Recent Baseball Passings, 2005

[DocTee]

Longtime Oakland A's radio announcer Bill King passed today...

[Frayed Knot]

"I remember when the Sporting News had a weekly article on each team
by one of their beat writers"

I remember that too.
It was a good introduction to my young self to writers like Joe Falls out
of Detroit and the like.

I recently followed a link off of something and got myself a free subscription
to The Sporting News which I hadn't seen in several years.
What I've discovered - in addition to the fact that they've gone from being
"The Bible of Baseball" to a magazine that barely cares about baseball -
is that it's frickin awful. I'm getting it for free and feel like I'm being over-charged.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Family-owned paper for decades and decades. Sold to a corporation. Turns to cuh-rap.

Have we yet reached the point where the market for sports news for the sake of fantasy leagues is more valuable than sporting news for the sake of real leagues?

[metirish]

Frayed Knot I think FOX now owns The Sporting News, that could be why it has changed for the worse,I could be wrong on that but when you go to foxsports they have some of the same content....

[Frayed Knot]

"Have we yet reached the point where the market for sports news for
the sake of fantasy leagues is more valuable than sporting news for the
sake of real leagues?"

I haven't but 'The Sporting News' apparantly has.
They're very fantasy oriented and has almost none of the journalism
that MFS62 mentioned earlier.

They had actually been changing for years, I just hadn't realized how far
they'd fallen until seeing these recent issues. And for a mag that once
covered only baseball, their NASCAR section is larger than their baseball
and they went about 8 or 9 consecutive issues during July & August
with nothing but football on the covers ... mag editors seem to be under
the opinion that putting baseball on the cover doesn't sell issues.


I don't think FOX owns it, they just share on-line info.

[Guest Edgy DC]

How can we measure when the tipping point has passed (or has it?), that more sports journalism has been consumed in the interest of rotisserie and gambling than in the interest of the events for their own sake?

[Guest Egg_Salad_Sandwich]

Didn't one of the florescent Mets from the Gary Carter deodorant commercial die last week?

[MFS62]

="Edgy DC"]How can we measure when the tipping point has passed (or has it?), that more sports journalism has been consumed in the interest of rotisserie and gambling than in the interest of the events for their own sake?

My personal "tipping Point" for TSN came on the day they stopped printing spring training and in-season minor league box scores. IIRC they still kept the individual city reports for a while after that. But by that time, I was no longer one of their readers. (or was the order reversed?)

There was a press release thatTSN was going to a new format to "include news of other sports". (my bold)
To me that meant that baseball would still retain prominence.
Apparentlyy, it didn't mean the same thing to them.
sigh
Publisher JG Taylor Spink must be whirling in his grave.

Later

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I thought of The Sporting News this week when my wife and my sister were both complaining about the "new improved" TV Guide.

I first encountered TSN in 1976 and I loved it. I had about ten years remaining on my subscription when, in 1991 or 1992, they had their radical format change. I cancelled after about two or three issues of that crap, and got a hefty refund from them.

[seawolf17]

I was looking up Al Lopez this morning, and on the main page of [url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/]b-r.com[/url], they list 1963 Met Don Rowe as "in memoriam." Anyone?

[Theoldmole]

MFS -- I had a subscription to the Sporting News when I was a kid. Those were in the innocent days when it was a Baseball paper, and they had Willard Mullin cartoons, and we didn't yet know that J. G. Taylor Spink would turn out to be a fink for management.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't see anything for Rowe in the usual news sources. Even with that bb-r.com citation, his personal page there doesn't show him as having passed.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

seawolf17 wrote: I was looking up Al Lopez this morning, and on the main page of [url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/]b-r.com[/url], they list 1963 Met Don Rowe as "in memoriam." Anyone?

He had a recent unexplained surge on the UMDB. Maybe he did die, and we didn't hear about it. Usually in cases like this a visitor usually tips me off, but I haven't heard a thing.

[Guest sharpie]

]He had a recent unexplained surge on the UMDB

Well, he was the "unusually popular Met"

[Guest Edgy DC]

Now that was Billy Wynne.

[Guest sharpie]

Of course, that's right. Don Rowe was the guy who had the Met record of most games in a season without a decision until Jaime Cerda stole that crown away from him.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I received this in an e-mail this morning:



Donald Howard Rowe
Born: April 3, 1936 in Brawley, Calif.
Died: Oct. 15, 2005 in Newport Beach, Calif.
Debut: 1963 | Pos: P
H: 6' | W: 180 | B: L | T: L


Yr W L G SV IP SO ERA
1 0 0 26 0 54.2 27 4.28

Don Rowe, who pitched a season in the major
leagues and later worked as a pitching coach,
died on Oct. 15, 2005 in Newport Beach, Calif. He
was 70. He had been battling Parkinson's disease.

Rowe made his major league debut in 1963 at 27
years old. He pitched 54.2 innings in his only
season in the majors and posted a 4.28 ERA. He
pitched in 26 games and recorded no decisions.

According to his obituary, he spent 14 seasons in
the minor leagues. In 1988, he was a pitching
coach for the Chicago White Sox for a year.

After leaving baseball, he worked as a baseball
coach and teacher at Golden West College in
Huntington Beach. In 1982, he worked as a
pitching coach in the Angels' system. He returned
to Golden West briefly and then went to work in
the Brewers' farm system as a pitching coach
before moving to the Giants' organization.

He returned to the majors in 1990 as the pitching
coach for Milwaukee.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

And I found this as independent confirmation:


http://gwc.info/bulletins/DonRowe.html

Former GWC Coach Rowe Passes Away

Longtime Golden West Rustler coach Don Rowe, 69, passed away Saturday at Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach. Rowe, who suffered from Parkinson�s disease had been battling pneumonia for over a week. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn, his daughter and his granddaughter.

Rowe was a charter faculty member, hired in August of 1966. Prior to that, Rowe enjoyed a brief major league baseball career with the New York Mets. A lifelong baseball enthusiast, Rowe pitched for Casey Stengel�s Mets as a 27-year-old left-hander in 1963. He appeared in 26 games that year.

At Golden West Rowe was the school�s tennis coach and the football team�s defensive assistant for the first 25 years of the Rustler�s storied history. He also assisted with the GWC baseball team before and after returning to Major League Baseball.

In 1988 Rowe was the pitching coach of the Chicago White Sox, following that he held the same position with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Details for a celebration of life are yet to be announced.

[Guest Edgy DC]

"...expert in kinesiology."

[seawolf17]

A little help, Edgy, for those of us who don't subscribe to the OC Register.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Coming up as you post a parody...

[Guest Edgy DC]

As a player or coach, always in the game Huntington Beach resident struck out Ted Williams in '57 and threw Hank Aaron's 299th home-run pitch. By ROBIN HINCH The Orange County Register Don Rowe Don Rowe Born: April 3, 1935, Brawley Died: Oct. 15, 2005, Newport Beach Survivors: Wife, Marilyn; daughter, Katie; sister, Susie; brother, Peter; granddaughter, Kelly Memorial service: 1 p.m. Nov. 13, Hilton Waterfront Resort, Huntington Beach. Arrangements by Neptune Society of Orange County, Costa Mesa. Donations: Don Rowe Memorial Scholarship Fund, Golden West Foundation, Golden West College, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach, CA 92647 With a career like Don Rowe's, who needs hobbies? A college football and baseball coach who also pitched batting practice for the Dodgers and Angels, he made his living doing what many men yearn to do for sport. When he was playing or coaching baseball, football was his hobby. When he was playing or coaching football, he trained pro baseball players who were home for the winter. And if it hadn't been for the Parkinson's disease that slowed him down the last four years, he'd no doubt be on one field or another today. He was 70 when he died Oct. 15. Don was 11 when, while growing up in Vallejo, a neighbor took him to an Oakland Oaks baseball game. He came home and asked for a ball and glove. When he was in eighth grade, the family moved to Compton, where Don excelled in sports through high school. During his first year at Compton College, he was signed to a professional baseball contract. He played for Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets minor-league teams for 14 years, while also going to school and coaching (for Compton College and Lynwood and Pius X high schools). He also played one year, in 1963, in the major leagues for the New York Mets and was a pitching coach for the Chicago White Sox for a year in 1988. His education was interrupted so often it took him 13 years to finish college, but he finally got a teaching credential at Cal State Long Beach. When his baseball career as a player came to an end in 1966, Don was asked to teach and to coach the new J.C. football team at Golden West College in Huntington Beach. As a child, he'd hoped to go to West Point and become a general. He was crushed when he couldn't get in because he wore glasses. So he became a general on the playing field, instead. Smart, decisive and persistent, he spent hours mapping out strategies. He was fascinated by the physical mechanics of pitching and became an expert in kinesiology He didn't like being a spectator at games unless there was a pitcher he wanted to watch. Then he got seats right behind the mound. In 1982, Don had a heart attack and was on leave from Golden West College for a year. But when the Angels asked him to be pitching coach for their Redwood Pioneers farm team he couldn't refuse. When he returned to Golden West, he taught P.E. until the Milwaukee Brewers tabbed him to coach one of its minor league teams. Next, he was a roving pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants farm team. But in 1990, Milwaukee offered him good money to come back and be their major league pitching coach, so Don left Golden West and worked for the Brewers for the next eight years before retiring for good. Sports fans reveled in Don's many baseball stories. Like the time Hank Aaron hit his 299th home run off of Don the one year Don played for the New York Mets. Don would then show people the baseball Aaron signed for him on which the hitter specified "299th." He had an extensive collection of uniforms, hats and signed baseballs. In 1957, when Don was playing for the Hollywood Stars in an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox, he struck out Ted Williams and the play made the local papers. On Don's 60th birthday, his wife, Marilyn, sent Williams the articles, which he signed and returned with a friendly note. Although Don could be tough on the field, he had a gentle, generous nature. He let Marilyn write all the checks, but he liked to carry 100 $100 bills with him. He didn't want to spend it on himself. He wanted to hand out $100 tips to servers, bellhops or anyone else who went out of his or her way to be helpful and whom Don knew wasn't paid much. One airport worker, who shepherded him through a large airport when he couldn't find his flight gate, burst into tears when he handed her $100. He fought his disease to the end, struggling to remain physically fit and using a walker to get onto the Golden West field. He was losing his mental acuity, but liked to think he was helping coach. At the end, though, he got mad. "You and the doctors can just take this Parkinson's and get rid of it!" he told Marilyn. "I don't want it any more."

We should wend JG to the memorial.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Don Rowe, 'Total Classic.'

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Vic Power, all-star first baseman, dies at 78

By Frank Fitzpatrick
Inquirer Staff Writer

Vic Power, a flamboyant first baseman who played during sad but historic seasons for both the Phillies and Athletics, died yesterday at 78 in his native Puerto Rico.

According to a family member, Mr. Power succumbed to cancer at a hospital in Bayamon, a suburb of San Juan.

In 12 major-league seasons, Mr. Power won seven Gold Gloves and was named to four all-star teams. He also tied a major-league record by stealing home twice in a 1958 game. He hit 126 home runs and had a career batting average of .284.

The dark-skinned Mr. Power seemed poised to become the New York Yankees' first black player when he led the American Association in hitting with a .359 average in 1953. But the Yankees, who wouldn't integrate until Elston Howard joined them in 1955, traded him to the Athletics before the 1954 season.

That would be Mr. Power's first season in the major leagues and the last in Philadelphia for the once-proud Athletics, who had been troubled by poor attendance and mostly losing baseball for decades.

"Philadelphia was such a miserable team," Mr. Power would say of 1954 when the Athletics went 51-103 and finished last.

Then in 1964, the memorable season in which Philadelphia would squander a 61/2-game lead with 12 to play, he was acquired by the Phillies after first-baseman Frank Thomas broke a finger sliding into second base.

"At the time I thought I had a chance to appear in my first World Series," he told author Danny Peary for his 1994 book We Played the Game.

Neither of those Philadelphia seasons were productive ones for a player who in between was one of the American League's best first basemen.

In his rookie season, Power hit just .255 for the doomed A's, with eight homers and 38 RBIs. Transplanted to Kansas City a year later, he would have his best overall season, batting .319 with 19 homers and 76 RBIs.

The '64 Phillies picked him up from the Los Angeles Angels on Sept. 9, a day after Thomas, himself a midseason acquisition, was injured.

Mr. Power was one of nine players manager Gene Mauch used at first base that ill-fated season. In the 18 games he played there before injuring a finger himself, the 36-year-old would hit just .208 with no home runs and 3 RBIs.

He was back with the Angels in 1965 but after hitting just .259 as a part-time player, he retired and returned to Puerto Rico.

A native of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Mr. Power was a spectacularly flashy fielder, a trait that often earned him criticism during that era of white-bread baseball.

He caught everything one-handed, swept his glove sideward with a flourish after receiving the ball, and jumped toward every throw, no matter its location.

Opposing players and sportswriters branded him a "hotdog" or a "showboat," but Power won the Gold Glove at his position every year from 1958 through 1964.

In addition to the A's, Angels and Phillies, he played with the Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins. He was an American League all-star in 1955, 1956, 1959 and 1960.

Perhaps his most memorable game came Aug. 14, 1958, with the Indians, to whom he had been traded for Roger Maris. Mr. Power stole home in the eighth inning and then again in the 10th to give Cleveland a 10-9 win over Detroit.

Mr. Power was a jovial and wisecracking teammate but no shrinking violet. He often confronted the racism he encountered at spring-training sites in Florida. When he was arrested there in 1954 for crossing a street while the light was red, he had this to say to the judge:

"I'm a Puerto Rican and on my island a Negro and a white person go to school together, dance together and get married," he told Peary. "But here I go to a restaurant and there's a sign that says 'For Whites Only'... so when I saw white people crossing the street when the green light came on, I figured that colored people could only cross when the light was red."

The charge was dropped.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's some confusing writing.

There seems to be a story in every guy who played for those 1964 Phils. Rest easy, Vic.

[MFS62]

I saw Vic play.
He was as good a righty fielding first baseman as the world has ever seen. He was Gil Hodges, but with more flair (the one handed snatch, more than a grab).

Later

[seawolf17]

[url=www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/375984p-319503c.html]Barry Halper[/url], legendary baseball memorabilia collector, moved from the All-Purpose Dead People Thread.

]Halper caught the baseball collecting bug at age 8 when, hanging out by the players' gate at Bears Stadium, home of the old Newark Bears of the International League, he was given a uniform jersey of Barney McCosky, one of the Bears' players. He went on to collect 1,068 uniforms, many of which were kept on a computerized dry cleaning rack in his home. In all, the Halper collection, which was ultimately sold at auction by Sotheby's in 1999, contained over 100,000 pieces ranging from the truly historic (Babe Ruth's famous camel hair coat, Shoeless Joe Jackson's "black Betsey" bat, the papers of correspondence between Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and Red Sox owner Harry Frazee on the sale of Ruth in 1919), to the truly bizarre (the rifle Ty Cobb's mother used to shoot his father, Cy Young's dentures, and a weather vane that had rested on the roof of a Waterbury, Conn., factory that had once been the home of 19th century Hall of Famer Roger Connor).

[Frayed Knot]

I think some ballplayer should start the bidding for some of his internal organs. Maybe strike a deal with the autoposy doc or something.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Elrod Hendricks caught against the Mets in the 1969 World Series. He spent most of his career with those O's. Despite twice leaving for brief stints, first with the Cubs then with the Yankees, he found his way back both times, and went on to become the team's bullpen coach after his retirement. He's so linked to the Orioles franchise that his middle name should've been Ripken.

Elrod Hendricks is dead at only 64.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

This kind of stuff makes me feel old.