Recent Baseball Passings 2007

[stevejrogers]

Also a member of the Met family

] Ruhle passes away from cancer Reds coach pitched 13 years in Majors with four teams By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com CINCINNATI -- Former Reds pitching coach Vern Ruhle, who missed the 2006 season while being treated for cancer, lost his battle and died on Saturday night. Ruhle was five days shy of his 56th birthday. The former Major League pitcher passed away at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of complications from a donor stem cell transplant for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. Ruhle is survived by his wife, Sue, daughter, Rebecca, and son, Kenny. "The baseball and Cincinnati Reds families mourn the loss of an excellent coach, wonderful husband and loving father," the club said in a statement. "In his 35 years in professional and collegiate baseball, Vern touched many people inside and outside the game. We are privileged to have been a part of his life. He will be missed." Ruhle pitched for the Tigers, Astros, Indians and Angels from 1974-86 and was 67-88 with a 3.73 ERA. From 1997-2003, he was a pitching coach for the Astros, Phillies and Mets, and he joined the Reds organization in 2004 as a pitching coach with rookie level Billings. Ruhle was promoted to Minor League pitching coordinator before the 2005 season, and he became the Reds' big-league pitching coach when Don Gullett was dismissed that June. For the 2007 season, Ruhle had been reassigned to work as the organization's pitching rehabilitation coordinator at its Minor League complex in Sarasota, Fla. Last February, doctors discovered Ruhle had cancer after he underwent his annual physical at the start of Spring Training. He spent the summer splitting time between his home in Sarasota and the hospital in Houston, while bullpen coach Tom Hume assumed pitching coach duties on an interim basis. In August, Ruhle was able to rejoin the club for some home games after he was informed by doctors during a checkup that he was showing improvement. "It's been a fun day," Ruhle said on Aug. 18 at Great American Ball Park. "There's been a lot of smiles and visiting with the different players. A few last year and some even this year that have known about what I've gone through have given big hugs and [said], 'Great to see you' and so on." While spending three months confined to his hospital room for treatment, it was baseball that helped keep Ruhle upbeat. He monitored games over the Internet and on television, and he regularly received phone calls and e-mails from the coaching staff, especially Hume. "[baseball] was something that really helped me throughout the summer in the healing process," Ruhle said. "I always had something to talk about that was very neutral in the eyes of the doctors, the nurses and the visitors. We could always talk about something other than my medical aspect of what's going on and what was and wasn't working."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Not much for UMDB memories of Vern Ruhle:

Phil Thiegou

October 23, 2003

The Mets falsely made Vern the scapegoat of the 2003 season. Actually the pitching wasn't that bad. The hitting was terrible. The Mets lost a lot of 1-run games that easliy could've been won if they got an extra hit here and there.

Jonathan Stern

June 17, 2005

A member of Art Howe's 1980's Houston brigade, Ruhle was an excellent pitcher who has yet to find success as a pitching coach, meeting with disappointment in Toronto as well as in Flushing.

VIBaseball

March 17, 2006

Let's wish Vern well as he seeks to recover from the same form of cancer, multiple myeloma, that Mel Stottlemyre has successfully battled.

There's got to be more (and more specifics) worth recalling. I agree that 2003 wasn't a pour refleiction on himt, althouh I think that he wasn't scapegoated so much as the mets really wanted to get Rick Peterson.

UMDB doesn't even have a photo.

He pitched in that great 1986 postsesaon, helping to dig a hole for California that they would eventually come back from in Game 4. He now joins teammate Donnie Moore in the hereafter.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy DC wrote: UMDB doesn't even have a photo.

Those guys are a bunch of hacks!

[stevejrogers]

HOF Baseball writer Jack Lang. Many Met ties as a long time beat reporter and wrote the 25th Anniversary Retrospective book

Also as a treasurer with the BBWAA he had the duty to call the newly elected Hall of Famers every winter.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Shit. Jack fucking Lang.

Should be in the Mets Hall of Fame.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Anybody live in or near Northport?

Hall of Fame writer Jack Lang dead at 85

He advised 44 ex-players of their election to Cooperstown

By Jack O'Connell / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- Jack Lang, whose baseball writing career spanned half a century and included coverage of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the Jackie

Jack Lang was honored in 1986 with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for "meritorious service to baseball writing." (National Baseball Hall of Fame)

Robinson era, the New York Yankees of the Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris era and the New York Mets for 25 years from their inception, died Thursday at the age of 85.

Lang, who was honored in 1986 with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for "meritorious service to baseball writing," had been ill the past year from various ailments, according to his attorney, Kevin Brosnahan. Lang, who lived in Kings Park, N.Y., on Long Island, underwent triple-bypass heart surgery and hip-replacement surgery in 2005 and recently was hospitalized because of cellulitis.

"He was a man that loved baseball to the core of his soul, and he was a good friend and objective as well," Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver said from his vineyard in northern California. "I knew him through my whole career. He was a consummate professional. When you were good, he said you were good. When you stunk, he said you stunk and rightfully so."

Seaver was one of the 44 players Lang notified of their election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his capacity as secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America, an organization he served on the national and local level for more than 40 years. Lang was national secretary-treasurer from 1966-1988, secretary emeritus from 1989-1993 and assistant secretary from 1994-2001.

In that role, Lang also conducted the elections of the BBWAA's annual awards: Most Valuable Player, Cy Young Award, Rookie of the Year (named after Robinson since 1987) and Manager of the Year.

One of Lang's rules regarding elections was that he would only call the winners. He did make an exception, however, in the case of former Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella, who was paralyzed as the result of an automobile accident in 1958.

"Campy told me that in his situation he would need advance notice for him to get to New York for a press conference if he made the Hall," Lang recalled. "He was the only person I called when he didn't make it. They were tough calls because he didn't get in until his fifth year on the ballot [1969]. That was a very satisfying call."

Lang's Hall of Fame calls covered every player elected by the BBWAA from Red Ruffing in 1967 to Steve Carlton in 1994. Billy Williams, who was elected in 1987, dubbed Lang the "good news man."

And a newsman Lang was, beginning in 1946 with the Long Island Press, a Newhouse publication based in Jamaica, Queens. Lang, a Brooklyn native who served 38 months in the U.S. Army during World War II, got the opportunity to cover his favorite team, the Dodgers, during one of the most pivotal periods of baseball history -- the coming of integration with Robinson's arrival in 1947.

The famous "Boys of Summer" that included Robinson, Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo and Preacher Roe, among others were on a first-name basis with Lang, who kept in contact with many of them long after their careers ended. After the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1958, Lang covered the Yankees for four seasons before he was shifted to the expansion Mets in 1962, becoming reunited with manager Casey Stengel.

"Jack was always a gentleman with us," Mets owner Fred Wilpon said. "Jack loved the game. He was from an era of 16 teams and traveling on trains with the guys. There was a different relationship with the beat writers and the players at that point. A good guy, a good man. He was in the generation of Red Smith and Dick Young."

Young was the sports editor of the New York Daily News in 1977 when he hired Lang to cover the Mets that March after the L.I. Press folded. Lang remained with the News until his retirement in 1988. From 1963-1996, Lang was the New York Chapter BBWAA secretary-treasurer and oversaw the annual Baseball Writers Dinner, a major event on New York's winter social calendar. This year's dinner is Sunday night.

Lang also supervised the old BBWAA charter flights, known as "Aer Langus," during the World Series in the 1970's and '80's, which earned him the nickname "Captain Jack." The coming of frequent-flier programs in the early 1980's led to the charter's demise.

Among the books he authored were "The Fighting Southpaw" with Whitey Ford, "Baseball Basics for Teenagers" and "The New York Mets: 25 Years of Baseball Magic."

On the day he received the Spink Award in Cooperstown, Lang said, "I'm sure there are an awful lot of English teachers I had in my early years that must be whirling in their graves at the thought that I won an award for writing."

Lang is survived by his daughter Victoria and sons Randy, Brian and Craig. A Mass of the Resurrection will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St Phillip of Neri R.C. Church in Northport, N.Y. Burial will be at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Huntington, N.Y.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I used to live very close to Northport. It was just two stops on the LIRR from Smithtown.

[stevejrogers]

Ex Met GM Bing Devine at the age of 90

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

What you need to know about Bing:

http://www.mbtn.net/sabr.htm

[Guest Edgy DC]

It strikes me that losing Bing so early in his Met tenure may have been as pivotal as losing Ryan or Otis.

May have been. It's not like he built a Cardinal dynasty in the seventies. But he had one off the ground in the sixties.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

It was huge that he left. Huge that he came, and huge that he left.

Think about this, when Devine joined the Mets in 64, his successor as GM (Murphy), his successor's successor (Sheffing) and his successor's successor's successor (McDonald) were already in the organization! In other words, the Mets were essentially naming the next worst guy in line forever after Devine left, and it's no wonder they did Jack Shit for 15 years. It took the fall of the original ownership group to get a fresh idea again.

[Guest iramets]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: It's no wonder they did Jack Shit for 15 years.

Now I know you're not calling the most amazing ever World's Championship in 1969 and an NL pennant four seasons later "Jack Shit," but that's how your sentence reads. Could you explicate your meaning? (And I think if you aren't personally acquainted, it should be "Mr. Shit" to you.)

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Jack Shit beyond 69, really.

I mean, they stood a chance some years, but generally the Mets weren't in the business of developing or acquiring very good players from 1968-1980. And they didn't really have an aggressive/out-of-the-box thinker like Devine running the personnel in all those years.

That's sorta what I mean. I guess 15 years wasn't right. More like 12

[Guest Edgy DC]

Was Jack Lang in any way related to Al Lang? (Noted: Likely no. Al was the mayor of St. Petersburg.)

Remembering baseball writer Jack Lang

BY STEVEN MARCUS

Newsday

Staff Writer

January 28, 2007, 8:54 PM EST

If you were a baseball fan living in New York in the 1940s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s or even this decade, you had to have heard of Hall of Famer Jack Lang. The former Long Island Press and Daily News writer, who died last week at 85, was all about baseball. Especially the Mets.

Why Lang mattered is rooted in a wide cross-section of baseball -- from a generation of fans who read his humorous accounts of the early bumbling Mets to those who played the game and reported on it.

Lang was a colorful character who could be brusque, dictatorial and indifferent -- but, for those young writers who seemed receptive, extremely helpful. In dealing with the baseball hierarchy and Mets management, which often seemed unresponsive and belligerent, he felt he needed to be forceful not only in his job as a reporter but as secretary/treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Lang's name opened doors of opportunities for himself, but he took others along for the ride. He was a great promoter of the game, and the respect flowed his way.

Traveling with Lang was like being in the circus, and he was the ringmaster. He opened closed restaurants for weary and hungry reporters arriving in a city late at night just as he paved the way to get access to players reluctant to speak.

The chances of talking to Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle or even Joe DiMaggio were greatly enhanced by an introduction from Lang. Seaver was Tom terrific after intervention from Lang. That meant newspaper readers benefited from good quotes, not typical athlete-speak.

Lang was Mr. Met as much as the character bearing the name. He was around the Mets of Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges, Davey Johnson, Bobby Valentine and all others in between. During Joe Torre's tenure, Lang practically had a hot line to the manager's office. Torre was so accustomed to getting calls from Lang that when he answered the phone in his spring training office, he'd say, "Hello, Jack."

Lang continued to write and pontificate on the Mets and major league baseball into his 80s, and he still knew as much about the goings-on as the beat guys did. He never really retired. He never ran out of space. Just time.

In a typical and vintage move by Lang -- a long-time Long Islander whose funeral will be held Monday -- he phoned in his own obituary to The Associated Press about a week before he died. He would be pleased that Seaver reacted to his death with great emotion, that Rusty Staub attended his funeral, that newspapers across the country reported his passing.

As a young writer, he championed the arrival of Jackie Robinson when that was not necessarily a popular position to take. For a man of his generation, he was truly color-blind.

More than just covering the team, Lang was immersed in the game and the personalities. Even off the field. When announcer Bob Murphy had a late night and registered at the hotel with the signature "Robert Mets," Lang saw it. Lang was not a Mets fan, yet he voiced the fans' discontent. When the Mets were losing, which was most of the time, he mocked their promotions. For seat cushion night, he wrote, "Come watch the Mets lose in comfort." Even a member of management privately laughed at that line.

Lang played no favorites between management and players, though he backed Seaver against mentor and powerful columnist Dick Young in what made for an entertaining civil war for readers of the Daily News in the summer of 1977. In reality, Young concocted the idea, believing it would corner the baseball readership to have opposing viewpoints in the same paper.

It was the beginning of Lang's independence as a reporter, and who could blame him for criticizing the Mets and favoring Seaver when they sent the future Hall of Famer to the Reds because of M. Donald Grant's penny-pinching policy? Lang would call them the save-a-buck Mets, and it rang true for disfranchised fans disillusioned about losing their franchise player.

Lang challenged authority, the Mets in particular and baseball in general. When the Mets couldn't land a recognized name as manager, Lang criticized the hiring and called it third choice. In 1993, after Vince Coleman threw an explosive device in a Dodger Stadium parking lot and injured three people, including a 2-year-old girl, it was Lang's question to Fred Wilpon that prompted the owner to say Coleman would never play for the Mets again. And he didn't.

Lang fought for access for the writers -- and therefore the fans. Lang blasted the Mets when they made players or issues off-limits. The trainer's room was not closed in Lang's time -- at least not to Lang. And players, the ones who counted, respected him. It was not a good idea to be on his bad side.

Lang made baseball writers feel special and committed himself to disclosing "frauds." No Baseball Writers Association of America cards went to radio or television reporters. Bill Madden, Lang's colleague at the Daily News, coined the term "foof" for all non-newspaper writers. Lang was forever on foof patrol.

When TV host Alex Trebek of "Jeopardy" was on the field at Shea Stadium, Lang wanted him banished. He made it clear in the form of a question worthy of Trebek's game show. Snapped Lang, "Who doesn't belong on the field?" Exit Trebek.

Bravado was Lang's strong suit. "I got mine" was his signature line for scooping the rest of us, whether it was an interview, a better hotel room, a bigger plate of ice cream or a more desirable seat in the press box on the road. If everyone's computer was on the fritz because of an electrical problem, his worked.

Everywhere he went, he had a parade of admirers, big and small. The blind man in Chicago loved it when Lang said on every trip in: "Here's a man who's never seen the Cubs lose." Stan Musial invited him to his restaurant, where Lang was The Man. He also had the best table at Eli's in Chicago.

Red Foley, his friend and foil for more than 50 years, called him America's guest as Lang appeared on all the pregame radio shows around the country. Lang said he could fill his basement with the gifts he received for his appearances and joked (we think) that the items then were re-gifted (long before the term was even invented).

When Lang attended a Frank Sinatra concert and the singer used the word "Jack" in a song, Lang bragged that it was in recognition of his presence. Lang's daughter, Victoria, was sure her dad planned his death to occur in time for Sunday night's annual baseball writers dinner in Manhattan. Maximum exposure "with everyone in town," she joked.

Lang was the first to have the story even when he didn't have it first. When Charles Payson, the elderly, out-of-touch owner of the Mets, appeared at one spring training, a couple of reporters approached him and he gave this jewel of a line: "I don't know anything about the Mets; I'm a Red Sox fan." Lang got it second-hand but, given the Daily News' impact, got the most play, and he bragged that he received a bonus for the line. And other media would credit Lang, given his reputation and masthead, with the scoop.

"Who reads your paper?" was one of Lang's favorite expressions when someone beat him on a story. Writer Marty Noble, Lang's target one day, shot back, "You do, Jack. That's where you get your information." In real life, they were friendly rivals, and it was Noble who stopped the presses to make sure an insert dealing with Lang's passing was included in the BBWAA brochure last evening. Lang had spent years planning and hosting the dinner as secretary-treasurer of the organization.

Former Daily News columnist Phil Pepe, who will give Lang's eulogy, said: "He was the king of the writers. He was always around. He was around for years. He had a lot of friends, he knew everybody and everybody knew him. It was the stature of his years. In your mind you'd say, 'He knows because he's always been there."'

In his later years of covering baseball, Lang became more reliant on others, and those whom he had assisted were glad to oblige. His often-mimicked line to Dan Castellano of the Newark Star Ledger became "Danny, I need a little help." In the computer age, Lang inquired how to use the scroll button on Castellano's machine so Lang could make sure he hadn't missed anything important in the day's happenings.

Lang mocked himself for making the Hall of Fame, quipping that his high school English teachers would "whirl in their graves" that he became a writer. At one of the baseball writers' roasts, Foley said: "When they read off the list of great writers, Lang will be sitting there listening." Lang roared along with the crowd of writers.

Foley tried in vain over the years to keep Lang centered, referring to him as "New York's most unread writer" -- even though it was a good bet most read Lang to get their news on the Mets.

Players thought he alone had the power to get them into the Hall of Fame. In truth, his function was to count the votes and, for those who received the required percentage, inform them that they had made it.

Lang delighted at cutting off the legs of someone else's story, so when Maury Allen, then of the New York Post, had a good DiMaggio tale that ended with the slugger hitting the ball into the night, Lang would interrupt and say, "It was a day game, Maury."

His entrance into Cooperstown was a testament to his overwhelming presence in the game. It is his lasting contribution, as was his love for the sport and his sense of humor. When doctors told him his liver was giving out during the last year, he said, "I don't know how this happened. All I ever did was drink beer."

There seemed to be some renewed hope for his health last week when he was moved from a hospital to a rehabilitation center. Baseball again entered his thoughts as he quipped, "I'm going to cover spring training from the nursing home."

Now he'll do it from a skybox.

[seawolf17]

="Edgy DC"]Was Jack Lang in any way related to Al Lang? (Noted: Likely no. Al was the mayor of St. Petersburg.)

What about Clubber Lang?

[metirish]

I've only known Jack Lang from hearing and reading about him,when I think about sportswriters I imagine he had a great love for it and that there are probably not any left like him,maybe Vic Ziegel and Jerry Izenberg,maybe I just have a romantic view of what sportswriters were and are not anymore....

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bill Gallo wrote a nice column about Jack Lang in Sunday's Daily News. Apparently Lang got his start by sending in box scores of sandlot games to his local paper, The Long Island Press.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Lang gives a third Cy Young Award to Tom Seaver, who apparently had been carrying around the other two.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I thought Clyde King would be the next to go, in some sort of Korean-sounding Bing-Lang-King triumverate. Instead, it's his predecessor as Yankee pitching coach:

Art Fowler, 84; Dodgers, Angels pitcher became Yankees coach

From Times Wire Reports

January 30, 2007

Art Fowler, 84, who pitched for the Dodgers and the Angels and became a pitching coach for five major league teams, died Monday at his home in Spartanburg, S.C., according to his son John. The cause of death was not reported.

Fowler, as pitching coach, won World Series rings with the New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978 under manager Billy Martin, his close friend.

Fowler worked as a pitching coach for 14 years, mostly under Martin. He also was with Minnesota, Detroit, Texas and Oakland teams. He coached pitchers Ron Guidry, Joe Coleman and Mike Norris to 20-victory seasons. In Fowler's second season with the Yankees, Guidry won the Cy Young Award.

Born in Converse, S.C., Fowler signed with the New York Giants in 1944 and spent 10 years in the minor leagues before getting a shot with the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched for the Reds from 1954 to 1957. He later played in Los Angeles for the Dodgers and Angels. He pitched mostly in relief and had a career record of 54-51 with a 4.03 ERA.

"Art was a character, really," New York Mets manager Willie Randolph, a former Yankees player and coach, told the Hartford Courant some years ago. "I just thought he was a loose, funny kind of character. He was one of Billy's boys. They knew each other for a long time, drinking buddies and hang-out buddies and stuff like that. Billy had a lot of faith in him."

Martin died in an automobile accident in 1989.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Friends, family pay tribute to Ruhle
Funeral held at Florida church to remember Reds coach
By Chris Girandola / MLB.com

SARASOTA, Fla. -- It was the way Vern Ruhle would have wanted it.
His No. 58 uniform jersey, pants, cleats and glove were neatly strewn along the aisle of Incarnation Catholic Church.

A wreath of flowers in the shape of a baseball and the Cincinnati Reds logo adorned the front of the church.

A photograph of him flashing an ear-to-ear grin greeted the congregation.

And, after several family members and friends, including his two brothers, Ron and Roy, along with Reds manager Jerry Narron, had paid tribute to him with stories about his childhood and baseball life, Father Gerry Finegan asked the congregation to sing along with him.

"This will be a first for this church, I must admit," said Finegan.

And then the organist played a tune that's heard at every baseball ballpark in the nation.

Holding back tears, a standing-room-only crowd at the Sarasota church began to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."

It was a moment of levity that Ruhle would have embraced, and it was a reminder of how much Ruhle lived his life.

"He was as good a person as you'd ever meet in the game and in life," said Narron, who also recalled the moment when he got his first hit off Ruhle and when the two played together with the Angels. "He loved the game of baseball, and he was sincere about teaching. He wanted to see each and every guy be successful. He is someone who will truly be missed."

With only a couple of weeks left until Spring Training begins, many of the Reds pitchers, who arrived from the organization's Florida complex, were in attendance on Saturday to honor Ruhle.

This, ironically, was the time of year that Ruhle cherished. The former Reds pitching coach, who will always be remembered for "having a smile on his face," would have appreciated the early arrival to Sarasota.

During his six-year coaching stint in the Majors, Ruhle would often get a jump on the baseball season, arriving early to camp in the months of January and early February to help any and all pitchers willing to listen.

One of those players, Reds reliever Todd Coffey, possibly benefited the most.

It was Ruhle -- a pitching coach for Billings, the Reds' Class A affiliate in 2004, before being elevated to the big-league club -- who had helped Coffey, 25, improve in the Minors. It was an improvement good enough that the Reds invited the young pitcher to big-league camp in '05.

It was Ruhle who also encouraged Coffey to get to Sarasota on Jan. 15 of that year, a whole month before the official report date for pitchers and catchers.

The early move paid off as Coffey made the roster, and he quickly became one of the more dominant pitchers coming out of the bullpen for the Reds.

"Immediately, I felt the effect," recalled Coffey. "I not only became a better pitcher because of what he taught me regarding my mechanics and technique, but I also developed a greater sense of respect for the game and life. He was a great man and, in the short amount of time that I knew him, I feel like I knew him my entire life because he truly cared."

Ruhle pitched for the Tigers, Astros, Indians and Angels from 1974-86 and was 67-88 with a 3.73 ERA. From 1997-2003, he was a pitching coach for the Astros, Phillies and Mets, and he joined the Reds organization in '04 as a pitching coach with rookie-level Billings. Ruhle was promoted to Minor League pitching coordinator before the 2005 season.

Ruhle, who missed the '06 season while being treated for cancer, lost his battle and died on Jan. 20 due to complications from a donor stem-cell transplant for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

For the 2007 season, Ruhle, who was five days shy of his 56th birthday, had been reassigned to work as the organization's pitching rehabilitation coordinator at its Minor League complex in Sarasota.

"He loved working with all the guys, from the young pitchers who were trying to make the squad to the veterans," said Reds CEO Robert Castellini. "He'll be missed by all of us."

[Frayed Knot]

15 year pitcher/121 game winner Steve Barber - 67.

Played with 7 teams, including briefly w/the Seattle Pilots and therefore was one of the characters in 'Ball Four'

[Guest iramets]

He was an interesting character in BALL FOUR, the injured, terminally washed up veteran in whom the club has invested so much money and prestige that he gets chance after chance, showing nothing and ever getting more chances, a source of frustration for the younger, healthier pitchers on the club.

He was briefly a hell of a pitcher on some terrific Baby Birds staffs of the early 60s--the O's kept turning them out, year after year, Barber, Mike McCormick, Pappas, Jack Fisher (later of course, a Met), Chuck Estrada (later than Fisher, and more briefly, a Met), Wally Bunker, Dave McNallly, Jim Palmer--it was like a friggen factory line.

[MFS62]

Ira, not to quibble, BUT.
Mike McCormick was about 23/24 when he was on Baltimore. But he was already a veteran of several seasons when they got him. He came up with the Giants in New York, then moved with them to SF. His years in Baltimore were actually his least productive years.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mccormi03.shtml

IIRC, as written in either "Ball Four" or "The Long Season" he got into trouble in SF for complaining how much the jetstream made Seals Stadium into a bandbox. The local fans didn't like negative words coming from their athletes.

But you are sure right aboout those other Baby Birds. Not pickin' on ya', but Mike and I share the same birth date, so I knew a little more about him than I should have.

Later

[MFS62]

Max Lanier
http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=228&p=2&c=616105

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Arrests made in murder of David Heath, former Mets batboy:

Two charged in slayings of homeless

Police say robbery may have been behind the shooting of one of two homeless men in St. Petersburg

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN

Published February 7, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Police arrested two men Tuesday in connection with the killings of a pair of homeless men last month that shocked the city and drew national attention.

Dorion Dillard, 20, and Cordaro Hardin, 18, who both face two counts of first-degree murder, are accused of fatally shooting Jeff Shultz and David Heath on Jan. 17.

Both Dillard and Hardin made incriminating statements, police said.

Robbery may have played a role in Shultz's killing, police said. Sgt. Mike Kovacsev, the head of the department's homicide unit, said Heath's killing may have been random.

Family members of the slain men said they were happy with the arrests.

"I'm happy that they're off the streets and somebody else isn't going to have to go through the same experience," said Heath's son, Jason Heath, 20, who works in customer relations for the St. Petersburg Times.

"I'm just happy that maybe I can get some sort of closure."

Richard Hartz, 65, Shultz's stepfather, said "that's great news," after learning of the arrests.

Dillard and Hardin are St. Petersburg residents and have criminal records. Hardin faces additional charges of violation of probation and burglary.

Dillard has been arrested on charges of marijuana possession, crack cocaine possession burglary and auto theft, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Hardin has been arrested several times on charges of cocaine possession and violating probation.

Heath, 53, and Shultz, 43, were shot within an hour of each other early Jan. 17 in alleys nine blocks apart in the quiet residential neighborhood of Central Oak Park.

After the shootings, police said they believed the same three teenagers were involved in both killings. Witnesses at both scenes told police they saw three black male teenagers with close cropped hair walking away from the bodies.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said detectives identified the third man seen that night, but have not arrested him. In addition, police said, they had learned of a fourth man present the night of the killings, but have not arrested him either.

Proffitt said the arrests came after an intense investigation and hoped they would ease fears among the city's homeless.

"We really have been... working this really hard the last few weeks," Proffitt said.

Sgt. Kovacsev said as many as 20 detectives helped work on the case. Detectives Joe DeLuca and Lorry Dunn, the lead investigators, worked 16-hour days canvassing the neighborhood and local schools. They also made several other arrests and developed leads that led them to Dillard and Hardin.

"They deserve a lot of kudos because they really put their hearts into this one," Kovacsev said.

Both Heath and Shultz were well known among St. Petersburg's homeless. After the killings, many homeless people began setting up tents and camping together near busy intersections for safety. The new tents led to a political firestorm.

Police raided one tent city at Fifth Avenue N and 15th Street and slashed and seized tents just days after the killings because they said they feared fire code violations. A public outcry followed. Mayor Rick Baker later said the decision to cut tents "was a mistake" and police said they didn't plan any more raids.

Now, two tent cities coexist with the city. Although some homeless people still have tents on 15th Street, a new tent city has formed on 18th Street near Central Avenue.

Bill Schultz, 70, a homeless man who stays around Williams Park in downtown St. Petersburg, said he felt safer after hearing of the arrests.

"It's a hell of a thing to say, but just because we are homeless doesn't make us less human," he said.

Heath was once a bat boy for the New York Mets and came from a prominent St. Petersburg family that owned restaurants such as the Careless Navigator on Treasure Island and the Red Cavalier on Madeira Beach. He struggled with bipolar disorder and crack cocaine and spent his last years searching for a program that could help him get off drugs.

Shultz loved the ocean, fixed boat engines and had just returned to the city after visiting his family in North Fort Myers over the Christmas holiday. He recently spent months in jail after an officer found a crack pipe in his pocket last year.

Recently, Dillard left a note for his girlfriend on her MySpace page. It begins: "baby, we done been thru so much in this past year... with me in and out if jail and you stressing all the time and breaking your back everyday at work, all that is changing now."

Times researcher Caryn Baird and staff writers Casey Cora and Eddy Ramirez contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at

araghunathan@sptimes.com

or (727) 893-8472.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Former right handed pitcher Lew Burdette died yesterday at the age of 80 after a prolonged battle with lung cancer. Burdette was MVP of the 1957 World Series in which he shut out the NY Yankees twice in 4 days to help the Milwaukee Braves to their only World Series title.

[Guest Edgy DC]

American hero.

[MFS62]

Those World Series in the late 50's were probably the last time I rooted for the Braves. (and I did)

For you youngin's, while his given name was Selva Lewis Burdette, he was called SALIVA Lewis Burdette because he was often accused of throwing the spitter. I once spoke to Bob Uecker and asked him whether he called for the dewy delivery or if Burdette let him know it was coming. He diplomatically (with tongue firmly in cheek) avoided any knowledge of Lew throwing the pitch.

sigh

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Hank Bauer - 84

[Guest Edgy DC]

Then Hank Bauer, you know, he's screaming, "Mickey! Mickey! What have you done with Mickey? You killed Mickey!"