Baseball Passings 2021

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

James Rodney. Guys were just helpless against him.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm always surprised to see that Joe Morgan was a Houston Astro in 1971. That was the first year I was paying attention to baseball, but Joe Morgan must have escaped my notice. My earliest memory of him is as a Cincinnati Red.

Was with Houston since coming up in '63 and was one of the characters during the Houston stint in Jim Bouton's BALL FOUR

Was traded to Cincy at the end of '71 though went back to the Astros for the 1980 season

[Edgy MD]

Richard was terrific. I've mentioned this before, but he was one of only four players to be honored by Bob Murphy by seemingly always being referred to by three names.



In one of those "athlete knows his body" stories, he'd remove himself from a game when he was pitching brilliantly. Like deGrom, nobody would be touching him, but he knew something was wrong. But being a big black dude back in the day, he didn't get a lot of compassion. A lot of egg ended up on a lot of his critics faces when he suffered a mid-career stroke.



He tried to return in 1982 and 1983 but was never close to the same, and the Astros were terrified of using him in a game, not leastwise because his vision was so blurred that there was no confidence he could respond if a liner came back at him. He never fully recovered mentally, either, and went through a bout of homelessness, before former teammates tried to reach a hand out.



He amazingly only made one All-Star Game, and that was in his final season. It's fair to wonder, had the stroke never happened, if the 1986 Mets get past an Astros team that had him on the roster, even in his mid-30s. He was that good. Nolan Ryan's arm on Dave Winfield's body.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I loved Richard and I always associate him with Craig Swan because Richard's two best full seasons (1978 and 1979) were also Swan's peak. Might've won the '79 Cy Young Award if voters back then were as knowledgeable as they are today. Led the NL in K's in '79 with 313, 100 more K's than the runner-up.

[Edgy MD]

Received 7 of 425 votes in his lone appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot.

[seawolf17]

The two guys who amazed me in 1982 when I discovered baseball were JR Richard and Joe Charbonneau. In a time before the internet, I couldn't understand how a guy could go from striking out 300 guys in a year -- or hit 20 home runs, win Rookie of the Year -- and then just suddenly not be in baseball any more.



I actually assumed as a kid that they must have died, because that's the only thing that could stop you from playing baseball. JR Richard was something of a legend to me.

[Edgy MD]

There was a movie about him starring That Guy from Arrow.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Scaled_resurrection.jpg>



He also played himself on this Sports Illustrated cover.



http://images.thepostgame.com/assets/public/JR-Richard-SI-Cover.jpg>



He was a joy to behold. It was amazing going into Houston back then knowing you were going to see the Dome, along with the likes of Niekro, Knepper, Ryan and Richard. If you were lucky, you'd get some hot, sexy bullpen action from a pre-Mets Joe Sambito and/or a pre-Cardinals Joaquin Andujar.



The pre-series storyline would always be (a) how the Mets routinely get destroyed in the Dome, and ( how rarely any Met has ever homered in the park. There usually would only be three guys on the roster who had pulled off the feat. The park not only featured the longest distances to the highest walls in the league, but until 1984 or so, all the air conditioning blew in from the outfield. Also, a really bouncy carpet. If a ball dropped in, Mookie Wilson (when he came up, which was shortly after Richard disappeared) could run forever.



The Mets would routinely get trampled on western swings, but somehow you didn't mind as much when it was Houston as you did when it was Cincinnati, LA, or San Francisco. The two trips to Houston every year just had this air of the exotic about it. And you could count on Ralph to use his favorite pun, joking that the Mets had an edifice complex when it came to The Astrodome. Sometimes it seemed like they'd spend half the game talking about the building.



Nineteen eighty was the only year that Ryan and Richard's careers intersected, but boy were they great. That was the year Joe Morgan returned to the Houston too.

[smg58]

Richard's story was a sad one. But for a couple of years he was great, and he seemed to e getting better. He was 10-4 with a 1.90 ERA less than halfway through the 1980 season when the wheels came off.

[DocTee]

I remember being haunted by the grainy back-and-white photo on the backpage of the Daily News showing JRR collapsed on the turf and doctors attending to him. I couldnt be mis-remembering that, could I?

[Benjamin Grimm]

http://leaptoad.com/mets/clippings/Daily_News_Thu__Jul_31__1980_.jpg>



http://leaptoad.com/mets/clippings/Daily_News_Fri__Aug_1__1980_.jpg>



http://leaptoad.com/mets/clippings/Daily_News_Fri__Aug_1__1980_p53.jpg>

[batmagadanleadoff]

‘If He Doesn't Have That Stroke, He's in the Hall of Fame'



For five seasons in the late 1970s, J.R. Richard of the Houston Astros was as intimidating as any pitcher before or since. His legacy is the reverence of the batters who faced him.



Excerpt:

J.R. Richard never faded. His next to last start was at the All-Star Game in 1980. He was 30 years old, at the apex of his powers, when it all went away. He was the Sandy Koufax of his generation. [***] “I kid you not: If they took the radar gun that they're using right now and they put it on J.R., when the ball left his hand like that, it was probably going 110,” the longtime outfielder Gary Matthews, who faced Richard more than any other hitter, said on Thursday. “If he doesn't have that stroke, he's in the Hall of Fame. He had Hall of Fame stuff and he would have had Hall of Fame stats. J.R. Richard doesn't have to take a back seat to any pitcher that's ever pitched in the major leagues.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/sports/baseball/jr-richard-astros.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepagehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/sports/baseball/jr-richard-astros.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

[batmagadanleadoff]

‘If He Doesn't Have That Stroke, He's in the Hall of Fame' For five seasons in the late 1970s, J.R. Richard of the Houston Astros was as intimidating as any pitcher before or since. His legacy is the reverence of the batters who faced him. Excerpt: J.R. Richard never faded. His next to last start was at the All-Star Game in 1980. He was 30 years old, at the apex of his powers, when it all went away. He was the Sandy Koufax of his generation. [***] “I kid you not: If they took the radar gun that they're using right now and they put it on J.R., when the ball left his hand like that, it was probably going 110,” the longtime outfielder Gary Matthews, who faced Richard more than any other hitter, said on Thursday. “If he doesn't have that stroke, he's in the Hall of Fame. He had Hall of Fame stuff and he would have had Hall of Fame stats. J.R. Richard doesn't have to take a back seat to any pitcher that's ever pitched in the major leagues.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/sports/baseball/jr-richard-astros.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepagehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/sports/baseball/jr-richard-astros.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

They could've quoted Keith Hernandez for this article. Keith always says that Richard threw the best slider he ever saw.

[G-Fafif]

Jim Morrison soulmate Patricia Kennelly-Morrison, 75. She gave her blessing to Robin Ventura's adoption of Mojo Risin' in 1999.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/arts/music/patricia-kennealy-morrison-rock-journalist-dies-at-75.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/arts/music/patricia-kennealy-morrison-rock-journalist-dies-at-75.html

[G-Fafif]

Former Post sports columnist Jay Greenberg, 71, remembered here by colleague Mike Vaccaro.

He came in with both feet kicking the door down, you bet he did. When you read the first column Jay Greenberg wrote for the Post, Feb. 22, 1994, it's not only 100-percent Jay's voice in the words, you can actually hear Jay's voice, too, the gravelly lilt of his Pennsylvania upbringing still evident, the joy ever-crackling behind an impish smile. “I woke up in the city that never sleeps,” he wrote, by way of introduction, “and I couldn't get back to sleep. On the street below, taxis blared like Dallas Green. In the hallway, doors were slamming, like Ray Handley applying for head-coaching jobs …”

https://nypost.com/2021/08/13/rip-jay-greenberg-so-much-more-than-a-great-post-columnist/https://nypost.com/2021/08/13/rip-jay-greenberg-so-much-more-than-a-great-post-columnist/

[G-Fafif]

The death of Groth whittles the roster of living St. Louis Browns to four.

[G-Fafif]

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Had an awesome shot on his '73 Topps card



https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hZwAAOSwFghgmefs/s-l300.jpg>

[seawolf17]

I'm almost complete on my post-75 Topps collection, and I'm starting with the 73s and 74s. Some of the photography in those two years in particular was fascinatingly awful.

[Edgy MD]

And awfully fascinating. They made a commitment to switch to action shots before securing much of a collection of sources for action shots.



Is he tagging out a Yankee (Celerino Sanchez?) there in one of the final seasons of YS1?

[G-Fafif]

When I was coming to baseball awareness, Bill Freehan was the American League gold standard at catcher, the automatic choice to start All-Star Games even as the likes of Munson and Fisk rose to prominence.



He was the cornerstone of a helluva team that stayed together almost forever.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

=seawolf17 post_id=74961 time=1629385415 user_id=91]
I'm almost complete on my post-75 Topps collection, and I'm starting with the 73s and 74s. Some of the photography in those two years in particular was fascinatingly awful.

[whippoorwill]

Was Bill Freehan a red haired man? I seem to recall a very early crush on him, if he was a redhead.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know! I can't find a good photo of him without his cap on. I see that he wrote a book called "Behind the Mask". If only he had written one called "Beneath the Cap."

[Frayed Knot]

=G-Fafif post_id=74968 time=1629392147 user_id=55]
When I was coming to baseball awareness, Bill Freehan was the American League gold standard at catcher, the automatic choice to start All-Star Games even as the likes of Munson and Fisk rose to prominence.

[whippoorwill]

Now that I think about it, it might have been Bill Sedakis (sp)

[MFS62]

When you're talking catchers of that era, my wife thought Steve Yeager was very good looking.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Freehan & Mickey Lolich, btw, hold the record for most starts by a battery of teammates at 324 for their Detroit careers.



Warren Spahn/Del Crandall (Braves) are 2nd - 316

R. Farber/Ray Schalk (ChiSox) 306

Wainwright & Molina at 298 -- can they notch 17 more between the end of this tear and next? Yadier has said that 2022 will be his last

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Strong unfouled hit for Zimmo there

[G-Fafif]

Ruly Carpenter of the Phillie Carpenters, 81.



https://www.delawareonline.com/story/sports/2021/09/13/ex-phillies-president-long-time-ud-supporter-ruly-carpenter-dies-suddenly/8324340002/https://www.delawareonline.com/story/sports/2021/09/13/ex-phillies-president-long-time-ud-supporter-ruly-carpenter-dies-suddenly/8324340002/

[G-Fafif]