Baseball Passings 2012

[seawolf17]

Frank Pastore was one of those guys who was in every pack of cards I opened from 1983-1987.

[metirish]

Sad news


Report: Former Major Leaguer Ryan Freel Commits Suicide At Age 36

Former utility player Ryan Freel, who broke into the majors with Toronto in 2001 and played the majority of his eight-year career with the Cincinnati Reds, committed suicide today. First Coast News in Jacksonville has the first report: First Coast News sports director Dan Hicken has learned that Ryan Freel, a Jacksonville native and former Major League Baseball has died at the age of 36. The cause of death is suicide. Freel played baseball at Sandalwood and Englewood High School. He played for five different MLB teams from 2001-2009. He is most known for his six-year tenure with the Cincinnati Reds. His career batting average was .268 he stole 143 bases in his career. Since his retirement from professional baseball in 2009, Freel was a part of an organization on the First Coast called BLD Baseball which stands for Big League Development. Through this organization, Freel coached local youth baseball players. Freel was named head baseball coach at St. Joseph Academy in June. He shows up in the Deadspin archives on a few occasions which you can see here. We'll update this post as more information becomes available.

[seawolf17]

I just saw this elsewhere. Stunned. Freel and I share a birthday; we're the exact same age.

[Edgy MD]

<>

Poor Freel.

[smg58]

There were times when I thought Freel would make a good fit here in Queens. He was fast and versatile enough to make up for his lack of power, at least for a few years. One can only speculate what brought him to the point where he's take his own life, but it's sad for him and everybody close to him.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

awful.

[Edgy MD]

Of course it's a gunshot wound. Of COURSE.

Too easily overlooked in the gun debates --- success rates for suicides are much higher if you have a gun in the house.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

It's terrible, but the first thing I thought was "at least he didn't kill anyone else first."

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Had a lot of concussions. A LOT.

[Edgy MD]

Ten. Wow. And that's just the diagnosed ones, I gather.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Fucking hell.

Seems he had some issues before the concussions:

Freel gained some notoriety in August of 2006 when The Dayton Daily News reported that Freel talked to an imaginary voice in his head named Farney. Said Freel: "He's a little guy who lives in my head who talks to me and I talk to him. That little midget in my head said, 'That was a great catch, Ryan,' I said, 'Hey, Farney, I don't know if that was you who really caught that ball, but that was pretty good if it was.' Everybody thinks I talk to myself, so I tell 'em I'm talking to Farney." Freel later said that Farney's name arose from a conversation with Reds trainer Mark Mann: "He actually made a comment like, 'How are the voices in your head?' We'd play around and finally this year he said, 'What's the guy's name?' I said, 'Let's call him Farney.' So now everybody's like, 'Run, Farney, run' or 'Let Farney hit today. You're not hitting very well.'"

[G-Fafif]

Brad Corbett, Texas Rangers owner at the dawn of free agency, 75. Employed Frank Lucchesi, Eddie Stanky, Connie Ryan and Billy Hunter as managers...in an eight-game span in 1977.

[Edgy MD]

Was he the one who rushed the prep school wunderkind to the big leagues, desperate to move some turnstiles, prefacing a career-destroying injury?

[ashie62]

The Second Spitter wrote: Fucking hell. Seems he had some issues before the concussions: Freel gained some notoriety in August of 2006 when The Dayton Daily News reported that Freel talked to an imaginary voice in his head named Farney. Said Freel: "He's a little guy who lives in my head who talks to me and I talk to him. That little midget in my head said, 'That was a great catch, Ryan,' I said, 'Hey, Farney, I don't know if that was you who really caught that ball, but that was pretty good if it was.' Everybody thinks I talk to myself, so I tell 'em I'm talking to Farney." Freel later said that Farney's name arose from a conversation with Reds trainer Mark Mann: "He actually made a comment like, 'How are the voices in your head?' We'd play around and finally this year he said, 'What's the guy's name?' I said, 'Let's call him Farney.' So now everybody's like, 'Run, Farney, run' or 'Let Farney hit today. You're not hitting very well.'"

Daymares from Schizophrenia...

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: Was he the one who rushed the prep school wunderkind to the big leagues, desperate to move some turnstiles, prefacing a career-destroying injury?

No, that was Bob Short, who moved the team from D.C. The pitcher was David Clyde.

Short to Corbett to Eddie Chiles to Dubya to Hicks to Ryan. Interesting lineage.

[ashie62]

G-Fafif wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Was he the one who rushed the prep school wunderkind to the big leagues, desperate to move some turnstiles, prefacing a career-destroying injury? No, that was Bob Short, who moved the team from D.C. The pitcher was David Clyd. Short to Corbett to Eddie Chiles to Dubya to Hicks to Ryan. Interesting lineage.

Didn't the A's rush Mike Morgan who hung around awhile?

[Edgy MD]

I certainly didn't write or suggest that all teenage pitchers who appear in the big leagues have their careers destroyed.

[Frayed Knot]

Freel apparently drank a bit as well, although it's not clear if that was a past problem or still an active one.

[G-Fafif]

From about a month ago, Jimmy Stewart, 73, Red "supersub" whose utility extended to his post-playing advance scouting, credited as a key in Cincinnati's dismantling of the Big Green Machine from Oakland in the 1990 World Series. His name, though, comes up most frequently on lists of best/worst trades ever, as he was included in the package Cincy sent to Houston to acquire Joe Morgan.

"I loved playing for the Reds," he said. "Loved everything about 'em. Loved the way they ran things, right on down to the no facial hair. First class. Yessir, I hated leaving the Reds. We had a championship ballclub. I wish they (the Reds' brass) would have traded Darrel Chaney. I'd have been in a couple more World Series."

The linked article from the Cincinnati Enquirer is really good. Gives a lot of insight about a name that should be more than a trivia answer.