Baseball Passings 2020

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Oh wow. He was a TWiB-era laugh-reel highlight superstar

[Edgy MD]

Jay Johnstone lives (lived) in the same room as Rick Monday in my head. Longtime white outfielders/former Dodgers who were good enough to start for a bad team and valuable part-timers for good teams. Both better known a characters than as sluggers.

[G-Fafif]

Lou Johnson, 1965 world champion Dodger outfielder, 86.

[Edgy MD]

Who had the lesser offense? The 1965 Dodgers or the 1988 Dodgers?

[G-Fafif]

Johnson's teammate, reliever Ron Perranoski, 84. One of the first of the firemen to excel as the save rule was being institutionalized.

[Chad ochoseis]

Edgy MD wrote: Jay Johnstone lives (lived) in the same room as Rick Monday in my head. Longtime white outfielders/former Dodgers who were good enough to start for a bad team and valuable part-timers for good teams. Both better known as characters than as sluggers.

Fun fact that I found out as I went down this rabbit hole is that they were both born on the same day, November 20, 1945.

[Edgy MD]

Monday and Johnstone also both knew how to make gold.

[G-Fafif]

Kim Batiste of the 1993 NL champion Phillies, too young at 52, from complications after kidney surgery.



https://fusion.inquirer.com/phillies/phillies-kim-batiste-died-1993-national-league-champions-obituary-20201008.htmlhttps://fusion.inquirer.com/phillies/phillies-kim-batiste-died-1993-national-league-champions-obituary-20201008.html

[Edgy MD]

I hear you, Wally.

[G-Fafif]

Sid Hartman, Minneapolis sportswriting legend, 100. Held BBWAA card No. 1 in 2020, which means you're the writer who's been working longest.



https://www.startribune.com/legendary-columnist-sid-hartman-dies-at-100/572788662/https://www.startribune.com/legendary-columnist-sid-hartman-dies-at-100/572788662/

[G-Fafif]

Umpire Derryl Cousins, 74.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

Noted for a ridiculous feud in the early 80's with George Steinbrenner that led to George being fined for insinuating that Cousins' integrity was compromised. Steinbrenner hadn't learned much, as this was months after Big George received a big ($50,000?) fine for ripping the work of umpires during a spring training game.



A SPRING TRAINING GAME!

[G-Fafif]

Foster Castleman, heretofore one of the last surviving New York Giants, 89.



https://www.villages-news.com/2020/11/12/foster-ephriam-castleman-jr/https://www.villages-news.com/2020/11/12/foster-ephriam-castleman-jr/

[MFS62]

Foster Castleman, heretofore one of the last surviving New York Giants, 89. https://www.villages-news.com/2020/11/12/foster-ephriam-castleman-jr/https://www.villages-news.com/2020/11/12/foster-ephriam-castleman-jr/

During an era when so many (New York) players had nicknames, Duke, Yogi, Scooter, Skoonj, etc. , I remember that Foster Castleman was always just Foster Castleman.

RIP



Later

[G-Fafif]

“Of course a ballplayer with a name like this is never going to amount to anything. If you have a name like an orthodontist, you're going to play like an orthodontist. The guy never really had a shot.”

From The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book's assessment of Foster Castleman.

[Edgy MD]

Foster was a champ at surviving. He outlived three heart surgeries, two knee replacements, and a bout with colon cancer. He was the Jerry Lee Lewis of the Giants.

[G-Fafif]

Lindy McDaniel, MFY closer pre-Sparky Lyle and a longtime Cardinal before that, 84, claimed by Covid.

[G-Fafif]

Pat Cawley, almost nightly State Farm Agent of the Game on SNY telecasts, 55, from pancreatic cancer.



https://www.manganofh.com/obituaries/Patrick-J-Cawley?obId=19099838&fbclid=IwAR1scrfJic2fpGnZpCiATlTv1zpKmFt60KAkRx_bTFaAdCGUxq-9wwc_xIshttps://www.manganofh.com/obituaries/Patrick-J-Cawley?obId=19099838&fbclid=IwAR1scrfJic2fpGnZpCiATlTv1zpKmFt60KAkRx_bTFaAdCGUxq-9wwc_xIs

[Edgy MD]

This is two+ months old, but I've seen a few scouts paying tribute to Cardinals scout https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/obituaries/charles-peterson-dead-covid.htmlCharles Peterson on Twitter, a popular scout for St. Louis, and a COVID-19 victim.

[G-Fafif]

Non-Met Bob Miller, 94, who was the penultimate surviving 1950 Phillie, making Curt Simmons the last of the Whiz Kids.



https://ripbaseball.com/2020/11/30/obituary-bob-miller-1926-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0RtqG4QmyjwWCq9e3oNcT57ImL2Ye1QJnn4J05PBcY_ZCB_9FqO_2AHWghttps://ripbaseball.com/2020/11/30/obituary-bob-miller-1926-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0RtqG4QmyjwWCq9e3oNcT57ImL2Ye1QJnn4J05PBcY_ZCB_9FqO_2AHWg

[G-Fafif]

Roger Moret, the nifty lefty for the Red Sox of the ‘70s, 71, from cancer.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Dick ("Richie") ("Don't call me 'Richie'") Allen, seven time all-star, 1972 AL MVP and deserving Hall of Famer, 78.



[FIMG=333]https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/chicago-white-sox-dick-allen-june-12-1972-sports-illustrated-cover.jpg[/FIMG]



[FIMG=444]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71aAcR2a8BL._AC_SY679_.jpg[/FIMG]



[FIMG=333]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91QW0RW%2BGEL._AC_SY550_.jpg[/FIMG]



[FIMG=355]https://jasoncards.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/allen_071670_jet.jpg[/FIMG]



[FIMG=444]https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/.image/t_share/MTc2MjgyMTc5NDc3OTA2NjIy/5-sportingnewscover.jpg[/FIMG]



[FIMG=444]https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/f70AAOSwc-tY7N3L/s-l400.jpg[/FIMG]

[G-Fafif]

Denis Menke, 80, twice an All-Star infielder for the Astros, later, as a result of the Joe Morgan deal, an overlooked cog in the Big Red Machine (started Games Three and Four of the 1973 NLCS at third). As a young Brave, Menke found himself in an unlikely faceoff, so to speak, during the notorious Pier Six Brawl of 1964, an undercard to Ron Hunt scrapping with Ed Bailey at County Stadium. George Vecsey remembered it in 2000:

In the confusion, the Mets' 73-year-old manager wound up underneath 23-year-old Denis Menke of the Braves, who had this horrible thought: ''Oh, my God, I've killed Casey Stengel.''

He didn't.

[G-Fafif]

Per MFS's request, Charley Pride is cross-referenced as a Baseball Passing.



Charley Pride, pioneering country music superstar and would-be 1963 Met, 86, from COVID-19 complications.

As wretched as the Mets were, they weren't so desperate as to be scouting smelters' club teams. Pride sent the clippings about his past baseball success to the general manager, George Weiss, and received no response. But he came up with a gambit: What if he mailed six Louisville Slugger Brooks Robinson–model bats with his name on them to the Mets' camp in [st. Petersburg]? Then the team would be expecting him when he arrived. He bought a one-way ticket from Great Falls, Mont., to Tampa, with connections in Chicago and Atlanta. It was 4 a.m. by the time he made it to the Mets' hotel. He talked the night manager into showing him the guest register, where he found the name of an old Negro leagues buddy, second baseman Sammy Drake. Pride knocked on Drake's door, and the stunned, half-dressed infielder took him in. Pride's big-league dream ended the next day. In fact, he got no further than the team bus. Casey Stengel told Weiss, “We ain't running no damn tryout camp down here. . . . Take him downtown and put him on a bus anywhere he wants to go.” Pride asked for a ticket back home to Montana—with a pit stop in Nashville.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/03/21/charley-pride-texas-rangers-country-musichttps://www.si.com/mlb/2018/03/21/charley-pride-texas-rangers-country-music

[G-Fafif]

Billy DeMars, a coach for the Phillies for 13 seasons but I would've guessed 30, 95.

[G-Fafif]

Tommy Sandt, ‘70s bench guy and longtime coach, just shy of his 70th birthday.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Seemed like he was the Pirates first base coach for like 50 years

[G-Fafif]

A little roundup http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2020/12/30/through-the-years-especially-this-one/here.