championship seasons. The Cards came up just short in 1968, but Gibson was voted the National League’s MVP and shut down opponents so well that baseball changed the rules for fear it would happen again.

Gibson died less than a month after the death of a longtime teammate, Hall of Fame outfielder Lou Brock. Another pitching great from his era, Tom Seaver, died in late August.

“I just heard the news about losing Bob Gibson and it’s kind of hard losing a legend. You can lose a game, but when you lose a guy like Bob Gibson, just hard,” Cardinals star catcher Yadier Molina said. “Bob was funny, smart, he brought a lot of energy. When he talked, you listened. It was good to have him around every year. We lose a game, we lose a series, but the tough thing is we lost one great man.”

At his peak, Gibson may have been the most talented all-around starter in history, a nine-time Gold Glove winner who roamed wide to snatch up grounders despite a fierce, sweeping delivery that drove him to the first base side of the mound; and a strong hitter who twice hit five home runs in a single season and batted .303 in 1970, when he also won his second Cy Young.

Baseball wasn’t his only sport, either. He also starred in basketball at Creighton and spent a year with the Harlem Globetrotters before totally turning his attention to the diamond.

Averaging 19 wins a year from 1963-72, he finished 251-174 with a 2.91 ERA, and was only the second pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts. He didn’t throw as hard as Sandy Koufax, or from as many angles as Juan Marichal, but batters never forgot how he glared at them (or squinted, because he was near-sighted) as if settling an ancient score.

Gibson snubbed opposing players and sometimes teammates who dared speak to him on a day he was pitching, and he didn’t even spare his own family.

“I’ve played a couple of hundred games of tic-tac-toe with my little daughter and she hasn’t beaten me yet,” he once told The New Yorker’s Roger Angell. “I’ve always had to win. I’ve got to win.”

Equally disciplined and impatient, Gibson worked so quickly that broadcaster Vin Scully joked that he pitched as if his car was double-parked.

Ball in hand, he was no nonsense on the hill. And he had no use for advice, scowling whenever catcher Tim McCarver or anyone else thought of visiting the mound.

“The only thing you know about pitching is you can’t hit it,” Gibson was known to say.

His concentration was such that he seemed unaware he was on his way to a World Series single game strikeout record (surpassing Sandy Koufax’s 15) in 1968 until McCarver convinced him to look at the scoreboard.

During the regular season, Gibson struck out more than 200 batters nine times and led the National League in shutouts four times, finishing with 56 in his career. In 1968, thirteen of his 22 wins were shutouts, leading McCarver to call Gibson “the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn’t score any runs.”

He was, somehow, even greater in the postseason, finishing 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 81 innings. Despite dominating the Tigers in the 1968 Series opener, that year ended with a Game 7 loss — hurt by a rare misplay from star center fielder Curt Flood — and a rewriting of the rules that he would long resent.

Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in the regular season was the third lowest for any starting pitcher since 1900 and by far the best for any starter in the post-dead-ball era, which began in the 1920s.

His 1968 performance, the highlight of the so-called “Year of the Pitcher,” left officials worried that fans had bored of so many 1-0 games. They lowered the mound from 15 to 10 inches in 1969 and shrank the strike zone.

“I was pissed,” Gibson later remarked, although he remained a top pitcher for several years and in 1971 threw his only no-hitter, against Pittsburgh.

Hank Aaron once counseled Atlanta Braves teammate Dusty Baker about Gibson.

“Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson; he’ll knock you down,” Aaron said, according to the Boston Globe. “He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don’t stare at him, don’t smile at him, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don’t run too slow, don’t run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don’t charge the mound, because he’s a Gold Glove boxer.”

Only the second Black (after Don Newcombe) to win the Cy Young Award, he was an inspiration when insisting otherwise. Gibson would describe himself as a “blunt, stubborn Black man” who scorned the idea he was anyone’s role model and once posted a sign over his locker reading “I’m not prejudiced. I hate everybody.”

But he was proud of the Cards’ racial diversity and teamwork, a powerful symbol during the civil rights era, and his role in ensuring that players did not live in segregated housing during the season.

He was close to McCarver, a Tennessean who would credit Gibson with challenging his own prejudices, and the acknowledged leader of a club which featured whites (McCarver, Mike Shannon, Roger Maris), Blacks (Gibson, Brock and Flood) and Hispanics (Orlando Cepeda, Julian Javier).

“Our team, as a whole, had no tolerance for ethnic or racial disrespect,” Gibson wrote in “Pitch by Pitch,” published in 2015. “We’d talk about it openly and in no uncertain terms. In our clubhouse, nobody got a free pass.”

Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty, who is Black, grew close to Gibson in recent years. The right-handers would often talk, the 24-year-old Flaherty soaking up advice from the great who wore No. 45.

“That one hurts,” said Flaherty, the Cardinals’ losing pitcher Friday night. “He’s a legend, first and foremost, somebody who I was lucky enough to learn from. You don’t get the opportunity to learn from somebody of that caliber and somebody who was that good very often.”

“I had been kept up on his health and where he was at. I was really hoping it wasn’t going to be today. I was going to wear his jersey today to the field but decided against it,” he said.

Born Pack Robert Gibson in Omaha on Nov. 9, 1935, Gibson overcame childhood illness that nearly cost him his life. His father died soon before his birth, and he grew up in poverty. His mother was a laundry worker, trying to support Gibson and his six siblings.

“Growing up without a father is a hardship and deprivation that is impossible to measure,” Gibson wrote in “From Ghetto to Glory,” one of a handful of books he published.

Gibson went to Omaha Tech High School and stayed in town, attending Creighton from 1954-57, and averaging 20.2 points during his college basketball career. The roughly 6-foot, 2-inch Gibson, who seemed so much taller on the mound, spent the 1957-58 season with the Globetrotters before turning his full attention to baseball.

At Omaha in the minor leagues, he was managed by Johnny Keane, who became a mentor and cherished friend, “the closest thing to a saint” he would ever know in baseball.

Gibson was often forced to live in separate hotels from his white teammates and was subjected to vicious taunts from fans, but he would remember Keane as “without prejudice” and as an unshakeable believer in his talent.

His early years with the Cardinals were plagued by tensions with manager Solly Hemus, who openly used racist language and was despised by Gibson and other Cardinals. Hemus was fired in the middle of the 1961 season and replaced, to Gibson’s great fortune, by Keane.

The pitcher’s career soon took off. He made the first of his eight National League All-Star teams in 1962, and the following year went 18-9 and kept the Cardinals in the pennant race until late in the season.

In 1964, a year he regarded as his favorite, he won three times in the last 11 games as the Cardinals surged past the collapsing Philadelphia Phillies and won the National League title. Gibson lost Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees, but he came back with wins in Games 5 and 7 and was named the MVP.

The series was widely regarded as a turning point in baseball history, with the great Yankee dynasty falling the following year and the Cardinals embodying a more modern and aggressive style of play. Keane stuck with Gibson in Game 7 even after the Yankees’ Clete Boyer and Phil Linz homered in the ninth inning and narrowed the Cardinals’ lead to 7-5. He would later say of Gibson, who retired Bobby Richardson on a pop fly to end the series, that he had a commitment to “his heart.”

Gibson was also close to Keane’s successor, Red Schoendienst, who took over in 1965 after Keane left for the Yankees. Gibson enjoyed 20-game seasons in 1965 and 1966 and likely would have done the same a third straight year, but a Roberto Clemente line drive broke his leg in the middle of the season. (Gibson was so determined he still managed to finish the inning).

Gibson returned in September, finished 13-7 during the regular season and led the Cardinals to the 1967 championship, winning three times and hitting a home run off Red Sox ace Jim Lonborg in Game 7 at Boston’s Fenway Park. The final out was especially gratifying; he fanned first baseman George Scott, who throughout the series had been taunting Gibson and the Cards.

But 1968 was on a level few had seen before. He began slowly, losing five of his first eight decisions despite an ERA of 1.52, and fumed over the lack of hitting support. (“Starvation fare,” Angell would call it).

But from early June to late August, Gibson was unbeatable. He won 15 straight decisions, threw 10 shutouts and at one point allowed just three earned runs during 101 innings. One of those runs scored on a wild pitch, another on a bloop hit.

He was at his best again in the opener of the World Series, giving a performance so singular that his book “Pitch by Pitch” was dedicated entirely to it.

On a muggy afternoon in St. Louis, facing 31-game winner Denny McLain and such power hitters as Al Kaline — who also died this year — Norm Cash and Willie Horton, he allowed just five hits and walked one in a 4-0 victory. Gibson struck out at least one batter every inning and in the ninth fanned Kaline, Cash and Horton to end with 17, the final pitch a slow breaking ball that left Horton frozen in place.

“I was awed,” Tigers second baseman Dick McAuliffe later said. “He doesn’t remind me of anybody. He’s all by himself.”

In Game 4, Gibson homered as he led the Cards to a 10-1 romp over McLain and 3-to-1 advantage in the series. But the Tigers won the next two and broke through in the finale against Gibson, who had a one-hitter with two out in the seventh inning, and the score 0-0.

Gibson allowed two singles before Flood, a Gold Glove center fielder, misplayed Jim Northrup’s drive to left center and the ball fell, before the warning track, for a two-run triple. The Cardinals lost 4-1 and Gibson would grimace even decades later when asked about the game.

By the mid-1970s, his knees were aching and he had admittedly lost some of his competitive fury. On the last day of the 1974 season, with a 2-1 lead and a division title possible, he gave up a two-run homer to the Montreal Expos’ Mike Jorgensen in the eighth inning and the Cards lost 3-2.

He retired after 1975, humiliated in his final appearance when he gave up a grand slam home run to the Chicago Cubs’ Pete LaCock. (When the two faced off a decade later, at an old-timers game, Gibson beaned him).

Gibson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981, and the Cards retired his uniform number. He had a far less successful career as a coach, whether for the New York Mets and Braves in the 1980s, or for the Cardinals in 1995.

He was married twice, most recently to Wendy Gibson, and spent much of his retirement at his longtime home in the Omaha suburb of Bellevue. He was active in charitable causes and hosted a popular golf event in Omaha that drew some of the top names in sports.

Gibson worried that young people were forgetting about baseball history, and he spoke with dismay about a Cardinal player who knew nothing about Jackie Robinson. But in 2018, Gibson himself was honored when the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra commissioned a rap song in his honor.

The lyrics inspired by “From Ghetto to Glory” — “He was a game changer The complete gamer Throw a pitch so fast It’ll rearrange ya He’s no stranger He’s Bob Gibson been on a mission He changed the game forever The pitcher was his position.”

Ron Perranoski, former Dodgers star reliever and coach, dies at 84

Left-hander was a bullpen ace for three Dodgers’ World Series teams and the pitching coach from 1981 through 1994

By Bill Plunkett
Orange County Register
October 3, 2020 at 5:56 p.m.

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have lost another postseason hero from the franchise’s past.

Former reliever and pitching coach Ron Perranoski died Friday night at his home in Vero Beach.

Perranoski, 84, is the third former Dodger to die in the past week, joining Jay Johnstone and Lou Johnson.

One of the best relief pitchers in the franchise’s history, Perranoski was a bullpen ace for the Dodgers’ World Series teams in 1963, 1965 and 1966. Signed by the Chicago Cubs out of Michigan State, Perranoski spent the first eight seasons of a 13-year big-league career with the Dodgers, registering 100 saves even in the days before the closer role became standard.
Dodgers pitcher Ron Perranoski, seen in April 1965 when he was one of the Dodgers’ greatest lefthanded relievers of all-time, died at the age of 84 on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, at his home in Vero Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/File)

He went 16-3 pitching exclusively out of the bullpen for the Dodgers in 1963 and led the National League in appearances (69) while registering 21 saves and a 1.67 ERA. Perranoski led the NL in appearances three times with the Dodgers and led the American League in saves twice with the Minnesota Twins (31 in 1969 and 34 in 1970).

Following his career, Perranoski was the Dodgers’ minor-league pitching coordinator from 1973 to 1980 and the Dodgers’ pitching coach from 1981 through 1994 under manager Tommy Lasorda, participating in four more National League pennant-winning teams and World Series championships in 1981 and 1988.

As an instructor with the Dodgers, he worked with future Cy Young winners and Hall of Famers like Orel Hershiser, Fernando Valenzuela, Dave Stewart, Bob Welch and Pedro Martinez.

“Ron Perranoski played a major role in the success of the Dodgers as a great reliever and a mentor to many great young pitchers over his 30-year career in the organization,” Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten said.

Perranoski made the unusual move to the rival Giants after leaving the Dodgers and served as their minor-league pitching coordinator for two seasons before joining the major-league staff as bench coach in 1997 and pitching coach in 1998 and 1999 under manager Dusty Baker. Perranoski was a special assistant to GM Brian Sabean after that.

Lou Johnson, hit winning homer in '65 World Series, dies at age 86

Oct. 3, 2020, 10:14 AM EDT
By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — “Sweet” Lou Johnson, who hit a key home run for the victorious Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series and scored the only run in Sandy Koufax’s perfect game the same year, has died. He was 86.

Johnson died Wednesday night at his home in Los Angeles, according to the Dodgers, who were informed by his wife. He had been in ill health and died a day after his birthday.

Johnson played 17 seasons in professional baseball, including eight years in the majors with the Chicago Cubs (1960, ’68), California Angels (1961, ’69), Milwaukee Braves (1962), Dodgers (1965-67) and Cleveland Indians (1968). He hit .258 with 48 homers and 232 RBI in 677 games.

Johnson was signed by the New York Yankees in 1953. He spent about a decade in the minors, made his big league debut with the Cubs on April 17, 1960, was traded to the Angels for pitcher Jim McAnany the following April and after one game with California team was dealt to Toronto in the International League. The Braves acquired him as part of a working agreement with Toronto, and he hit .282 in 61 games for Milwaukee in 1962.

Johnson was traded to the Detroit Tigers and spent 1963 and ’64 in their minor league system before being traded to the Dodgers for pitcher Larry Sherry.

Johnson made it back to the majors beginning in 1965 after starting left fielder Tommy Davis broke an ankle in May. Johnson batted .260, with 57 runs and 58 RBI in 130 games as Davis’ fill-in.

Johnson also scored the only run in Sandy Koufax’s perfect game victory on Sept. 9, 1965, when he walked, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a throwing error by Chicago Cubs catcher Chris Krug.

The Dodgers advanced to the 1965 World Series against Minnesota. Johnson had eight hits, including two homers, the second the game-winner in Game 7.

In 1966, Davis returned to left field and Johnson played mostly in right with Willie Davis in center. Johnson set career highs of 152 games, 526 at-bats, 143 hits, 17 homers, 71 runs and 73 RBIs. He averaged .272 and the Dodgers advanced to the World Series again, where they were swept in four games by Baltimore.

Johnson broke a leg sliding into Joe Torre and played in just 104 games for the Dodgers in 1967. He retired at 35 in 1970.

Born Louis Brown Johnson in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sept. 22, 1934, he was nicknamed Sweet Lou upon joining the Dodgers because of his infectious smile and he was always clapping.

“Dodger fans will always remember his important home run in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series, when he was clapping his hands running around the bases,” team president and CEO Stan Kasten said. “Lou Johnson was such a positive inspiration at Dodger Stadium with our employees and our fans as well as throughout the community in the appearances he made on behalf of the organization.”

Johnson worked for the Dodgers for 40 years, between his time as a player and in the team’s community relations department.

He is survived by his wife Sarah, and children Lauren, Carlton and Quinton.

Funeral services were pending.

Jay Johnstone, ex-Yankees outfielder and prankster, dead at 74

The New York Post
September 28, 2020 | 10:31pm EDT

LOS ANGELES — Jay Johnstone, who won World Series championships as a versatile outfielder with the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers while being baseball’s merry prankster, has died. He was 74.

He died last Saturday of complications from COVID-19 and also had suffered from dementia in recent years, according to his daughter Mary Jayne Sarah Johnstone. He died at a nursing home in Granada Hills, she said Monday.

“COVID was the one thing he couldn’t fight,” his daughter said by phone. “It’s really kind of shocking.”

His family noted that Johnstone’s time of death last Saturday occurred around the same time Dodger Stadium was plunged into darkness because of a power outage.

“He may have had a hand in it or a victory lap of remembrance,” said Rick Monday, Johnstone’s former teammate and current Dodgers broadcaster.

Besides the Yankees and Dodgers, Johnstone played for the California Angels, Chicago White Sox, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Chicago Cubs during a 20-year major league career that began in 1966 and ended in 1985. He had a career batting average of .267, with 102 home runs and 531 RBIs.

In the 1981 World Series, Johnstone had a pinch-hit, two-run homer in Game 4 that rallied the Dodgers to an 8-7 win over the Yankees. That tied the series at two games apiece, and the Dodgers won the next two games to claim the title.

“When the game was on the line, he was able to transform that little 7-year-old child that was always in a playful mood into serious,” Monday said. “Jay was always bigger than life. If the team was in a spot where you felt your backs were against the wall, he was one of the reliable guys.”

In his first postseason experience, Johnstone went 7 for 9 as the Phillies got swept by Cincinnati in the 1976 NL Championship Series. He played for the Yankees when they beat the Dodgers to win the 1978 crown.

With the Angels, Johnstone preserved Clyde Wright’s no-hitter against Oakland on July 3, 1970. He caught a flyball by Reggie Jackson to straightaway center field just in front of the wall in the seventh inning.

Johnstone possessed a sense of humor that he used to keep his teammates loose with pranks. He would nail their cleats to the floor or set them on fire. He cut out the crotch area of Rick Sutcliffe’s underwear. Johnstone once replaced the celebrity photos in the office of Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda with pictures of himself, Jerry Reuss and Don Stanhouse. He locked Lasorda in his office during spring training.

Another time, Johnstone and Reuss dressed up as groundskeepers to drag the infield during a game. Returning to the dugout, they were fined on the spot by Lasorda, who then asked Johnstone to pinch hit. He responded with a home run.

“Jay came back and wanted to know if he could get a discount on the fine,” Monday recalled.

His daughter said Johnstone’s pranks didn’t end at the ballpark. She recalled rubber snakes in their pool and spiders by the bathtub. She said her friends loved being around her father because “he always made us laugh.”

“He wanted to find the humor in life no matter how serious things got,” she said. “That was his motto to everything, bring a smile to people’s faces. Everyone loved him.”

Johnstone’s daughter said her favorite photo is one of her being held up by her father in the Dodgers clubhouse after winning the 1981 World Series. The Dodgers, who won their last World Series in 1988, begin the playoffs on Wednesday.

“I hope the Dodgers win it for him this year,” she said.

After retiring, Johnstone briefly worked as a radio color commentator for the Yankees and Phillies. During an interview with Yankee players Deion Sanders and Mel Hall, he got them to uncover a restaurant bread basket containing a snake, startling both players who jumped out of their seats.

Born John William Johnstone Jr. on Nov. 20, 1945, in Manchester, Connecticut, he moved to Southern California a few years later. He grew up in West Covina and attended Edgewood High, where he lettered in four sports. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Angels in 1963 and made his major league debut at 20.

Johnstone appeared in the hit movie “The Naked Gun” as a member of the Seattle Mariners in a game against the Angels. He wrote three books about his playing days and the pranks he pulled.

He was active in the MLB Alumni Association, participating in charity events and speaking engagements across the country. He attended old timers’ games with the Yankees and Dodgers as recently as 2018.

Besides his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 52 years, Mary Jayne Johnstone; sister Sandy Clairmont; and son-in-law Ryan Dudasik.

Paul Pettit, phenom who earned MLB’s first $100,000 signing bonus, dies at 88

Los Angeles Times)
By Mike DiGiovanna
September 25, 2020

Paul Pettit, the Harbor City Narbonne pitching phenom who struck out 27 batters in a game in 1949 and was the first player to receive a six-figure signing bonus from a major league team, died of natural causes at his home in Canyon Lake, Calif., on Thursday, his family announced. Pettit was 88.

Nicknamed “Lefty” and the “Wizard of Whiff,” Pettit combined a mid-90s fastball with a slow curve to throw six no-hitters and strike out 390 batters in 140 high school innings, according to the Society of American Baseball Research.

Pettit was thrust onto the national stage as the most sought-after amateur pitcher in America at age 18. Former Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey compared Pettit to future Hall of Famer Bob Feller, who was pitching for the Cleveland Indians at the time.

Pettit was courted by a Hollywood movie producer who offered him $60,000 for the rights to his life story in 1949, and he signed baseball’s first $100,000 bonus with the Pittsburgh Pirates that year. He rubbed elbows with Bing Crosby and Jayne Mansfield, and retained Rickey as an informal advisor.

Pettit reached the big leagues as a 19 year old, and he pitched in 12 games for the Pirates in 1951 and 1953, going 1-2 with a 7.34 ERA. But a serious elbow injury he suffered in a minor league game in 1951 derailed his pitching career.

Pettit reinvented himself as a first baseman and outfielder as he played parts of five seasons (1952, 1954-57) with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. He played his final four seasons (1958-60, 1962) with triple-A Columbus of the International League and triple-A Salt Lake City and Seattle of the PCL.

Pettit earned a college degree in education during baseball’s offseasons and enjoyed a 30-year teaching and coaching career at Lawndale, Lawndale Leuzinger and Long Beach Jordan high schools. He also served as a scout and minor league instructor for the Kansas City Royals.

“When my brothers and I got to high school, he walked away from baseball to spend time with his kids,” said Tim Pettit, who pitched briefly in the Angels’ farm system. “It gave us unfettered access to one of the best coaches I had in baseball. We got all of him. We didn’t have to share him with MLB. That was a cool thing.”

Tim Pettit said his father was slowed since last year by a nerve disorder that limited his mobility and some cardiac issues, and he suffered a stroke on Sept. 18.

Pettit was predeceased by Shirley Pettit, his high school sweetheart and wife of 65 years. He is survived by his wife, Sally, six children — Paul (68), Mark (66), Cynthia (65), Tim (63), Mike (53) and Stephanie (48) — 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Services are pending.

Jim Owens
(1934-2020)

By Sam Gazdziak
Rest In Peace Baseball
September 25, 2020

Jim Owens, who had a 12-year career as a pitcher before spending six seasons as a pitching coach. It has been reported that he died on September 8 at the age of 86. Owens pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies (1955-56, 1958-62), Cincinnati Reds (1963) and Houston Colt .45s/Astros (1964-67).

The story that announced his death came from an autograph seeker. Owens was a notorious non-signer, so the seeker contacted Owens’ son. Owens was in poor health and hospitalized with pneumonia, but he agreed to sign this one card. The seeker got the returned card and, on the same day, a text message from Jim Owens Jr. saying that his father had passed away. Wikipedia and Baseball Almanac have both listed the date of death as September 8 and his place of death in Houston. I will update this post with any more information, such as a family-placed obituary, should it become available.

James Philip Owens was born on Gifford, Pa., on January 16, 1934. He attended Bradford High School in Bradford, Pa., and was a star on both the basketball and baseball team. He also captained the top touch football team in the school in his senior year of 1950. After he graduated in the spring of 1951, Owens remained in Bradford as a pitcher for the Bradford Phillies, Philadelphia’s affiliate in the Class-D Pony League. He won 6 games in that first season of pro ball and moved on to the Miami (Okla.) Eagles of the Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League in 1952. There, he showed his potential by posting a 22-7 record with a 1.76 ERA. He missed a no-hitter against Independence by giving up a single after 8-2/3 hitless innings and an 0-2 count on the batter. The 22 wins were second-best in the league, but he set a new K-O-M League record of 302 strikeouts. He also picked up the nickname “The Bear,” which he carried with him throughout his career.

Owens continued a remarkable run in the minors for the next two seasons. He won 22 games for Class-B Terre Haute in 1953 and 17 for AAA Syracuse in 1954 (winning the International League Rookie of the Year Award). That performance resulted in offseason reports comparing him favorably to Phillies ace Robin Roberts, and he was considered the best pitcher in the minors, even ahead of Cleveland’s Herb Score.

“Owens has the best curveball in baseball,” said Phillies general manager Roy Hamey, “and you don’t have to take my word for it. All the scouts of the rival clubs back me up. The boy is ready for the big leagues now.”

That great curveball vanished entirely about midway through training camp in 1955, but the Phillies put Owens on the Opening Day roster anyway. He made his MLB debut on April 19 in a start against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He surrendered 5 runs in 5-1/3 innings, striking out 3 batters and allowing back-to-back home runs to Carl Furillo and Roy Campanella in a 7-6 loss. After one more rocky start and a relief appearance, he was sent back to Syracuse with an 0-2 record and 8.13 ERA. He found his mojo back in the minor leagues and won 15 games.

Owens was still several years away from being a regular in the Phillies pitching staff. Once again, he started 1956 with the big-league team, but he wasn’t successful either as a starter or reliever. He lasted on the team until July 1, when he failed to retire a batter in a start against the Dodgers. After two walks, a 3-run homer by Duke Snider and a single by Randy Jackson, Owens was pulled and soon after sent to AAA Miami.

The problems that would make Owens notorious in a few years started to surface in Miami. He showed up for a game on August 8 “in no condition to go on,” as The Miami News tactfully put it. In reality, he was too drunk to pitch, and Owens was later sent to the hospital with a bruise on his head — allegedly after getting into a fight with manager Don Osborn. Owens apologized for the incident, which saved him from a season-long suspension.

“I realize what a spectacle I made of myself and I am ashamed of my actions. I’m sorry that I set such a bad example for the kids. I guess I feel worse about that than anything else,” he confessed. “My only hope now is that I can back in uniform and help the Marlins win this pennant.”

Owens ended the year with a 5-7 record in 15 appearances for the Marlins, with a 2.86 ERA. That would be the last pitching he would do for a long time, as he was inducted into the Army on January 3, 1957. He spent most of the next two years in the military, not appearing in a Phillies uniform until September 23, 1958. He started a game against the Milwaukee Braves and pitched the best game of his career to date. In 7 innings, Owens allowed just 4 hits and 4 runs (2 earned) while walking 5 and fanning 2 batters. The Phillies beat the Braves 6-5, giving the pitcher his first major-league win in his third stint in the majors. It was the only game he would pitch in 1958.

After a successful campaign playing winter ball in Venezuela, Owens put together the best season of his career in 1959. Though his record was just 12-12, he had a 3.21 ERA and struck out 135 batters in 221-1/3 innings. He made 30 starts and completed 11 of them, and he picked up a save in his one relief appearance. He was one of the few bright spots for the 90-loss Phillies.

Owens made headlines in 1960, but it was for his off-field activities. He was involved in a post-curfew bar fight during spring training in Florida on March 30 and quit the team when he was fined $600. “I don’t make that kind of money with the Phillies that I can afford a $600 fine,” he said. The retirement lasted about an hour, ending when General Manager John Quinn cautioned him against throwing away his career at the age of 26. A couple of weeks later, he beat the Pirates 4-3 on a 3-hitter, and it looked like he’d have another good year. Instead, that victory was one of only four wins he’d pick up on the season, to go with 14 defeats and a 5.04 ERA. Part of the problem was the long ball, as he gave up 21 homers in 150 innings.

The nightlife was the other part of Owens’ problem, as he became known as part of The Dalton Gang. Owens and pitcher Turk Farrell were charter members dating back to 1959, along with pitchers Seth Morehead and Jack Meyer. Quinn had even offered Owens a $500 good behavior bonus as a part of his 1960 contract — which was revoked as a part of that $600 fine. New manager Gene Mauch had no tolerance for their behavior. Owens was suspended in July for “general insubordination and personal conduct” after being demoted to the bullpen and exchanging words with Mauch.

According to some who knew him, Owens came from a broken home and started drinking at a very early age. “His father used to come down to breakfast and put a bottle on the table,” said one anonymous source.

Owens’ struggles continued with the Phillies for the next two seasons. He went a combined 7-14 in 1961 and ’62, with his ERA rising into the 6’s while his usage dropped. He’d occasionally pitch brilliantly, but just as occasionally his personal troubles would land him in trouble. He left the team in March of 1961 after being disciplined for “a hotel incident” and demanded to be traded. He didn’t return to the team until late June. When he did, he shut down the Giants over 6 innings in his first start, and Dallas Green relieved him for a 1-0 victory. Giants manager Alvin Dark was so upset over the loss that he threw a stool at his locker and ended up ripping off the tip of the little finger on his right hand.

By 1962, the relationship between Owens and the Phillies had fractured irreparably. Philadelphia owner Bob Carpenter refused to sell him to another team unless he got quality in return, on account of Owens’ former status as a prized pitching prospect. However, no team would offer much, so Owens was left to stew in the dugout and only occasionally pitch. Finally, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds of November of 1962 for Cookie Rojas.
Jim Owens (right) is ejected by umpire Shag Crawford after committing three balks in one inning. Catcher Johnny Edwards complains to no avail. Source: The Palladium Item, April 25, 1963.

Mauch called the trade a case of addition by subtraction. Owens shot back, “Tell Mauch that the Phillies might add something if they subtracted him.”

Much of Owens’ time with Cincinnati was spent in the minor leagues with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. He was brilliant there, with a 4-2 record and 2.21 ERA in 8 games. In 19 games with the Reds, he was 0-2 with a 5.31 ERA and worked mainly out of the bullpen. He was charged with three balks in one inning, tying a major-league record, on April 24 and was ejected by home place umpire Shag Crawford. The first two balks were for not making a 1-second pause in his windup. The last one was for taking an absurdly long pause in the windup and annoying Crawford.

The Reds left Owens unprotected in the Rule 5 that offseason, and he was picked by the Houston Colt .45s. He was reunited with his Dalton Gang cohort Turk Farrell, but by then, the pitchers were 30 years old and more interested in pitching. Not that a reputation ever really goes away. Owens suffered a cut on his leg after slipping and falling on a piece of glass. Then he read the papers that reported he was stabbed during a bar brawl and was in critical condition.

Owens stayed with the team for four seasons and became a pretty good reliever. He made 11 starts and 37 relief appearances for Houston in 1964, ending the year with an 8-7 record, 3.28 ERA and 6 saves. After that, he was exclusively a reliever. He saved a career-high 8 games in 1965 while maintaining that 3.28 ERA for a second straight year. On April 24, 1966, he surrendered Willie Mays’ 511th career home run, which tied the National League record set by Mel Ott.

He and Farrell proved that could cause a ruckus while sober, too. They bought a boa constructor and two baby alligators from a pet shop in spring training in 1965 and unleashed them in the clubhouse. That was how they discovered teammate Walt Bond really did not like reptiles.

Owens was released in July of 1967 after accumulating a 4.22 ERA in 10 games out of the pen. It wasn’t a bitter parting, as the team offered to hire him as an unofficial pitching coach if no other team signed him. Owens joined the Astros coaching staff and held the role of pitching coach through 1972. He held the position under managers Grady Hatton, Harry Walker and Leo Durocher.

In 12 seasons, Owens had a 42-68 record with 21 saves and a 4.31 ERA. He appeared in 286 games, with 103 starts. He struck out 516 batters in 885-1/3 innings and had a WHIP of 1.437.

Lou Brock, Cardinals Hall of Famer, dead at 81

The Mew York Post
September 6, 2020 7:39pm EDT

Hall of Famer Lou Brock, one of baseball’s signature leadoff hitters and base stealers who helped the St. Louis Cardinals win three pennants and two World Series in the 1960s, has died. He was 81.

Dick Zitzmann, Brock’s longtime agent and friend, confirmed Brock’s death Sunday, but he said he couldn’t provide any details. The Cardinals and Cubs also observed a moment of silence in the outfielder’s memory before their game at Wrigley Field.

Brock lost a leg from diabetes in recent years and was diagnosed with cancer in 2017.

“Lou Brock was one of the most revered members of the St. Louis Cardinals organization and one of the very best to ever wear the Birds on the Bat,” Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a release.

“He will be deeply missed and forever remembered.”

The man later nicknamed the Running Redbird and the Base Burglar arrived in St. Louis in June 1964, swapped from the Cubs for pitcher Ernie Broglio in what became one of baseball’s most lopsided trades.

Brock stole 938 bases in his career, including 118 in 1974 — both of those were big league records until they were broken by Rickey Henderson.

“Lou was an outstanding representative of our national pastime and he will be deeply missed,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a release.

Brock’s death came after Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver died Monday. Brock and Seaver faced each other 157 times, the most prolific matchup for both of them in their careers.

Along with starter Bob Gibson and center fielder Curt Flood, Brock was an anchor for St. Louis as its combination of speed, defense and pitching made it a top team in the ’60s and a symbol of the National League’s more aggressive style at the time in comparison to the American League.

“There are two things I will remember most about Lou,” former Cardinals teammate Ted Simmons said in a statement. “First was his vibrant smile. Whenever you were in a room with Lou, you couldn’t miss it — the biggest, brightest, most vibrant smile on earth. The other was that he was surely hurt numerous times, but never once in my life did I know he was playing hurt.”

The Cards were World Series champions in 1964 and 1967 and lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games in 1968. Opposing teams were warned to keep Brock off base, especially in the low-scoring years of 1967-68 when a single run often could win a game. But the speedy left fielder with the popup slide was a consistent base-stealing champion and run producer.

A lifetime .293 hitter, he led the league in steals eight times, scored 100 or more runs seven times and amassed 3,023 hits.

Brock was even better in postseason play, batting .391 with four homers, 16 RBIs and 14 steals in 21 World Series games. He had a record-tying 13 hits in the 1968 World Series, and in Game 4 homered, tripled and doubled as the Cardinals trounced Detroit and 31-game winner Denny McLain 10-1.

Brock never played in another World Series after 1968, but remained a star for much of the last 11 years of his career.

He was so synonymous with base stealing that in 1978 he became the first major leaguer to have an award named for him while still active — the Lou Brock Award, for the National League’s leader in steals. For Brock, base stealing was an art form and a kind of warfare. He was among the first players to study films of opposing pitchers and, once on base, relied on skill and psychology.

In his 1976 memoir “Lou Brock: Stealing is My Game,” he explained his success. Take a “modest lead” and “stand perfectly still.” The pitcher was obligated to move, if only “to deliver the pitch.” “Furthermore, he has two things on his mind: the batter and me,” Brock wrote. “I have only one thing in mind — to steal off him. The very business of disconcerting him is marvelously complex.”
see also

Brock closed out his career in 1979 by batting .304, making his sixth All-Star Game appearance and winning the Comeback Player of the Year award. The team retired his uniform number, 20, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985 in his first year of eligibility.

The soft-spoken Brock was determined no matter the score and sometimes angered opponents and teammates by stealing even when the Cards were far ahead. He also made two damaging mistakes that helped cost St. Louis the ’68 World Series.

After his playing career was over, Brock worked as a florist and a commentator for ABC’s “Monday Night Baseball” and was a regular for the Cards at spring training. He served as a part-time instructor while remaining an autograph favorite for fans, some of them wearing Brock-a-brellas, a hat with an umbrella top that he designed.

“Our hearts are a little heavy for the passing of Lou, but we know he’s in a better place,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said.

Brock had been a nominal churchgoer since childhood, but his faith deepened after enduring personal struggles in the 1980s and he and his third wife, Jacky, became ordained ministers serving at Abundant Life Fellowship Church in St. Louis. He would speak of having “a “Holy Ghost-Filled Alarm Clock” whenever tempted to resume his previous ways.

“Your old lifestyle’s not going away; it’s going to be around you for a long time. But you’ll find it has no room to enter,” he once told The Christian Broadcasting Network.

Brock was married three times and had three children, among them Lou Brock Jr., a former NFL cornerback and safety.

The seventh of nine children, Lou Brock Sr. was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, and grew up in a four-bedroom shack in rural Collinston, Louisiana. His introduction to baseball came by accident. Brock had spat on a teacher and for punishment had to write a book report about baseball, presumably to teach him about life beyond Collinston.

A star athlete in high school, he was accepted into Southern University on a work-study scholarship, nearly failed, but remained with the college when a baseball tryout led to an athletic scholarship. Brock signed with the Cubs as an amateur free agent in 1960, made his major league debut late in the following season and was in the starting lineup by 1962.

After batting just .251 with Chicago at the time he was traded in 1964, Brock hit .348 with 33 steals the rest of the way, helping St. Louis overtake Philadelphia and win the pennant. Meanwhile, Broglio was finished by 1966. He was an 18-game winner in 1963 but, as the Cubs would discover, had ongoing arm problems and never reached double digits in victories again.

”(Broadcaster) Brent Musburger was just out of college when the trade was made,” Brock told MiLB.com in 2010. “They sent him in to do the story. It was his first assignment. The content of the interview led to a headline in the paper, ‘Cubs pull off greatest steal since the Brink’s Robbery.’

“So every time I see Brent, that’s our connection. He wrote that, so every time I see him I say, “You still think that was the greatest steal since the Brink’s Robbery?’”

Tom Seaver, the greatest Met of all time, dies at 75

By Bill Madden
New York Daily News |
September 2, 2020 at 8:09 PM

The long goodbye has ended. The Mets’ “Franchise” is gone.

Tom Seaver, the greatest of all Mets who dropped out of public life in March of 2019 after being diagnosed with dementia died early Monday. According to family sources, Seaver, 75, died peacefully at his home in Calistoga, Calif., from complications from Lyme disease, dementia and COVID-19.

He leaves behind 311 victories, 3,640 career strikeouts, three Cy Young Awards and countless millions New York baseball fans who forever cherish the memories of the Miracle Mets 1969 championship season and his starring role in it.

“We are heartbroken to share that our beloved husband and father has passed away,” said his wife Nancy Seaver and daughters Sarah and Anne in a statement to the Baseball Hall of Fame. “We send our love out to his fans, as we mourn his loss with you.”

In the annals of baseball there will never be a more improbable World Series champion than the ’69 Mets, who had never had a winning season since their inception in 1962. Seaver was the catalyst, the ace of a young and talented pitching staff that included Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan and Gary Gentry, who all blossomed together. Leading the league with 25 wins en route to his first Cy Young Award, Seaver hurled eight consecutive complete game victories from Aug. 31-Sept. 27 as the Mets rallied from as far back as 10 games behind on Aug. 13 to chase down Leo Durocher’s Cubs. The pivotal series which broke the slumping Cubs’ back was Sept. 8-9 at Shea Stadium in which Koosman out-pitched Chicago’s Bill Hands, 3-2 with a 13-strikeout effort in the first game, and Seaver, backed by homers from Donn Clendenon and Art Shamsky, triumphed over fellow future Hall of Famer, Ferguson Jenkins, in the second game to bring the Mets to one-half game of first place. They went into first place by sweeping a doubleheader from the Expos the next night and never relinquished it.

Earlier that season, on July 9 against the Cubs, Seaver pitched what he called the “greatest game of my career” in an emotionally-charged night at Shea when he took a perfect game into the ninth inning only to lose it on a one-out looping single to left-center field by unsung reserve outfielder, Jimmy Qualls. Seaver took two other no-hitters into the ninth inning in his career before finally succeeding, June 16, 1978, against the Cardinals while a member of the Reds.

“A no-hitter is momentary,” he said afterward. “You enjoy the moment. But nothing can ever compare to winning a World Series.”

After sweeping the Atlanta Braves, 3-0, in the ’69 National League Championship Series, the Mets completed their miracle season by upsetting the Orioles of Frank and Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Boog Powell, who’d led the majors with 109 wins, in the World Series. After giving up a game-opening homer to the Orioles’ Don Buford, Seaver was out-pitched by Mike Cuellar in Game 1, but redeemed himself mightily by holding the Orioles to one run in a 10-inning complete game victory in Game 4. The next day, Koosman hurled another complete game to clinch the Series.

It was sometime during the ’69 season that Jack Lang, the Met beat writer for the Long Island Press, began referring to Seaver as “Tom Terrific” in his game stories — a moniker that stuck for the rest of his career and beyond.

But there was so much more to the Seaver lore beyond the ’69 championship season, beginning in 1966 when he became an accidental Met. After growing up in Fresno, Calif., and graduating from high school, he got no college scholarship offers because he was too small. Instead, he decided to enroll in the Marine Corps reserves whereupon, in six months, he grew from 5-9, 160-pounds to 6-1, 210. Suddenly, he was a prospect, and in 1965 earned a scholarship to USC under the legendary coach Rod Dedeaux, and was 10-2 with 100 strikeouts in 100 innings.

The following January he was drafted by the Braves, the favorite team of his youth because of Hank Aaron, who he idolized. But after agreeing to a contract for $40,000, plus an additional $11,500 to complete his college education, Seaver suddenly found himself in no-man’s land. It seemed USC had already begun their new season when Seaver signed the contract, a violation of major league rules. Thus, the contract had to be voided, but at the same time, Seaver was now also ineligible to return to school. After his father, Charles, a world class amateur golfer who was a member of the 1932 Walker Cup team, threatened to sue baseball, Commissioner William Eckert resolved the issue by setting up a lottery in which any teams willing to match the Braves’ offer could participate for Seaver’s services. Only three teams, the Indians, Phillies and Mets, stepped forward and Eckert picked the Mets out of a hat.

Seaver spent only one year of minor league apprenticeship, earning a spot in the Mets rotation in 1967 where he proceeded to win National League Rookie of the Year honors with a 16-13 record and 2.76 ERA. When Gil Hodges took over as Mets manager in 1968, Seaver called it a transformational event in his career. He immediately bonded with the former standout Dodger first baseman and ex-Marine, and later said Hodges was the most influential person in his life after his father.

If there was one thing Seaver made clear when he joined the Mets it was that he wanted nothing to do with the “lovable losers” image they’d acquired ever since setting the major league record of 120 losses in 1962. When he beat the Dodgers, 5-2, June 3, 1969, to lift the Mets over .500 for the first time in their history, he seethed at a reporter’s question about it being worthy of a champagne celebration. “Champagne?” he snapped. “Five-hundred is nothing to celebrate. It’s mediocrity. Maybe Marv Throneberry and Rod Kanehl (two of the legendary inept ’62 Mets) will celebrate. But I had nothing to do with that. The only time for champagne is when we win a World Series.”

Beginning in 1968, Seaver set a slew of strikeout records. On April 22, 1970, he tied the major league record by striking out 19 San Diego Padres in one game, including another record 10 strikeouts in a row to finish it. From 1968-76, he set the all-time record of nine consecutive 200-strikeout seasons. His career total of 3,640 ranks sixth on the all-time list; his 61 shutouts tied for seventh with Ryan.

In 1970 and ’71, Seaver led the NL in both ERA (2.81 and 1.76) and strikeouts (283 and 289) but did not win the Cy Young Award. It wasn’t until 1973, when he led the Mets to their second World Series, with a 19-10 record and league leading 2.08 ERA, 18 complete games, 251 strikeouts and 0.976 WHIP, that he became the first pitcher to win the Cy Young without winning 20 games. He won his third and final Cy Young in 1975, leading the NL in wins (22-9) and strikeouts (243). But the following year, with the dawning of free agency in baseball, trouble with Mets upper management developed.

As the Mets’ union representative, Seaver had worked hard to bring about a new system in baseball eliminating the reserve clause that had essentially bound players to their teams for life, and in that role incurred the enmity of Mets board chairman M. Donald Grant, who at one point during labor negotiations confronted him in the clubhouse and said: “What are you, a Communist?” At the end of the ’76 season, the two became embroiled in an increasingly nasty contract dispute, with Grant enlisting the support of the Daily News’ powerful sports columnist, Dick Young, to write a series of columns highly critical of Seaver. “Tom Tewwific is a pouting, griping, morale-breaking clubhouse lawyer, poisoning the team,” Young wrote in launching his offensive.

Despite being highly critical of Grant’s refusal to engage in the bidding for any of the premium free agents, Seaver made it clear to Mets owner Lorinda de Roulet he did not want to leave the Mets, and agreed to a three-year contract, with a base salary of $325,000 through 1978. But right before the June 15, 1977 trading deadline. Seaver became enraged with a column by Young that brought his wife, Nancy, into the fray: “Nolan Ryan is getting more now than Seaver, and that galls Tom because he Nancy Seaver and Ruth Ryan are very friendly and Tom Seaver has long treated Nolan Ryan like a little brother.”

That was it. Seaver called Mets GM Joe McDonald, screaming “get me out of here” and the next day, in what was dubbed the “Midnight Massacre”, Grant traded Seaver to the Reds for four players, pitcher Pat Zachry, second baseman Doug Flynn, and outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman. Later that night he traded the Mets top slugger, Dave Kingman, to the Padres for Bobby Valentine.

In the New York newspapers of June 16, Grant and Young were universally pilloried for driving Seaver out of town, none more so than Young’s own Daily News in which columnist Pete Hamill wrote: “There is, of course, no way to discuss the departure of Tom Seaver without discussing the role of Dick Young. Nothing is more squalid than a quarrel between writers and I have too much respect for Young’s talents to want to pick a fight with him. But for almost two years Young has been functioning as a hit man for Mets management and in that role he helped drive a great ballplayer out of town, helped demoralize younger men and worst of all has demeaned his own talents.”

Seaver went on to win 75 more games for the Reds from 1977-81, but after a bout with shoulder tendinitis in 1980 landed him on the disabled list for a month for the first time in his career, he was no longer a pure power pitcher. He was, however, still acknowledged as the smartest pitcher in the game. In the 1981 “split season” that was interrupted by a 50-day players strike, he led the NL in wins (14-2) while striking out only 87 batters in 166 1/3 innings.

It was ironically the element that ultimately settled the ’81 strike (which he helped negotiate) — indirect compensation to teams that lost free agents in the form of a pool of unprotected players — that led to Seaver’s second departure from the Mets three years later. Following an injury-plagued 5-13 season in ’82, it was agreed by Seaver and the Reds that they should part ways and a trade was worked out that sent him back home to the Mets for a second-line starting pitcher, Charlie Puleo.

It was, however, a terrible (68-94) Mets team Seaver rejoined in ’83, and though he was able to log over 200 innings for the first time since ’79, he had his second straight (9-14) losing record. Disappointing as that had been, it was nothing compared to the shock he incurred the following January when he was selected by the White Sox out of the free agent compensation pool after the Mets had incomprehensibly left him off their protected list. In taking full blame for the blunder, Mets GM Frank Cashen said he didn’t think the White Sox would take a 40-year-old pitcher, especially one like Seaver who was acknowledged to be a New York icon and the Mets’ “franchise” player.

Seaver won 15 games in 1984 for the White Sox including two in one day, May 9, when he was called upon to pitch the final inning of an eight-hour game that had been suspended from the night before, and then pitched 8 1/3 innings in his own scheduled start. The following year, he won 16 games for the White Sox. None of them were more notable, however, than August 4 against the Yankees when he upstaged Phil Rizzuto on his “day” at Yankee Stadium with his 300th career victory — a six-hit, seven strikeout complete game with the appropriate score of 4-1, his career uniform number.

By then, Seaver had grown homesick and longed to go back to New York so he could spend more time with his wife and two daughters. After first engaging with George Steinbenner to no avail on a trade with the Yankees, White Sox general manager “Hawk” Harrelson was able to satisfy Seaver by sending him to the Red Sox, June 29, 1986, for infielder Steve Lyons. It was an injury-plagued 7-13 ’86 season for Seaver, however, and a knee issue consigned him to being spectator in the World Series against his old team, the Mets, when the Red Sox left him off their postseason roster.

In May of ’87, at Cashen’s request, Seaver attempted a comeback with the Mets, hoping to end his career where it started, but it was not to be. After spending a couple of weeks trying to work his way back with the Mets’ Triple-A Norfolk team, Seaver concluded that he was regressing rather than progressing, and on June 22, 1987, announced his retirement at Shea Stadium. “I would have loved to help this team win another world championship,” he said, “but there are no more pitches in this 42-year-old arm. I’ve used them all up.” A year later, the Mets retired his No. 41, and his list of Met records — wins (198), complete games (171), shutouts (44), starts (395), innings (3,045), strikeouts (2,541) and ERA (2.57) — will likely stand forever.

In his post-playing career Seaver worked as an analyst in the WPIX Yankee broadcast booth from 1989-93 and later did the same with the Mets from 1999-2005, In 1992, he was elected to the Hall of Fame with the highest percentage (98.8%) ever to that time. “There were very few times in my career when I was speechless, but the magnitude that goes with the Hall of Fame and the numbers…I’m at a total disbelief at that percentage,” he said.

But as he later told intimates, broadcasting just wasn’t satisfying enough for him. He needed a new challenge and, in 1998, he told Nancy he wanted to move from their longtime home in Greenwich, Conn., to California and make wine. He purchased 115 acres of dense brush on the top of Diamond Mountain in Calistoga and created a vineyard where he produced cabernet sauvignon. In 2008, his GTS (for George Thomas Seaver) cabernet was accorded a 97 rating by the Wine Spectator.

Sadly, he was unable to fully enjoy his successful second career and new life as a California winemaker. Sometime around 2010-2011 he began having memory issues, mood swings and occasional flu-like symptoms. Fearing he’d had a stroke or was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, he did nothing about it. It wasn’t until one day in 2012 when he couldn’t remember the name of his head vineyard worker that Nancy insisted he see a doctor.

In March of 2013 Seaver revealed to the Daily News that he was suffering from a recurrence of the Lyme disease, which he first contracted in 1991 working in his garden in Greenwich. Because he had taken so long to get it diagnosed, doctors told him the damage to his brain was irreversible and his memory loss would likely gradually get worse. In October of 2018, he shut off communication with his friends. The following March the Hall of Fame put out a statement that Seaver was suffering from dementia. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, and two daughters, Sarah and Anne.

Keith Lampard
Dec. 20, 1945 - Aug. 30, 2020

Published in The Oregonian from Oct. 19 to Oct. 21, 2020.

Keith was born in Warrington, England. In 1949, Keith and his family sailed on H.M.S. Caronia from Southampton to New York, making their home in Portland, Ore.

Keith excelled at sports from a young age. From Little League baseball to a Madison state championship to later playing right field for the Houston Astros, Keith was known for his patience and determination. At Madison, Keith was a powerhouse at bat and frequently sent balls over the right field fence and through the window of a house across the street, necessitating a higher fence, aptly called "Lampard's Fence".

After graduating from the University of Oregon, Keith played professional baseball from 1965 to 1971 and went on to become a teacher, counselor and baseball coach in Texas and Oregon.

An animal lover, avid golfer and wood-worker, Keith enjoyed these things along with helping people in his community and working on his property in Lincoln City with his wife Sandi and their llamas, dogs and cats. He will be remembered for his humility, warmth, kindness and generosity.

He is survived by his wife, Sandi; daughter, Melinda; and sister, Carol.

In remembrance of Keith's life, donations may be made to Madison High School Athletic Fund.

Legend! Remigio Hermoso, a former Buenos Aires grandee, died

ACN.com
By Miguel Sanchez
August 22, 2020

Remigio Hermoso, one of the legends of Venezuelan baseball, passed away; who wrote glorious pages and held up Venezuela and his native Puerto Cabello, until his last breath yesterday, August 21.

According to his family and friend, the famous ex-granddeliga died after fighting a painful disease.

Born in the city of Buenos Aires on October 1, 1947; As he was close to turning 73, he was known in the ball world as the "lucky jet."

When they referred to Hermoso, they always associated him with the novena from La Guaira; as a "great bartender for Sharks in the 60s-70s."

An injury removed him very young from the diamonds, with just 29 years of age; dressing his first nine seasons in Creole baseball with the ninth school (1966-1975); then he went to Lleneros de Portuguesa and closed his cycle with Navegantes del Magallanes (1976-1977).

“His key with Enzo Hernández was luxury. He left young, 29, injured, from active baseball. Cordial, pleasant, a lover of good music in his beloved Puerto Cabello, he played hard ”; wrote on his Twitter account another of our living legends of sports journalism, Alfonzo Saer, «El Narrador» and official voice of Cardenales de Lara.

Remigio Hermoso passed away
"Remy" Beautiful as it appears in the statistics of the Baseball-Rerefence page; He made his Major League debut at age 19 on September 14, 1967 with the Atlanta Braves, being the 16th Creole to reach the Big Top.

He also wore the uniforms of the Montreal Expos (1969-1970) and closed his career with the Cleveland Indians (1974).

"From the LVBP we deeply regret the departure of Remigio Hermoso, who dedicated his life not only to the practice of baseball but to its teaching"; Giussepe Palmisano, president of the highest body, pointed out on the page the League.

He also recalled that he was the first Puerto Cabello player to reach the Major Leagues; «He was always willing to train new generations of players and to contribute to Venezuela, through his work in national teams and with professional baseball teams. For this reason, it will always be remembered ”; the leader pointed out.

Always linked to sport
Ángel Remigio Hermoso, also played technical roles, being a coach in the currencies of La Guaira, Magallanes, Aragua; He also directed national teams in all their categories, which includes the national team that represented Venezuela at the 1983 Pan American Games held in Caracas.

Between 1984 and 1991 he was the strategist of the whole of the Military Academy of Venezuela and the Army; He was a councilor for the Puerto Cabello Municipality and for nine years he presided over the Municipal Sports Institute of that town.

"Playing has been equivalent to breathing"
Remigio Hermoso passed away - noticiasACNOn December 12, 2015, he was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame. «Playing has been equivalent to breathing. I am rewarded for what I like to do ” expressed at that moment, the great Remigio Hermoso.

From this news portal, we join the pain that his family and friends are gripping today, due to the physical departure of Remigio Hermoso, another excellent example of the good Venezuelan. Peace to your Soul.

Howard K. Judson
Born: February 16, 1925 - Died: August 18, 2020

The Northwest Herald
August 18, 2020

Howard K. "Howie" Judson, 95, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 in Winter Haven, Florida at the Spring Haven Retirement Home.

Howie was born to Clarence and Jessie (nee Kolls) Judson on February 16, 1925 and grew up in Hebron, IL. He graduated from Hebron High School in 1943 where he excelled in baseball and basketball and was named First Team, All State, in basketball in the Champaign News Gazette.

After graduation from high school, Howie was awarded a basketball and baseball scholarship to attend the University of Illinois. He played and lettered in both sports and was captain of the baseball team.

While pitching for the Illini, Howie still holds the Big 10 record for pitching the longest stint of 15 innings for any pitcher in the Big 10, a 6-6, inning tie against Indiana in 1945.

Howie was drafted into the U.S. Navy in 1945, was stationed at Great Lakes and received an honorable discharge after World War II ended.

Howie's major league baseball career began in 1946. He was signed by the Chicago White Sox and assigned to play minor league baseball at Waterloo, Iowa, a Class B. affiliate of the White Sox. In 1948 he joined the Chicago White Sox major league baseball team where he continued his pitching career with the Sox through 1952. Hall of Famer, Ted Lyons, and former pitcher for the White Sox was also one of Howie's managers.

In 1953, Howie was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, playing for baseball Hall of Famer, Roger Hornsby. He played a short time for Cincinnati before being assigned to Triple A ball in Indianapolis, IN and then played Double A ball in Tulsa, OK. After playing in the Puerto Rican Winter League that fall, Howie pitched major league games for the Reds until 1955. He completed his professional baseball career in the minor league systems for Seattle and Miami, retiring in 1960. Satchel Paige was his teammate.

Howie married Martha Streeby in 1955. After his baseball career ended, he and Martha resided in Hebron, IL while he worked in manufacturing. He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1987, they moved to Winter Haven, FL where they made their home for the next 35 years. Martha passed away in 2007. Howie made good and faithful friends. He loved golfing with them and his twin brothers always maintaining his competitive edge. He also watched many hours of college and professional sports. Howie was quick with a laugh, joke or story and had the "strongest handshake" anyone ever felt.

Howie is survived by his twin brothers, Paul (the late Jackie) and Phil (Lesley). He was preceded in death by his sister Ruth Ann Judson Simes Magnuson and brothers-in-law, George Simes and Lloyd Magnuson. He was a beloved uncle to many nieces and nephews who adored and admired him.

Howie will be deeply missed by all his friends and family who loved him.

Private services will be held at a later date. Interment will be in Linn-Hebron Cemetery.

Memorials may be sent to: Alden-Hebron High School Boosters Club, 9604 Illinois Street, Hebron, IL 60034. Info: Burnett-Dane Funeral Home in Libertyville. 847-362-3009.

Former CU three-sport star, Broncos executive Carroll Hardy dies at 87.

In his MLB career, Hardy was the only man to ever pinch-hit for Ted Williams

By Ryan O’Halloran
The Denver Post
August 9, 2020 at 3:34 p.m

Carroll Hardy, who was a three-sport star at Colorado, played in the NFL and Major League Baseball and worked for the Broncos for nearly a quarter century, passed away Sunday morning at 87 from complications due to dementia.

Hardy was a member of the sports hall of fames in Colorado and his home state of South Dakota. He lettered 10 times at CU from 1951-55 in football (running back), baseball (center fielder) and track (broad jump) and averaged 6.9 yards per rushing attempt in football and hit .392 in baseball.

“I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with Carroll several times — what a wonderful man and a true icon in the state,” CU athletic director Rick George said in a statement. “His list of accomplishments in his lifetime and the people he touched are really second-to-nose. We have lost a great Buffalo.”

Hardy rushed for 1,999 yards at CU, which ranks 20th in school history. He scored on his first touch, a 12-yard run in a 1951 win over Colorado A&M, and in his final game, he rushed 10 times for 238 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Kansas State.

As a CU baseball player, his average was the all-time school record for players with at least 200 at-bats and he batted .447 as a senior.

Frank Bernardi was a baseball teammate of Hardy’s at CU.

“He was obviously one heckuva an athlete and though we were always competing against each other, we became very close, not only on the field but off as well,” Bernardi said in a statement. “I valued his friendship. … We always tried to out-do each other in baseball, which was good because it made us even more competitive. It made us perform our best.”

Hardy was named to CU’s All-Century Football Team in 1989 and inducted to the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

After college, Hardy signed contracts with the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Indians.

In ’55, Hardy played 10 games for the 49ers as a receiver (Y.A. Tittle was his quarterback), catching 12 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns. He elected to concentrate on baseball, citing the possibility of a longer career, following one NFL season.

Hardy debuted for the Indians on April 15, 1958 against the Kansas City A’s.

Hardy played in 433 major league games over eight years for Cleveland, Boston, Houston and Minnesota, batting .225 (17 home runs/113 runs batted in). His first home run was as a pinch-hitter for Roger Maris.

One of his claims to fame came in 1960 when he became the first and only man to pinch-hit for Ted Williams, who had fouled a ball off his foot. Hardy hit into a double play.

Hardy was back in Colorado in 1965 playing for the Triple-A Denver Bears for parts of four years. During that time, he began working part-time for the Broncos as an assistant ticket manager.

During 24 years with the Broncos, he held a variety of titles. In 1977, he was promoted from director of scouting to director of player personnel by new general manager Fred Gehrke. The Broncos reached their first Super Bowl.

Hardy was later director of scouting, college scouting and combine scouting. He retired after the 1987 season to Steamboat Springs before moving to Longmont and eventually Wind Crest Senior Community in Highlands Rach.

Hardy is survived by his wife, Janice, who would have celebrated their 64th anniversary on Saturday, and three kids.

Horace Clarke, Standout in a Dismal Yankee Era, Dies at 82

He was a solid, dependable player, but he had the misfortune of joining the Yankees just as they tumbled from greatness.

By Mathew Brownstein
The New York Times
Published Aug. 7, 2020Updated Aug. 9, 2020

Horace Clarke, a dependable though light-hitting second baseman for the Yankees who became indelibly and ingloriously associated with the team’s lean years in the 1960s and ’70s — what some sardonically labeled “the Horace Clarke era” — died on Wednesday at his home in Laurel, Md. He was 82.

His death was confirmed by the office of his cousin, Stacey E. Plaskett, the Democratic delegate who represents the Virgin Islands in Congress. His son Jeffrey said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

At the time of his debut, in 1965, Clarke, an undersized middle infielder, was one of just five players born in the U.S. Virgin Islands to make it to the major leagues. He played 10 seasons in the majors, all but part of the last season for the Yankees.

What he lacked in power as a hitter — he had only 27 career home runs — he made up for with a sure-handed glove and excellent speed. His stolen-base totals were in double digits in seven seasons, and he was among the American League’s top 10 base stealers four times.

But he had the misfortune of joining the Yankees just as the team was about to tumble from the heights of greatness. Preceding his rookie season of 1965, the Yankees, led by the likes of Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, had won the American League pennant five straight seasons.

During Clarke’s 10-year tenure, however, New York failed to make the postseason once. The team wouldn’t get there again until 1976, two years after Clarke retired. In between came that so-called Horace Clarke era.

Speaking to a reporter for The Daily News in 2010, Clarke admitted that it was frustrating to be labeled a scapegoat for those underachieving Yankee teams. But he added: “I know — New York is New York. You don’t win, you’re going to hear about it. I was in the middle.”

Horace Meredith Clarke was born on June 2, 1938, in Frederiksted, St. Croix, to Dennis and Vivian (Woods) Clarke. He was the youngest of six children.

He attended Christiansted High School and went to a baseball tryout camp in 1957 but was not signed. The next January, he was signed by the Yankee scout Jose Seda.

From 1958 to 1965, Clarke showcased his speed and his ability to get on base in the minor leagues. He made his major league debut on May 13, 1965, against the Boston Red Sox. In his first at-bat, he pinch-hit for the pitcher Hal Reniff in the seventh inning and hit an infield single.
ImageClarke arguing a called strike during a game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in 1971 as Duane Josephson throws the ball back to the pitcher.
Clarke arguing a called strike during a game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in 1971 as Duane Josephson throws the ball back to the pitcher.Credit...William E. Sauro/The New York Times

Clarke began his big-league career as a reserve, appearing mostly at shortstop and as a pinch-hitter. He was made the full-time second baseman in 1967, succeeding the Yankee stalwart Bobby Richardson, who had retired after the 1966 season. Playing alongside teammates like Ruben Amaro, Joe Pepitone, Roy White and Tom Tresh, Clarke proceeded to lead the club in at-bats, hits, runs, stolen bases and batting average in 1967, playing in more games than any teammate except Mantle.

From 1965 to 1974, Clarke was one of just 11 players who posted 150 or more stolen bases and 1,200 or more hits — a list that also includes the Hall of Fame players Joe Morgan and Lou Brock.

His best overall season was in 1969, when he appeared in 156 games, posting a career-high .285 batting average and .339 on-base percentage. His 183 hits were second among American League hitters that year.

A pesky switch-hitter, Clarke broke up three potential no-hitters during the 1970 season, all in the ninth inning, with singles off Jim Rooker, Sonny Siebert and the knuckleballer Joe Niekro — and all, remarkably, within one month.

In Niekro’s no-hit bid, a road game in Detroit on July 2, Clarke was at bat with one out in the ninth and the count at one ball and no strikes when he pulled a ground ball between first and second. The Tiger second baseman Dick McAuliffe corralled the baseball on the outfield grass and tossed it to Niekro, covering first base. But the throw was low and pulled Niekro off the bag, enabling the hustling Clarke to reach base safely and end the no-hitter.

Since 1961 only one other player has broken up three potential no-hitters in the ninth inning, the Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Mauer, though only Clarke did it in one season.

After playing in more than 1,200 games in his 10 seasons with the Yankees, Clarke was dealt to the San Diego Padres in May 1974. He appeared in just 42 games with the Padres, batting below .200 before retiring at the end of that season.

Among players born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a relatively small roster, Clarke is the leader in games played, hits, runs, R.B.I.s and stolen bases.

On his retirement from the game, Clarke returned home and ran baseball programs for the young. Two participants, Jerry Browne and Midre Cummings, went on to have major league careers.

In addition to his son Jeffrey, Clarke is survived by another son, Jason; his sisters, Violet Armstrong and Hollis Jefferson; and four grandchildren.

While his tenure with the Yankees came during a low point in team history, Clarke recalled his time in the Bronx fondly, relishing in particular the fact that he had played for the same storied organization as his boyhood hero.

“Walking onto the field at the stadium that first time was one of the biggest things for me,” he told The Daily News in 2010. “I grew up listening to the Yankees on the radio, and Phil Rizzuto was my idol. I associated with him, because he was small and I was small, and I played shortstop then, too.”

Bobby Prescott, Panamanian major leagues baseball player, dies at 89

PanaTimes
Panama News in English
Saturday, Jan 16, 2021

George "Bobby" Bertrand Prescott , a Panamanian baseball player who played in Major League Baseball, died this morning, at 89 years old, sources close to the remembered player reported.
Nicknamed the man of the golden dolls for his long home runs, Bobby Prescott represented Panama in numerous international tournaments.Prescott was honored by the Panamanian Baseball Federation in 2015 when the 72nd edition of the National Major Baseball Championship was dedicated to him.

A native of the province of Colón, he managed to make the leap to the Major Leagues in 1961, when he was called to play at 30 years of age with the then Kansas City Athletics.

In that season in the American League, he played 10 games and scored one hit.

Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1962, Prescott is also remembered for winning the triple batting crown in 1950 in national baseball.

His explosive hitting also took him to professional baseball in Mexico where he played for the Guadalajara team.

With great regret we have received the unfortunate news of the death of George" Bobby" Prescott, a great of Panamanian baseball, wrote the leader of Little League, Plinio Castillo in his social media account.

Robert Bush Sebra
1961 - 2020

Published in Daytona Beach News-Journal from July 28 to July 29, 2020.

We mourn the loss of our beloved Bobby who passed away at Jackson Memorial Miami where he had been hospitalized for months following major surgeries. His son, Ryan, was at his side.

A resident of Ormond Beach and previously Medford Lakes, NJ, he was a former major league baseball pitcher during the 1980s. Drafted by the Rangers in his junior year at University of Nebraska, he also played for the Phillies, Brewers and Expos.

He is survived by his wife, Robbin Hecht Sebra, mother Anne Tait; daughter Alexandra Adona(Joey); brother David Sebra(Laura) and nephew Michael Sebra from Marlton NJ; grandson Arlo Adona; and Aunt Eileen Pazos.
Maynard “Bert” Thiel

Shawano, WI, United States / TCHDailyNews
TCHDailyNews Staff
August 3, 2020 8:40 AM

Maynard “Bert” Thiel was called peacefully to his heavenly home on Friday, July 31, 2020 surrounded by his loving family at his home of 67 years in Pella. Bert was born on May 4, 1926 to Art and Ann (Klement) Thiel in Leopolis. He attended Marion High School.

Bert was called to serve his country in the United States Army during WWII serving in Germany from 1944 – 1947. Upon returning home from service, he attended a try out camp for the Boston Braves and accepted a contract in 1947 which started his professional baseball career of 28 years as a pitcher, scout, coach and manager. In 1948, while playing in Jackson, Mississippi, Bert met the love of his life, a southern belle, Jean Helen Duncan. Together, they celebrated 61 years of marriage and created a baseball team of their own. He was most proud of managing his four sons (all at the same time) for the Leopolis baseball team.

During his off season of baseball, Bert enjoyed logging with his father and sons. After Bert’s baseball retirement, Bert and Jean owned and operated “Bert’s 10th Inning” tavern for 10 years enjoying the regular patrons and meeting many new friends along the way.

Bert loved the outdoors, hunting and fishing up at Wilson Lake, gardening, mushroom picking, and spending time at his “80”, but most importantly spending time with his family and playing cards; always ending with “double or nothing”. Another favorite past time was listening to polka music with Hauser Hot Shots and watching Molly B.

Bert was a faithful member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Leopolis for over 70 years serving as a catechist and lector.

Our dad loved to visit, laugh, share stories, and hear how you were doing. No one was ever a stranger to him. If he didn’t know you, his handshake and warm smile would be followed by, “I think I should know you”.

Bert is survived by 5 daughters and 4 sons, Susan (Joe) Parley, Greg Thiel, Debbie (Larry) Swick, Kevin (Deb) Thiel, Brian Thiel, Lisa (Jim) Stock, Pat (Mike) Samz, Kelly (Kelly Sue) Thiel, and Jenny (Ron) Austreng; 17 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren; a brother, Carl (Jean) Thiel; brother-in-law, John (Donna) Duncan; sister-in-law, Mary Duncan; as well as nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

He is preceded in death by his loving wife, Jean; parents; siblings, Wilbur (Delores), Wally (Wanda & Lee), Art Jr. (Lou), Jack (Janet), and LaVaun (Bud) Much; and many beloved in-laws.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a private funeral mass will be held for Bert at 1:00 pm, on Friday, August 7, 2020 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Leopolis with Fr. John Girotti officiating. Burial will take place in the church cemetery with military rites performed by the United States Army and the Caroline American Legion. Public visitation will be held under the tent outside of church on Friday, at the church, from 9:30 am until the time of service. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be directed to Pella First Responders.

“Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Matthew 25:21

Bert’s family would like to extend a special thank you to Dr’s Williams and Born and ThedaCare staff, Dreier’s Pharmacy, Erickson’s Pharmacy, and ThedaCare Hospice, especially Kristy and Tammy for the compassionate care given to our dad.

Swedberg Funeral Home & Crematory is assisting the family.

Phillies fan favorite, defensive whiz Tony Taylor dies at 84

Matt Breen
The Philadelphia Inquirer
July 16, 2020

Tony Taylor, the smooth-fielding Phillies second baseman of the 1960s who grew up on a sugar plantation in Cuba and became one of the most popular players in franchise history, died Thursday morning. He was 84.

Mr. Taylor played 15 seasons with the Phillies, which is tied for third in franchise history. He was apprehensive about coming to Philadelphia in May 1960 after being traded by the Cubs, but those feelings were quelled when he received a standing ovation in his first game at Connie Mack Stadium.

It was the start of a decades-long love affair between a hard-nosed player and a hardened fan base.

Mr. Taylor was an All Star in 1960, played in all but 12 games for the star-crossed 1964 Phillies, and held the franchise record for games played at second base (1,003) before Chase Utley passed him. The Phillies added Mr. Taylor to their Wall of Fame in 2002.

Mr. Taylor died from complications from a stroke he suffered last August after leaving an alumni event at Citizens Bank Park. He is survived by his wife, Clara, and his children.

“Tony was undeniably one of the most popular Phillies of his or any other generation,” Phillies managing partner John Middleton said. “His baseball talent was second only to his warm and engaging personality, as he would always make time to talk with fans when he would visit Philadelphia for Alumni Weekend.

“Growing up as a Phillies fan, my favorite memory of Tony is the remarkable play he made to save Jim Bunning’s perfect game. It was the play of the game and it was thrilling to see it back then. It remains equally thrilling today to watch Tony turn a sure hit into an out. On behalf of Leigh and myself and the entire Phillies organization, we send our deepest condolences to Clara and all of Tony’s family and friends.”

Mr. Taylor was the team’s top base stealer six times and led National League second basemen in fielding percentage (.986) in 1963. Mr. Taylor played all four infield positions for the Phillies and finished his career with a .976 fielding percentage.

“Every time I put on the uniform, I have so much fun,” Mr. Taylor said in 1985. “That’s why I got into baseball in the first place, because I loved it. To me, the day isn’t right until you put on the uniform and cross the white line. And when you walk back in the locker room and take off the uniform, that’s it, that’s when the fun stops.”

The Phillies traded Mr. Taylor to Detroit in June 1971 as the last-place team tried to move its popular player to a contender while adding a pair of prospects. But Mr. Taylor was crushed and cried in the clubhouse at Veterans Stadium. He had purchased a home in Delaware County, become a fan favorite, and wanted to spend the rest of his career with the Phillies.

“This is my home,” Taylor said that night.

He returned to the Phillies in 1974 as a free agent, joining a team that was suddenly on the brink of contention. The 38-year-old veteran was a reserve infielder that season and led the Phillies with 17 pinch hits, often receiving standing ovations when he came to the plate. His 54 career pinch hits rank second all-time among all Phillies, trailing only Greg Gross (117).

“The way the fans received me when I came back, the ovations they gave me, it showed me how much they appreciated the way Tony Taylor played baseball — hard, always hard,” Mr. Taylor said. “It meant so much to me. It showed they remembered. It showed they cared.”

Mr. Taylor recorded his 2,000th career hit in 1975 and retired after the 1976 season. He spent the next three seasons as the Phillies’ first-base coach before becoming a minor-league instructor in 1980. He received a championship ring when the Phillies won the World Series. Perhaps that ring helped make up for the collapse in 1964.

“It’s hard to explain to people what happened,” Taylor said in 1979, 15 years after the Phillies blew a 6 ½-game lead with 12 games to play. “We still can’t explain it — even to ourselves.”

Mr. Taylor managed in the Phillies minor leagues from 1982 to 1987 before returning to the majors as the first base coach in 1988 and 1989. His goal was to manage in the big leagues, but he was never given the chance. He worked for the Giants from 1990-1992 and the Marlins for 12 seasons.

Mr. Taylor joined the Marlins as a minor-league instructor before their inaugural season, placing him with an organization with a large Cuban fan base. He was not with the Marlins in 2003 when they won the World Series, but he rejoined the team before the 2004 season as their bullpen coach.

Brad Penny, one of the team’s top pitchers, handed Mr. Taylor a box before a game in April 2004. Inside was a World Series ring, purchased by Penny for Taylor. Penny told Mr. Taylor that he deserved the ring for all the years he spent with the Marlins. Four decades after becoming a fan favorite in Philadelphia, Taylor was just as popular in Miami.

“As long as I’m around baseball, I love being anywhere,” Mr. Taylor said while coaching in Reading in 1985. “It’s fun. It was like that when I came to this country from Cuba, making $125 a month in Class A. And it’s still like that now.”

Friends remember Abilene Christian baseball great Gilbreth, 72, who died Sunday

Joey D. Richards
Abilene Reporter-News
July 13, 2020, 4:57 PM CMT

Gary McCaleb still was in shock talking Monday morning about the sudden death of his friend and former Abilene Christian baseball player Bill Gilbreth just a day earlier.

“My wife and I were talking this morning,” MCaleb said. “It’s hard to believe we won’t see him this afternoon or tomorrow. He’s always positive, always upbeat about things. Everybody I talk to, his friends, it’s like this isn’t real. It’s like he isn’t gone.

"It was so sudden.”

Gilbreth, a 1969 ACU grad, died from complications following emergency heart surgery Sunday in Abilene. He was 72. He was the first – and still the only – former ACU player to play in the Major Leagues.

'He wasn't easy to hit'
McCaleb first met Gilbreth when the hard-throwing left-hander was still at Abilene Christian High.

McCaleb, a 1964 ACU grad, was a player on the Wildcats team, and ACU coach Guy Scruggs sometimes would bring Gilbreth to throw batting practice to the team.

“I told Bill a number of times, ‘Nobody really liked you coming over,’” McCaleb said. “He threw really hard, even then, and we kept saying. ‘Coach, this is supposed to be hitting practice, but he’s not helping us get hitting practice.’

"You could see he was strong and could throw hard and wasn’t easy to hit.”

Abilene Christian High didn’t have a baseball program at the time, but Gilbreth, who had played in other youth leagues, made the transition to college ball fairly well. He was 25-9 with a school-record 2.14 earned-run average in four seasons with the Wildcats from 1966-69.

He threw two no-hitters, both in 1967, and finished with a school-record 445 career strikeouts. The All-Southland Conference pitcher led the NCAA in strikeouts his final season in 1969 with 134 in 89 innings.

Sizzling debut
Gilbreth was the first ACU baseball drafted, when he was taken by the Detroit Tigers in the third round of the 1969 MLB June Amateur Draft.

He made his Major League debut on June 25, 1971 – a day after being called up from Triple-A Toledo. Gilbreth threw a five-hit, complete-game in the Tigers’ 6-1 victory over Cleveland at Tiger Stadium. Gilbreth struck out seven and walked seven.

Al Kaline and Willie Horton both hit home runs for the Tigers, while Gilbreth also had a pair of hits – including a hit in his first Major League at-bat.

Gilbreth, however, would win only one more game in his three-year Major League career.

After a no-decision in his next start against Boston on July 1, 1971, he tossed a three-hitter – going the distance in a 3-1 victory over the New York Yankees on July 9 that same season to improve to 2-0 as a starter. However, he took his first loss on July 18, 1971, in Kansas City – giving up four runs in the first inning and two more before leaving in the second inning without getting an out in an 8-2 loss.

Gilbreth was sent back down to the minors, where he was converted to a reliever.

He appeared in two games with the Tigers in 1972, before being traded to the California Angels.

He appeared in three games for the Angels in 1974, before retiring and returning to Abilene.

He finished his Major League career with a 2-1 record and 6.69 ERA in 14 games, including a 4.80 ERA in nine games, including five starts, that first season with the Tigers in 1971. He had 16 career strikeouts and 26 walks in 36.1 innings, including 20 innings his first season in Detroit.

Impact at home
Gilbreth was instrumental in helping ACU resurrect its baseball in program in 1991 – 11 years after the program had been dropped.

He and former Angels teammate Nolan Ryan helped raise the funds to build the stadium the Wildcats play in – Crutcher Scott Field. Gilbreth also coached the ACU baseball team from 1991-95 and won one conference title.

He was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013.

“He was really the key, through his friendship with Nolan (Ryan), to building our new stadium, the baseball field we have now,” said McCaleb, who got a chance to see Gilbreth pitch when the lefty was in the Tigers’ minor league system at Montgomery, Alabama.

McCaleb also praised Gilbreth’s work as the Wildcats head coach.

“Bill did an amazing job, recruiting mostly from Abilene, Midland and Odessa – boys in this area,” McCaleb said. “They started from scratch and then the third year won the conference championship. He was just a remarkable individual. A great athlete, but real humble and unassuming. He always tried to deflect attention from himself, and he was just a great friend.”

ACU retired Gilbreth’s jersey and No. 13 in February. It’s the first number retired by the ACU baseball team, and the number is on the left-center field wall at Crutcher Scott Field.

“I was so glad his jersey was retired this year and so many of the players who played for him came back for the event,” McCaleb said. “Who would have thought this would have been our last chance to do it? I’m so glad that was done.”

McCaleb and Ron Hadfield, ACU’s assistant vice president for university communications, were both with Gilbreth when he returned to Detroit in June 2016. The two, both good friends with Gilbreth, had set up the trip.

“We didn’t say, ‘We want to,” McCaleb said. “We said, ‘You’re going.’”

Gilbreth got a chance to see the Tigers play June 25 – the same day he made his debut 45 years earlier – against the same Cleveland team.

“They gave him a great reception, had him up on the scoreboard and introduced him,” McCaleb said. “The next day, at a luncheon with Mickey Lolich, they introduced Bill. They had one of the tiles with his name on at the entry way of the new stadium.”

Coaching the coach
Britt Bonneau, ACU’s head baseball coach from 1997-2018, met Gilbreth when Bonneau’s brother played for the Wildcats in 1992.

The two became good friends, after Bonneau became an assistant coach at ACU in 1996 – a year after Gilbreth retired as the team’s head coach.

“First of all, I felt like he taught me how to love my players before you teach them, and, by doing that, it allows you to really connect with your players and your team to coach them in baseball,” said Bonneau, now a volunteer assistant at Oklahoma. “This guy had a personality and such a big heart for just loving on kids, and that’s what I learned from him.”

Bill Gilbreth led the nation in strikeouts his senior at Abilene Christian University in 1969. The school was called Abilene Christian College at the time.
Bonneau, who often would have lunch with Gilbreth — a chicken-fried steak at either Zentner’s Daughter Steakhouse or the Town Crier Steakhouse, fondly recalls talking to Gilbreth about the Wildcats baseball team – or just life in general.

“Some of my greatest moments I had with him was him coming over to practice and us sitting in the dugout or sitting in the stands watching intrasquad (practice) and breaking down pitchers or just talking,” Bonneau said. “He was able to sit by you and you could talk about friendship stuff or go over the lineup of your team and pick his brain about what he thought about some small things we could do with pitchers to throw better strikes or throw harder.

“He was so humble in everything he did. He was, to me, one of those friends I could call. I loved getting messages from him after a big win, or when we were slumping a little bit, he would call and say, ‘Hey, this is the old lefty rag arm, calling and telling you to keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing a great job, and we’re pulling for you.’ Just stuff like that. He was always there when you called him. He was always there to show up, come over.”
Bonneau said the two kept in touch after Bonneau left ACU following the 2018 season and eventually moved to Oklahoma. He will miss his friend.

“I never got the privilege to play for him, but I definitely had the privilege of being his friend and being close to him,” Bonneau said. “I thank him. He’s the one that helped start that program at ACU and laid the groundwork for those who came after him and for me to spend 23 years there. He was truly in it for the kids.

"You can definitely tell that by all the players who played for him and all the players he helped at Abilene High and Abilene Cooper. He definitely showed all of us the correct way of going about being a coach and what a coach stands for.”

Two-time All-Star second baseman Frank Bolling dies

Associated Press
July 12, 2020

MOBILE, Ala. -- Frank Bolling, a two-time All-Star second baseman and the last player to hit a grand slam off Sandy Koufax, has died. He was 88.

Bolling died Saturday. He was diagnosed with cancer about five years ago, his family said.

Bolling played 12 seasons in the majors, six with Detroit and six with the Braves, and hit .254 with 106 home runs. He won a Gold Glove in 1958 with the Tigers and for part of that season, his double-play partner was his older brother, shortstop Milt Bolling.

The road leading to Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile is Bolling Brothers Blvd. Aaron is from the city and was Bolling's longtime Braves teammate, and they occasionally would visit over the years when the Hall of Famer returned to his hometown.

Last year, Bolling was added to the Wall of Honor at Miller Park in Milwaukee. He punctuated the tribute by throwing out the first ball before the Brewers hosted Philadelphia.

"He always followed baseball, all the way until the day before yesterday," son Chris said.

Bolling was traded to the Milwaukee Braves after the 1960 season in a deal for outfielder Bill Bruton and became an All-Star in 1961 and 1962. In those days, there were two All-Star Games each season, and he started both the first year and twice was a substitute the next season.

In 1965, Bolling hit the sixth and final grand slam that Koufax allowed in his Hall of Fame career, connecting at County Stadium in Milwaukee. In 1966, Bolling was in the starting lineup for the first major league game played in Atlanta.

Bolling homered in his first big league game, tagging Baltimore's Don Larsen on opening day at Tiger Stadium in 1954 for his first career hit.

Bolling missed the 1955 season while serving in the U.S. Army, and returned to the majors the next year.

Years after he retired, Bolling kept playing. Boosted by a grant from Major League Baseball and working with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, he created a league for physically and mentally challenged kids in Mobile.

"He loved being out there with them, he would do anything for them," Chris Bolling said. "There were children in wheelchairs, kids he would help run the bases. It was amazing to watch."

The program grew beyond the city on the Alabama Gulf Coast.

"It caught on and spread to other parts of the country," son-in-law Sam Yarbrough said. "That was Frank. He was just a good guy."

Former catcher, longtime coach Mike Ryan dies at 78

The Associated Press
Jul 10, 2020

BOSTON -- Mike Ryan, the backup catcher on the Boston Red Sox's 1967 "Impossible Dream" team during a 35-year career in professional baseball, has died. He was 78.

The Red Sox said Ryan died in his sleep on Tuesday in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

A native of Haverhill, Massachusetts, Ryan appeared in 636 games with the Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1964 to 1974. He was Boston's backup catcher for the American League championship team in 1967, going hitless in his only two World Series at-bats when the Red Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

In his career, he had a .991 fielding percentage and threw out 43.6% of runners attempting to steal a base.

Ryan went on to manage the Pirates' Class A affiliate and work for the Phillies as a minor league catching instructor and Triple-A manager. He also was the bullpen coach in Philadelphia for 16 years, including with the 1980 World Series championship team.


Edward FitzGerald
1924 - 2020 Published in The Sacramento Bee on Jul. 8, 2020

Edward Raymond FitzGerald passed away Sunday, June 14, 2020 at the age of 96. He was born May 21, 1924 in Santa Ynez, California to Frank and Ida FitzGerald, the 7th if their 8 sons. He graduated from Santa Ynez High School and attended St Mary's College before being drafted and serving in the army during WWII.

Eddy started his career in professional baseball in 1946 playing for the Sacramento Solons in 1947. He entered the major league as a catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1948. He also played for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and was a coach for the Kansas City A's and Minnesota Twins. Ed retired from baseball in 1967. He worked for the State of California Office of State Printing until his retirement in 1985. Eddy married Betty Ann Riedel October 11, 1947 in Sacramento and they had 6 children.

After Betty Ann's death he married Verda Cerniglia. Ed was preceded in death by both of his wives; his son Stephen; daughter Diane Bakes; and grandson Jason Ball. He is survived by his children: Nancy (Dave) Waterman; Linda, Tim (Gina), Jeffrey FitzGerald; son-in-law Ken Bakes; 14 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren. Private services will be held at Calvary Cemetery, Citrus Heights, California.

Ex-Phillies pitcher Tyson Brummett among four killed in Utah plane crash

Authorities said Brummett was piloting the plane when it crashed Friday morning near Box Elder Peak in American Fork Canyon.

July 4, 2020, 3:37 PM EDT
By Minyvonne Burke
WPVI-TV

Former Major League Baseball player Tyson Brummett was among four people killed Friday morning in a small plane crash in Utah.

The crash happened just before 8 a.m. near Box Elder Peak in American Fork Canyon, the Utah County Sheriff's Office said. All four people on the plane died on impact.

Authorities identified the other victims as Alex Blackhurst Ruegner, 35; and Ruegner's aunt and uncle Elaine W. Blackhurst, 60 and Douglas Robinson Blackhurst, 62. They were all residents of Riverton.

Brummett, 35, of Salt Lake City, was the pilot.

The plane left South Valley Regional Airport in West Jordan, Utah, around 7 a.m., sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon told NBC News in a phone interview Saturday. He said he believes the group was out for a ride and was heading back to the airport when the crash occurred.

"It's a sad thing," he said.

The sheriff's office said in a press release that a man and his two sons were hiking in the area when they saw the plane begin to turn and then spiral downward.

"The witness said the plane spiraled out of his view and moments later he heard the impact," the release states.

The man had to climb up to get reception so he could call for help. "The witness then climbed down to the plane and verified that the occupants died on impact," the sheriff's office said.

The plane crashed about 15 miles from the airport, according to Cannon. He said the weather on Friday morning was warm with some clouds, "but for the most part clear skies."

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Brummett was drafted by the Phillies in 2007 and pitched one game for them in 2012. He was in the Phillies’ system from 2007-12, pitching 110 total innings at Triple A Lehigh Valley, NBC Sports reported.

The Philadelphia team released a statement on Saturday about his death.

"The Phillies organization sends heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of former pitcher Tyson Brummett, along with three members of the Ruegner and Blackhurst families, who tragically passed away in a plane crash yesterday morning."

Prior to his playing professionally, Brummett was on the UCLA Bruins. Another former Bruin, Cody Decker, tweeted a tribute to him.

"I just want you guys to know Tyson was an incredible baseball player," Decker wrote. "An unbelievable teammate. And an even better person. I am proud to have even known him, let alone call him a friend. He was special."