Baseball Passings 2021

[G-Fafif]

[G-Fafif]

[Edgy MD]

I like how the Piazzas are wearing access passes, and Mike's all, "I'm Mike Piazza. I go where I want."

[G-Fafif]

Eddie Robinson, the last surviving world champion Cleveland Indian and the oldest living MLB alumnus, has died at 100.

[Edgy MD]

Robinson was also the general manager of the Braves in the seventies, jumping to the Rangers in 1977. I guess he got the honor of trading Lenny Randle to the Mets.



He wasn't the last pre-integration player, was he?

[G-Fafif]

Eddie Robinson was kind enough to trade us Ron Darling and Walt Terrell for Lee Mazzilli.

[Edgy MD]

Also sent the Mets Jim Kern who they promptly flipped to the Reds in the Foster deal.

[G-Fafif]

Eddie Robinson's less heartwarming legacy (from Joe Posnanski in 2016).

There is a famous story -- two famous ones, actually -- that have been told about Eddie Robinson when he was a member of the 1947 Cleveland team. The first was told by Boudreau and confirmed by various others. On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby showed up in Chicago to join Cleveland and become just the second African-American to play in the Majors in the 20th Century and, more to the point, the first in the American League. Boudreau, as manager, met with Doby and then took him around the clubhouse to meet the guys. Two players, Boudreau said, refused to shake Larry Doby's hand. They were both Texans. One was Les Fleming. The other, alas, was Eddie Robinson. Of course, you could say, Robinson was just a man of his time. True, he was one of only two to refuse, but his opinion was hardly uncommon in America in 1947. To quote Boudreau: “Later, Robinson told me that he lived in Baltimore during the off-season and his neighbors would not appreciate him being on the same team as a Negro, but that he himself had nothing against Doby.” Of course, there is also the glove incident, again told by Boudreau and again confirmed by others. Boudreau was not there when it happened but he said that he heard the story from the team's traveling secretary, Spud Goldstein. Boudreau wanted Doby to get some work at first base -- not many people remember this but Doby was a natural second baseman. The Tribe already had Joe Gordon at second. So Boudreau was looking for a good spot for Doby and asked him to take some grounders as a first baseman. Doby did not have a first baseman's glove. He asked to borrow Robinson's. Robinson's response has been told in different ways through the years. According to the most exhaustive book, “Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby,” the alleged response was: “No, I won't lend my glove to no n----.” Boudreau would only write that Robinson refused to lend his glove to Doby though, bizarrely, he did agree to lend it to Spud Goldstein who then lent it to Doby. Robinson, years later, would say it had nothing to do with race; he was just upset that Doby, a not-natural first baseman, was being set up to take his job. “I had no animosity toward Larry Doby,” he would say. But to complete the circle, we should mention one more story from 1946, when Eddie Robinson was playing for Baltimore in the minor leagues. That, of course, was the same year that Jackie Robinson was playing minor league baseball for Montreal. And Jackie would claim that during a game, Eddie Robinson kicked him in the back on a play at second base. “If I did,” Eddie Robinson would tell Joseph Moore, the author of Pride Against Prejudice, “it was an accident.”

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/give-that-man-his-roseshttps://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/give-that-man-his-roses

[G-Fafif]

Chuck Hartenstein, personification of the journeyman reliever, 79.

After major league tenures with the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox from 1965 to 1970, Hartenstein spent six seasons in the minors, the last two with the Pacific Coast League champion Hawaii Islanders, managed by new Blue Jays skipper Roy Hartsfield. It was Hartsfield who brought Hartenstein into the Blue Jays' fold. “Roy called me on November 4, 1976 and he said, ‘Charlie, we just bought your contract from Hawaii. You're going to be a Toronto Blue Jay.' Well, you want to talk about one of the happiest days of my life. That was one of them,” shared Hartenstein in a 2015 phone interview. At the time, players needed four years of big league service to qualify for a major league pension and Hartenstein was a few days short. “Roy said to me, ‘You're going to get those days. You earned it,'” remembered Hartenstein. “Well, that was one of his favorite sayings and it really motivated people. He said, ‘You earned it.' I carried that over in all my time coaching. I learned a lot from that man. He was like a second father to me.”

https://cooperstownersincanada.com/2021/10/06/original-blue-jay-chuck-hartenstein-passes-away-at-79/https://cooperstownersincanada.com/2021/10/06/original-blue-jay-chuck-hartenstein-passes-away-at-79/

[Edgy MD]

❤️sfield ❤️s ❤️enstein!

[G-Fafif]

Broadcaster and catcher Ray Fosse, who didn't tag Bud Harrelson, 74, after a long battle with cancer.

[G-Fafif]

Arnold Hano, accomplished sportswriter and writer of all things, but particularly cherished for his groundbreaking A Day in the Bleachers, the book he wrote about going to the first game of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds, perhaps the first modern longform fan's eye view of baseball. He was 99.



https://www.lagunabeachindy.com/arnold-hano-baseball-journalist-and-village-laguna-patriarch-dies-at-99/https://www.lagunabeachindy.com/arnold-hano-baseball-journalist-and-village-laguna-patriarch-dies-at-99/

[G-Fafif]

Jerry Remy, infielder and NESN icon, a little short of his 69th birthday, from cancer.



https://www.wcvb.com/article/jerry-remy-obituary-red-sox-hall-of-famer/37857224https://www.wcvb.com/article/jerry-remy-obituary-red-sox-hall-of-famer/37857224

[Frayed Knot]

Played seven of his ten MLB seasons with the Red Sox then was with NESN virtually ever since. It helps becoming a Sox/NESN icon when you're from Falls River, Mass and sound every bit of it.

[Edgy MD]

Author of seven career homers.



Made the All-Star team in 1978 despite having zero homers at the break. I assume that's been pulled off since by Ozzie Smith (and maybe even Ichiro Suzuki) but I imagine it's been a while.

[kcmets]

Sad day in New England sports for sure. I won't embarrass myself trying to

emulate Jerry's unmistakable voice and accent while typing. RIP

Edited October 31, 2021 by Guest

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Here comes the pizza. 😔

[Fman99]

Jerry Remy, infielder and NESN icon, a little short of his 69th birthday, from cancer. https://www.wcvb.com/article/jerry-remy-obituary-red-sox-hall-of-famer/37857224https://www.wcvb.com/article/jerry-remy-obituary-red-sox-hall-of-famer/37857224

Enjoyed his accented broadcast when I'd catch a snippet of it here or there.



Don't smoke, kids! RIP Jerry

[G-Fafif]

Ed Lucas, longtime sportswriter and true inspiration, 82.

Whenever he was asked about his life as a blind man, Ed Lucas would reply simply, “I consider it an inconvenience, not a handicap.'' It was his indomitable spirit that enabled him to realize his dreams and become an inspiration to thousands of people. A sports journalism pioneer, Lucas, a Jersey Journal columnist who also wrote for numerous publications, including Yankee Magazine, died Wednesday at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston. He was 82. Born in Jersey City, Lucas, a Union resident, considered himself lucky he had full vision during his early childhood. “For one thing, how do you describe color to someone who's never seen?” he would ask. “It becomes a concept. The sky is blue. The grass is green.'' Lucas was 12 years old in the fall of 1951 when Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World'' in the bottom of the ninth inning to propel his beloved New York Giants to the National League pennant over the Brooklyn Dodgers. After the game, he and his friends went outside to play some ball. Lucas, a lefty pitcher, was struck between the eyes with a line drive. Four years later he was blind. His parents enrolled him at St. Joseph's School for the Blind in Jersey City, where he was taught to be self-sufficient. A grateful Lucas later worked for many years at the school, helping it to raise funds. One winter, his parents took him to a clothing store in Newark, where he met Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who was working there. In those days, most ballplayers didn't make a lot of money and supplemented their income with jobs during the winter. The two started a close friendship that lasted more than half a century until the Hall of Famer's death in 2007. It was while attending Seton Hall University in South Orange that Lucas began pursuing his dream of becoming a baseball writer. “People would ask how could a blind man cover a baseball game?” he recalled. “It was unheard of. I always say never, never, never give up.'' It was that perseverance that enabled him to achieve his goal. Friends who accompanied him to major league games as his guide and “eyes'' were amazed at how Lucas could tell where a ball was hit simply by listening to the crack of the bat.

https://www.nj.com/hudson/2021/11/ed-lucas-blind-sports-journalist-and-inspiration-to-so-many-dies-at-82.htmlhttps://www.nj.com/hudson/2021/11/ed-lucas-blind-sports-journalist-and-inspiration-to-so-many-dies-at-82.html

[G-Fafif]

[Edgy MD]

Man, a terrible year for 45-year-old MLB hearts.



Lugo was a Dominican by birth, but he grew up in Brooklyn (where his brother Ruddy was born) and was an MLBS.

[seawolf17]

Ruddy is a phantom Met, right?

[Edgy MD]

Spent a full season in 2008 with the AAA Mets in New Orleans. Don't know if he ever got tapped, though.

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: Spent a full season in 2008 with the AAA Mets in New Orleans. Don't know if he ever got tapped, though.

Ruddy was called up, not deployed.

[G-Fafif]

Jerry Johnson, whose ten MLB seasons were highlighted by 12 wins for the 1971 NL West champion Giants, 77 (per reliable sources).

[Edgy MD]

Edgy MD wrote: Spent a full season in 2008 with the AAA Mets in New Orleans. Don't know if he ever got tapped, though. Ruddy was called up, not deployed.

There you go. And thus, worthy of some Seawolf autography.

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Spent a full season in 2008 with the AAA Mets in New Orleans. Don't know if he ever got tapped, though. Ruddy was called up, not deployed. There you go. And thus, worthy of some Seawolf autography.

He is, in fact, already in the autographed card collection, next to Jim Bibby, Terrel Hansen, and Wilbur Huckle.

[G-Fafif]

Dave Frishberg, inventive jazz composer who immortalized Van Lingle Mungo, 88.



https://www.orartswatch.org/legendary-songwriter-dave-frishberg-dies-at-88/https://www.orartswatch.org/legendary-songwriter-dave-frishberg-dies-at-88/



[media=youtube]TOvvJTv_E_w[/media]

[G-Fafif]

Doug Jones, top-notch reliever, 64.



https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/doug-jones-passes-away.htmlhttps://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/doug-jones-passes-away.html

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I think it was Jones who got in pre-Twitter hot water for mouthing off about gays. Pretty good guy to have on your fantasy team in the 90s.