Baseball Passings of 2010

[Guest Edgy DC]

[G-Fafif]

A very fine book, actually.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yup.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Putting on shopping list.

(Fuck - just noticed I'm the Gambler).

[Guest Edgy DC]

Whitey Fritz only got one plate appearance, to end a game in 1975, but he paid a lot of dues for the Mets.



I stumbled upon a passing announcement of his death. I was glad I searched on when I found this article, however.

[Zvon]

Edgy DC wrote: Whitey Fritz only got one plate appearance, to end a game in 1975, but he paid a lot of dues for the Mets. I stumbled upon a passing announcement of his death. I was glad I searched on when I found this article, however.

Did not have his picture in my Met image library.
A most interesting life.
Sad end.

I hope those he coached were better for it.

[G-Fafif]

Billy Loes, purchased by the Mets from the Giants in 1961, dead at 80. The Long Island City native and ex-Dodger never officially suited up for the new club, having retired during the first Met spring, but left us one of the great quotes regarding the not so distinguished collection of talent amassed in St. Petersburg:

The Mets is a good thing. They give everybody a job just like the WPA.

Loes is best known for claiming to have lost a ground ball in the sun during the 1952 World Series. Overlooked amid the colorfulness was the eleven-season lifetime record of 80-63 he compiled for Brooklyn, Baltimore and San Francisco. He made one All-Star team and appeared in three World Series, including the Big One for the Bums in 1955.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A star always goes out in the sky when a '55 Ddoger passes.

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: A star always goes out in the sky when a '55 Ddoger passes.

Thank you, Edgy.
Well said.

RIP, Billy.

Later

[MFS62]

Longtime NL umpire Satch Davidson dies at 75 By BEN WALKER, AP Baseball Writer Longtime National League umpire Satch Davidson has died at 75. Davidson�s family says he died Saturday at his home in Houston. The family did not give a cause of death. Davidson was the home plate umpire for two of the most famous home runs in baseball history. He had a first-hand look when Hank Aaron hit his 715th homer in 1974 to break Babe Ruth�s record. And he was behind the plate in 1975 when Carlton Fisk�s shot won Game 6 of the World Series. Davidson was an NL umpire from 1969 through 1984.

RIP, Satch

Later

[stevejrogers]

Billy Loes, purchased by the Mets from the Giants in 1961, dead at 80. The Long Island City native and ex-Dodger never officially suited up for the new club, having retired during the first Met spring, but left us one of the great quotes regarding the not so distinguished collection of talent amassed in St. Petersburg: The Mets is a good thing. They give everybody a job just like the WPA. Loes is best known for claiming to have lost a ground ball in the sun during the 1952 World Series. Overlooked amid the colorfulness was the eleven-season lifetime record of 80-63 he compiled for Brooklyn, Baltimore and San Francisco. He made one All-Star team and appeared in three World Series, including the Big One for the Bums in 1955.

IIRC, he also said this about why he never wanted to win 20 games in a season "If I did, they'd want me to do it again."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ralph Bernadini, umpire and gentle soul, except when it came to hating on the Mets.

[Met Hunter]

Cal McLish.

Dem Bums are down to 57 living.

[Frayed Knot]

Met Hunter wrote: Cal McLish.

That would be Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish

Naturally they called him 'Buster'

[MFS62]

Didn't notice a separate thread for this, so..
Gil McDougald- versatile All-Star.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_former_yankee_great_gil_mcdougald_1951_al_rookie_of_the_year_dead_at_82.html

I spoke to him after he had retired and asked him if he had prepared differently before a game when he know he would be playing a position he hadn't played in a while. I expected him to say the throws were the main thing, but he said the footwork preparing to make the throw was what he concentrated on during infield practice..

A very nice person, willing to take time to speak with the average fan.
RIP.

Later

[G-Fafif]

Tom Underwood, 56, journeyman lefty mostly for teams we didn't like in the '70s and '80s, of pancereatic cancer. Remembered by his hometown paper in Kokomo, Ind.

Underwood was really our first hometown hero Posted: Thursday, December 2, 2010 1:00 am Posted on December 2, 2010 by Steve Geiselman It's the kind of news that you hate to hear. Last Tuesday I came back to my office after taking photos of President Obama to find an e-mail from Dennis Kasey saying Tom Underwood had died. Underwood, Kokomo�s first major leaguer of the modern era (catcher Harold �Rowdy� Elliott played for Boston in 1910), had been fighting cancer for sometime. Underwood was the one athlete from our town who I, as a kid, looked up to as a big deal. Sure, his brother, Pat, and Dan Dumoulin were major leaguers as well. But neither of them had the prolonged career that Tom did. He played for the Yankees, Cardinals and Phillies, among others. Those are three of the most storied franchises in major league baseball. He was a Yankee in the 1980s. That is a big deal. Underwood, rightfully so, was one of the "no-brainers" in the first class of the Howard County Sports Hall of Fame. Perhaps he should have been the first choice. While the basketball heroics of Goose Ligon and Jimmy Rayl are in themselves astounding, neither one of them had the professional career that Underwood did. Underwood would be considered a journeyman pitcher, I guess. In 10 years he played for six teams and was traded four times. He was traded for and with some of the big-name baseball players of the era, including Bake McBride, Rick Cerone, Chris Chambliss and Damaso Garcia. His best season, arguably, was 1980 with the New York Yankees when he started 27 games. He finished the campaign with a 13-9 record and 3.56 earned run average. The Yanks finished with a record of 103-59, finishing in first place in the American League East, three games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles. The Kansas City Royals swept the Yanks in the ALCS. Underwood's tenure with the Bronx Bombers would be short, however, as he was traded the following May along with Jim Spencer to the Oakland A's for Dave Revering, Mike Patterson and Chuck Dougherty. He was solid for Oakland in 1982, going 10-6 with a 3.29 ERA. He was granted free agency in 1983 and after a season with Baltimore was released in October 1984. Underwood�s career record was one game under .500 (86-87), and his career ERA was a solid 3.89. The game Highlights of Underwood�s career had to come on May 31, 1979, when he was pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays. Even though his day ended with a loss, I am sure it was probably the most memorable moment of his career. Little brother Pat Underwood, pitching for the Detroit Tigers, was making his major league debut against the Jays. The game of brother versus brother was a pitching masterpiece. If the Underwoods wanted to show the world that pitchers from Kokomo knew what they were doing, then the game was solid evidence. Pat, in his debut, allowed just three hits against a formidable Toronto lineup that included the likes of Alfredro Griffin, Rico Carty, Rick Cerone and Bob Bailor. Griffin, Carty and future NBA star Danny Ainge were the only one that figure Pat out. On the other side, Tom went the distance and allowed six hits but only one run in the nine innings. Jerry Morales� home run in the eighth was the only thing that ruined a brilliant outing by Tom. The meeting head-to-head was the only time it would happen for the brothers Underwood. By 1983, both were out of baseball for good.