Baseball Passings in 2018

[MFS62]

Chad Ochoseis wrote: Nah. Franco was over the hill by 1959.

So was I.
Oh, wait!
Later

[Frayed Knot]

'Tito' (John Patsy) Francona, father of current Cleveland manager Terry Jon 'Tito' Francona -- 84

15 year career (1956-1970) with Cleveland, Atlanta, StL, Oakland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago White Sox
2nd in ROY in 1956 w/the Orioles and 5th in MVP 1959/Indians

[G-Fafif]

Sammy Stewart, O's reliever of yore, 63.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-stewart-obit-0304-story.html

[Edgy MD]

Good work by Schmuck there telling a complicated story.

[G-Fafif]

Former Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga, reported dead at 80.

[G-Fafif]

Jerry Moses, one of that handful of Mets who made it to the active roster but not to the field as a Met, 71. An All-Star catcher in the American League for the Red Sox pre-Fisk. Theoretically backed up Grote and Stearns in 1975 between the time his contract was purchased from Detroit and the time it was sold to San Diego 14 games into the season.

[G-Fafif]

Frank Quilici, Twins infielder, coach, manager, broadcaster and guy whose card I got a lot in second grade, 79.

[G-Fafif]

Bruce Kison, 68, cancer. Pitched for two world champions in Pittsburgh. His wedding, amid the '71 Series, was a big deal.

https://www.si.com/vault/1972/04/10/613983/end-of-innocence

Made a snide remark about not wanting to sign with the Mets as a free agent following the 1979 season.

[Edgy MD]

Known here in Baltimore as a pitching coach and scout, more than as a rare member of both Pirate championships over the O's.

That last line is crazy. I totally would have signed with the Mets following the 1979 season.

[G-Fafif]

Red Schoendienst, 95, Hall of Famer as a player, a fixture as a manager, an icon as a Cardinal. Member of the world champion 1957 Braves. His passing leaves alive only 18 former New York Giants.

[Edgy MD]

Red's great. The definition of a baseball lifer.

If a Hall of Fame candidate is a player-manager, player-executive, or player-umpire, the HoF Veterans' Committee is supposed to consider the totality of a figure's career, even if he was just submitted on a player ballot. Schoendeist was seemingly one of the few times they took that charge seriously.

One of three Reds in the Hall of Fame.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy MD wrote: One of three Reds in the Hall of Fame.

At first I thought you meant Cincinnati Reds, and thought how is that possible?

[stevejrogers]

I imagine you aren’t counting Frick Award winner Red Barber.

Pitcher Red Faber is the only one coming to mind.

[Edgy MD]

Staying healthy and piling up prestigious win totals with the Yankees in the 20s and 30s is a good way to punch your ticket. Ask Waite Hoyt.

Urban Shocker may have retired relatively young but he may have had a better career than either of them.

[stevejrogers]

At the risk of opening myself up to more “you’re a YLDB” quips...

D’OH! That’s a pretty big one to miss!

[G-Fafif]

Donald Hall, 89, former poet laureate of the United States -- and baseball author. Collaborated with Dock Ellis on In the Country of Baseball, produced a fine collection of essays, Fathers Playing Catch with Sons.

[G-Fafif]

Tony Cloninger, 77, best known as the pitcher who hit two grand slams in one game. He did it for the Braves in 1966.

Less known for my confusing him with Tony Conigliaro when I was very young.

[G-Fafif]

RIP to two players I knew mostly as baseball cards I kept getting when I was seven: Lee Stange, 81; and Marty Pattin, 75.

[Frayed Knot]

Marty Pattin was a Seattle Pilot and therefore part of BALL FOUR - also with the Angels, Brewers (nee Pilots), BoSox, and with those great Royals teams of the mid-'70s
Was known in the clubhouse and team bus trips (IIRC) for his X-rated Donald Duck impression.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Wayne Krenchiki, who I remember as a Reds & Expos reserve infielder but who also played for the Orioles & Tigers, 64 years old.

[G-Fafif]

Hank Greenwald, longtime SF Giants announcer, 83. Did MFYs for a couple of years and didn't care for the owner.

[stevejrogers]

Willie McCovey

[Frayed Knot]

Dang!, although I knew he hadn't been in good health for a number of years now and was often seen in a wheelchair.
And all this comes as I was just thinking the other day how it's been a couple of years since I've seen Mays, seven years older than McCovey, anywhere in public.

[Guest vtmet]

as a child, besides being a Mets fan, I was also a Giants fan because Willie Mays and Willie McCovey were 2 of my favorite players...at least until the Mets acquired Willie Mays...

[stevejrogers]

Frayed Knot wrote: Dang!, although I knew he hadn't been in good health for a number of years now and was often seen in a wheelchair. And all this comes as I was just thinking the other day how it's been a couple of years since I've seen Mays, seven years older than McCovey, anywhere in public.

Mays was at the Bonds number retirement this summer.

[MFS62]

I remember listening to McCovey's first major league game on radio as Les Keiter recreated it back to New York. The team had just moved from New York and the station felt there were enough fans here who still rooted for the team.
IIRC, he went 4-4 against Robin Roberts, with two triples. I still remember Keiter's signature calls on triples "Back, back, wayyy back. BOOM off the top of the wall*. Here goes Willie, around second, heading for third. Here comes Willie. Here comes the ball. He BEAT the ball, he BEAT the ball".

RIP

Later

* = actually there was a tall scoreboard on the wall in right field in Seals' Stadium.

[Guest sharpie]

I was living in the Bay Area during the latter part of McCovey's time with the Giants.

His return, and particularly his play in the '78 season, was really quite infectious.

In '79 the Giants had another first baseman, Mike Ivie, a quiet home run hitter who was a former catcher and had a hang-up about throwing the ball back to the catcher (think a cross between Lucas Duda and Mackey Sasser). McCovey was really slowing down but he had some sort of grudge against Ivie. In '80 the taunting of Ivie got heated and he got off to a terrible start. Mid-season the Giants brought up Calvin Murray, brother of Eddie. McCovey announced that now that they had a real first baseman he could retire, which he did. Murray was terrible, Ivie got traded and that led to a period where the Giants had a new first baseman every season until Will Clark arrived.

Despite his dickish behavior toward Mike Ivie, he was a charismatic and likable player. Until yesterday all of the Giant's '60's greats were alive: Mays, Cepeda, Perry and Marichal all still are.

[Lefty Specialist]

Tom Seaver once said that Mays and McCovey were the scariest back-to-back players he ever pitched to.

[smg58]

It's kind of surreal (but also indicative of my age at the time) that I first remember Willie McCovey as a first baseman for the Padres.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I discovered baseball in 1971, and Willie McCovey was one of the biggest names in the game. I'll always have a special fondness for the superstars of those years because I was eight years old and baseball players were never more larger than life than they were then.



Oh, and Charlie Brown was definitely rooting for the Giants against the Yankees in the 1962 World Series.



(Note that these two strips were published six weeks apart!)