Recent Baseball Passings Thread

[stevejrogers]

Joe Niekro, 61 RIP Brother of Knucksie

And one of the infamously funny episodes of being caught with an illegal substances when he was being searched and an emory board fell out of his pocket.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I missed this. Too bad.

I never believed the board was enough to convict him on.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Wow! As old as Babe Ruth.

Silas Simmons, 111, Veteran of Baseball�s Negro Leagues, Is Dead

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: November 1, 2006

Silas Simmons, the former Negro leagues baseball player who was believed to be the longest-living professional ballplayer in history, died Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 111

Simmons in September

His death was announced by a spokeswoman for the retirement home where he died.

A Philadelphia native, Simmons was a left-handed pitcher for the local Germantown Blue Ribbons beginning in either 1912 or 1913, in the primordial and poorly recorded days of organized black baseball. He played for Germantown and other clubs for many years after that, including the New York Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League in 1926 and the Negro National League�s Cuban Stars in 1929.

The fact that Simmons was still alive was unknown to baseball�s avid research community until the summer of 2006, when a geneologist discovered he was living in the St. Peterburg nursing home.

�I had a good curveball and a good fastball,� Simmons told The New York Times in an article in September. Simmons, who was paid about $10 a game, said that he might have been good enough to play in the major leagues, but he did not consider even asking for a tryout. �It was useless to try,� he said.

�A lot of good black players, but they couldn�t play in the league,� he said. �So that was it. After Jackie Robinson came up, they found out how good they were and started recruiting. You have to give them a chance to play.

Simmons with the 1913 Homestead Grays. He identified himself as the second player from the right in the middle row.

Negroes had a lot of pride. They felt like baseball, that was the greatest thing in the world for them. You had some great players in those days. Biz Mackey. Pop Lloyd. Judy Johnson. Scrappy Brown, the shortstop. We played against all those players.�

The discovery of Simmons made him a minor baseball celebrity. To celebrate his 111th birthday Oct. 14, the Center for Negro League Baseball Research organized a party at Simmons�s nursing home that attracted 300 people, including 39 former Negro leagues players.

Carl Boles, an outfielder who later played on the 1962 San Francisco Giants, presented Simmons with a plaque from the Society of American Baseball Research that recognized him as the oldest living professional ballplayer ever. And the Tampa Bay Devil Rays � whose games Simmons still occasionally attended with his church group, � gave him an official jersey with No. 111 on the back.

Simmons spent the afternoon regaling attendees with stories of the Negro leagues, of his having played against legends like Lloyd, Johnson and Mackey. He often described Lloyd as �the second Honus Wagner.�

�It was a thrill to watch players like that,� he told The Times. �After awhile they were in the big leagues, playing ball, which you thought would never come. But eventually it did come. And that was the greatest thing of my life when I saw these fellows come up and play big league baseball.�

Simmons retired from baseball in the early 1930s. He had five children and became a porter and later the assistant manager of a Plainfield, N.J., department store. He retired to St. Petersburg in 1971 with his second wife, Rebecca, who died in 1999. Simmons also outlived all of his children.

[Frayed Knot]

"Hi, I'm Si Simmons, and you'll never see the word 'SALE' on any of my uniforms"

[MFS62]

Interesting, because according to "Only The Ball Was White", Robert Peterson's history of the Negro Leagues (Prentice-Hall, 1970), there were only three players named Simmons associated with NL baseball, and he wasn't one of them.
He lists:
Simmons, (no first name found), P- 1926 Lincoln Giants
Simmons, JR, 1887 Player, Baltimore
Simmons, RS, 1943-49 officer, Chicago American Giants

Silas makes it #4.

Later

[seawolf17]

62, wouldn't he be the first one on that list? Look at the third paragraph.

[soupcan]

Edgy DC wrote: I missed this. Too bad. I never believed the board was enough to convict him on.

You've got to be joking right?

[Frayed Knot]

This guy was born the same year as Babe Ruth folks.




"Simmons also outlived all of his [five] children."

That's one of the drawbacks of living that long

[Guest Edgy DC]

Not at all. Knucklers have to constantly sharpen their pitching fingernails into fangs to achieve the grip they need.



Having an emory board in your back pocket? Big deal. You've got to have more than that on me.

Nothing like due process there. It doesn't make him innocent, but it doesn't necessarily make him guilty either.

[MFS62]

seawolf17 wrote: 62, wouldn't he be the first one on that list? Look at the third paragraph.

Looks like you're right, Wolf. I missed that when I scanned the article.

And, Attention Scarlet. The book might be a reference for the project you are working on.

Later

[soupcan]

Point taken Edge, but how about the fact that when he went to empty his pockets he basically hurled the thing as far away from himself as possible while trying to appear as though he didn't even know it was in his pocket.

If it was cool to have the emery board then why try to disassociate himself from it?

He knew he shouldn't have had it and was gonna get busted if he was caught with it. At the least he was guilty of having something on him that he knew he shouldn't.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't know, but two possiblities occur to me. (1) He didn't hurl it away. It just popped away when he inverted the stretch pockets of his stetch polyester pants. (2) He wasn't guilty He did, in fact, foolishly try to get rid of it because he knew it incriminated him.

My point isn't that he's necessarily innocent, only that guilt and punishment seems an arbitrary thing in baseball.

[Frayed Knot]

The only reason he had an emory board in his back pocket was that he couldn't figure out a way to hide the belt sander and extension cord.

[soupcan]

How great is YouTube?



- He hurled it.

- If he knew it would incriminate him then he knew it was wrong/illegal to have it.

He knew the rules, he knowingly broke the rules. He was guilty. How is that arbitrary?

[Guest Edgy DC]

He hurled it.

It isn't arbitrary. The general way rules are enforced and punishments handed out is.

[soupcan]

="Edgy DC"]It isn't arbitrary. The general way rules are enforced and punishments handed out is.

That I'll agree to.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Former pitcher Sain passes away at 89
Three-time All-Star spent most of career with Braves, Yankees
Associated Press

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. -- Johnny Sain, a three-time All-Star who teamed with Warren Spahn to make up one of baseball's most fabled pitching tandems, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Sain's best year was 1948, when he and Hall of Famer Spahn led the Boston Braves to the World Series, which they lost to Cleveland. It was during that season when the famous saying was born: "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain."

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/images/2006/11/08/ca7oLRUH.jpg

Johnny Sain was a 20-game winner four times in his 11-year career.

The Boston Post ran a poem by sports editor Gerald Hern that led to the catchy phrase about the Braves' two dominant pitchers -- and the rest of their unheralded rotation.

"First we'll use Spahn, then we'll use Sain, Then an off day, followed by rain. Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain, And followed, we hope, by two days of rain," it read.

Sain was 139-116 with a 3.49 ERA in 11 seasons in the 1940s and 1950s, mostly with the Braves and New York Yankees. He won three straight World Series titles with Casey Stengel's Yankees from 1951-53.

The right-hander made his Major League debut in 1942, then spent from 1943-45 in the military during World War II. He returned to the big leagues in 1946.

Sain had a stroke in 2002 and had been in poor health. The Knollcrest Funeral Home in Lombard, Ill., said it was handling the arrangements.

The Chicago Tribune reported Sain's death earlier on its Web site.

Sain was a four-time 20-game winner and later became a top reliever, leading the AL with 22 saves in 1954.

Sain topped the Majors with 24 victories and 28 complete games in 1948. He beat Hall of Famer Bob Feller and the Indians 1-0 in Game 1 of the World Series that season.

Later, Sain became a popular pitching coach with the Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota, Detroit and Atlanta.

[Frayed Knot]

]Later, Sain became a popular pitching coach with the Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota, Detroit and Atlanta.

Controversial might be a better word there.
I don't recall all the specifics of his philosophy, but Sain was one of those guys that pitchers seemed to either swear by or swear at.
Jim Bouton touted him all over 'Ball Four', frequently implying that he had some unconventional ideas that were constantly getting him into trouble w/managers and front offices. But Seaver once said something along the lines of; 'I wouldn't let Sain near me'. Sain wasn't a big running guy ("it makes me tired") which maybe explains part of what offended Seaver's 'leg power' attitude.

[Theoldmole]

He was more popular than not with pitchers, more unpopular than not with managers.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Bobby Klaus's older brother:

In 1955, Billy Klaus had a career-high .283 batting average. He was named Rookie of the Year.

OBITUARY

Sarasota retiree was Boston Red Sox 'backbone' in 1955

By MARK ZALOUDEK

mark.zaloudek@heraldtribune.com

SARASOTA -- When the Boston Red Sox were within reach of the American League pennant in 1955, baseball legend Ted Williams gave credit to one of his newest teammates, Billy Klaus.

Williams wasn't the only one who took notice of the 26-year-old rookie.

"Observers claim the young Fox Lake, Ill., shortstop has been the Red Sox's backbone during their recent drive to within three games of the (Chicago) White Sox," reported one Boston newspaper that summer.

Although the Red Sox didn't win the pennant that year, Klaus was named his team's "Rookie of the Year" and placed second behind Cleveland Indians pitcher Herb Score for the same honor in the American League.

Klaus, who fell in love with Sarasota while his team held its spring training here and later raised his family here, died Dec. 3, 2006, of lung cancer. He was 77.

"He was one of those scufflers who just got the job done," recalled his younger brother, Bob Klaus, who played for the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Mets in the mid-1960s.

A Time magazine article described Billy Klaus, a 5-foot-9 right-hander who batted left-handed, as an unlikely standout early in his 11-year baseball career.

"He is not a sensational fielder (though he manages to stop the tough ones), he throws with remarkable lack of grace (yet he manages to get the ball across the infield on time), and at the plate he looks as if he could not hit at all (but he is currently slapping the ball at a surprising .300). Like the Cardinals' ex-Manager Eddie Stanky, what Billy knows best is how to win ball games," a Time sportswriter wrote in August 1955.

Born Dec. 9, 1928, on a farm in Spring Grove, Ill., Klaus excelled in baseball as a youth and was recruited after high school to play in the minor leagues.

He spent his first year with the Chicago Cubs farm team, which won the state league and earned each player a $50 bonus.

Klaus celebrated by buying his high school sweetheart an engagement ring, he recalled in a Herald-Tribune interview in 1994. He was married by 19 and the following year his wife gave birth to twins.

Klaus spent several years on various minor league teams around the country until he received his big break to play in the majors in 1952-53 with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves.

He played his first of three seasons with the Boston Red Sox in 1955, when he had a career high .283 batting average, including seven home runs. Two years later, he scored a career-high 10 home runs.

He also played for the Baltimore Orioles (1959-60), the Washington Senators (1961) and the Philadelphia Phillies (1962-63), often as shortstop or third baseman.

Far from the multimillion-dollar contracts enjoyed by baseball players today, Klaus earned less than $15,000 in his heyday.

"There wasn't a union when we played, and there wasn't a draft and we didn't have agents," said his brother, Bob, of San Diego.

"We were picked up off the sandlots and the high schools and they'd offer you something and you'd said 'yea' or 'nay,' but there wasn't a lot of negotiations back then."

Billy Klaus ended his playing career in Japan with two seasons for the Chunichi Dragons in the Japanese League.

"I think I played for almost every league there was," he told a Herald-Tribune reporter with a chuckle in 1994. "But the love of the game keeps you going to the end. When I was asked to manage minor leagues in 1965, it was back to the boondocks. But it was an excellent all-around experience."

Klaus and several other professional ballplayers were also willing to share their skills with Sarasota's Little Leaguers on Saturday mornings when they were in town for spring training. One of the boys they coached was Wayne Garrett, a 1965 Sarasota High grad who went on to play second base for the New York Mets.

In 1969, Klaus and his family returned to Sarasota, where he established a painting contracting business.

He and his wife also owned and operated a gift and antiques store in Valle Crucis, N.C., where they spent their summers for many years.

Klaus also enjoyed golfing and played in several charity tournaments.

"He liked everybody and everybody liked him," said his daughter, Nancy Drake of Winston-Salem, N.C. "And he trusted everybody. He was very simple and knew that was the way life should be."

Daughter Donna Burkhart of Sarasota said her father was down-to-earth, kind and had a good sense of humor.

Jean Klaus, his wife of 53 years, died in 2003.

In addition to his two daughters and his brother, Klaus is survived by two sons, Dale of Vero Beach and Joe of Navarre; two sisters, June Frost of Ingleside, Ill., and Mary Ann Daudelin of Bartlett, Ill.; 10 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

His family plans a celebration of life service at his home from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, on what would have been his 78th birthday.

Memorial donations may be made to the Banner Elk Christian Fellowship Church, 140 Woods Lane, Banner Elk, NC 28604.

[DocTee]

Former Giants SS Jose Uribe...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2691022

[Guest sharpie]

He was the guy who changed his name from Jose Gonzalez because there were too many Jose Gonzalezes.

[nymr83]

a career .241 hitter, not suprisingly his "most similiar" player on baseball-reference.com is our very own Rey Ordonez.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Uribe was an interesting guy. He was originally signed by the Yankees and released in 1977, then gobbled up by the Cards, who were stockpiling Dominican infielders around that time. But they all stayed trapped behind the human logjams of (first) Gary Templeton and (immediately after) Ozzie Smith. His big break came when he was packaged with a bunch of other ready talent in the Jack Clark deal.

His seven-year reign as Giant shortstpop was certainly a prototype of the skinny good-glove/no-stick shortstop, but was a welcome improvement on his predecessor Johnny Lemaster, who was a lessor hitter and a reviled (probably unfairly at least in part) fielder.

He became a poltiical candidate after his career, though I don't know if he won anything.

[Guest iramets]

Edgy DC wrote: a reviled (probably unfairly at least in part) fielder.

If you're going to qualify something quite this much, maybe you shouldn't even bother saying it. Johnny Disaster earned that nickname.

Great superhero name, isn't it? And speaking of names, Uribe will always be known as "The ultimate Player To Be Named Later," won't he?

[Guest sharpie]

I watched Johnnie LeMaster play during his whole run on the Giants. He was a pretty good fielder and could've been the Giants' Bud Harrelson but for his unlikeable personality which made him into the Giants' Rey Ordonez.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I played rotisserie (a long time ago) with a friend who named his team the San Jose Cardinals (Cardinal pronounced like the former afro'ed Met ballplayer). After that team did poorly he thought he'd shake things up by renaming them the San Jose Uribes.

Weird the things you think of.

Uribe was a good fielder, but was in trouble a lot as I recall.

[Guest Edgy DC]

align=Ex-Dodgers hurler Sherry, MVP of 1959 Series, dies

Tribune news services

December 19, 2006

Larry Sherry, MVP of the 1959 World Series as a reliever for the Los Angeles Dodgers, died early Sunday at his home in Mission Viejo, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. He was 71.

Sherry was 2-0 with two saves and an 0.71 ERA to lead the Dodgers past the White Sox in six games to win the World Series. He was the winning pitcher in the fourth and sixth games.

The right-hander pitched for the Dodgers from 1958-63, and later played for

[Guest Edgy DC]

Kewl Larry Sherry bio.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Chris Brown, former Giants infielder and HS teammate of Strtawberry, dead at 45 following burns received in a suspicious fire at a home he owned but didn't live in.

Sad and strange.

]Former All-Star Brown dies after fire 12/27/2006 6:50 PM ET The Associated Press HOUSTON -- Chris Brown, an All-Star third baseman who played six seasons in the majors in the 1980s, died Tuesday, nearly a month after he was burned in a fire at his home outside Houston. He was 45. Brown died at Memorial Hermann Hospital. An autopsy has been performed but the cause of death is still pending, said Beverly Begay, a spokeswoman for the Harris County medical examiner's office. Authorities say they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fire and how Brown was burned. Doug Adolph, a spokesman for the Sugar Land police and fire departments, said arson is suspected. Brown played with the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers. He is the second member of the mid-1980s Giants infield to die this month. Jose Uribe played shortstop for the team from 1985-92. He died at 47 in a Dec. 8 car crash in the Dominican Republic. A few years ago, Brown took a job with Halliburton Co. and ended up in Iraq driving, inspecting and repairing 18-wheel fuel trucks. In a 2004 telephone interview with The Associated Press, he said he'd faced enemy fire several times. "It's a place I would've never thought 20 years ago that I'd be," Brown told the AP. Firefighters arrived about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 30 at the home Brown owned in Sugar Land and found it "fully engulfed" in flames, Adolph said. Firefighters found no people or furniture inside, he said, and neighbors told authorities no one had lived there for some time. Adolph said officials at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital told the Sugar Land fire department later that morning that Brown was there being treated for burns he suffered in a fire at his house. How Brown got from the burning house to the hospital about 9 miles away is part of the investigation, Adolph said. Brown was transferred a few hours later to the main Memorial Hermann Hospital, Begay said. Sugar Land authorities never formally interviewed Brown because of his deteriorating condition, Adolph said. Brown, who played with Darryl Strawberry at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, debuted in the majors in 1984 and made the All-Rookie team in 1985 after batting .271 with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs. Brown made the NL All-Star team in 1986, when he hit .317 with seven homers and 49 RBIs for San Francisco. He underwent shoulder surgery after the '86 season and his statistics tapered off. He hit .242 in the first half of the 1987 season and the Giants traded him to the Padres. He batted .235 with only two homers in 1988 and the Padres dealt him to Detroit. He appeared in only 17 games with the Tigers in 1989 and batted .193 before he was released. He never returned to baseball. Brown finished his big league career with a .269 average, 38 home runs and 184 RBIs.