Baseball Passings 2013

[Edgy MD]

It strikes me that Musial may be one of the last great players whose entire career came in the pre-Edgy era.

Hang in there, Yogi.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Do you define the "pre-Edgy" era as the time before your birth, or before your awareness?

Musial (and Berra and Koufax) did play in my lifetimes, but they had retired before I knew who they were.

[Edgy MD]

I mean my birth.

But in truth, I trace my awareness to my birth. My literacy also. My handwriting, sadly, has never improved.

[G-Fafif]

What about that Ralph Kiner fella?

[Frayed Knot]

Speaking of which, we need some Ralph stories about Stan.

[G-Fafif]

BTW, longest-tenured living HOFers now that Stan Musial, inducted 1969, is no longer in that category:

Yogi Berra and Sandy Koufax, 1972; Monte Irvin, 1973; Whitey Ford, 1974; Ralph Kiner, 1975; Ernie Banks, 1977; Willie Mays, 1979; Al Kaline, 1980; Bob Gibson, 1981; Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson, 1982.

[Edgy MD]

G-Fafif wrote: What about that Ralph Kiner fella?

Not bad. Why not?

[DocTee]

Not sure really where to place this. Horrible no matter where it's read. Thoughts and prayers to the family of this recently-inked Met:

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/5-month-old-daughter-of-Mets-Landon-Powell-dies-4227383.php

[Guest d'Kong76]

Just so sad hearing stuff like that.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

awful. terrible.

yiuuuh

[Guest themetfairy]

Too sad....

[G-Fafif]

Chuck Hinton, the Senator's representative at the only Shea All-Star game, 78. Reported by MLB Players Association Alumni, an organization he founded in 1982.

[Edgy MD]

One of the mystery men in the mysteriously named Hall of Honor/Ring of Honor/Wall of Fame that honors DC-related sports achievement and is simultaneously displayed at RFK Stadium and Nationals Park.

[G-Fafif]

Earl Williams, National League Rookie of the Year five minutes ago...I mean in 1971, from leukemia, 64.

[H]e slugged 33 home runs and compiled 87 RBI on his way to being named the senior circuit's top rookie. He did so playing catcher for the first time in his life, a position the Braves asked him to play because they were desperate to include his bat in the lineup when there was a logjam at first and third base -- his usual positions. "He had to learn from scratch," Williams' 83-year-old mother, Dolores Reilly, recalled in a phone interview. "He used to tell me that if he could've he would've used two gloves to catch Phil Niekro's knuckleball." Williams hit 28 home runs in 1972 and impressed Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver enough to say, "Give me Earl Williams, I'll win the pennant." Weaver got his wish when the Orioles traded four starters, including former Mets and current Nationals manager Davey Johnson, for Williams and another player before the 1973 season.

[Edgy MD]

Good Times story on his slide from Rookie of the Year to untouchable.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I remember watching a Mets-Phillies game in 1971 when the Mets announcers were high on Willie Montanez as that season's likely ROY.

Also, it was rumored that the Mets-Braves trade that would eventually send Felix Millan to the Mets would also include an exchange of catchers Williams and Jerry Grote.

[G-Fafif]

I wrote a composition in third grade sizing up the 1971 Rookie of the Year races and indeed identified it as a two-man affair in the National League between Williams and Montanez. I had Vida Blue running away with it in the A.L., unaware he was not eligible.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If everything happens in threes, if my name was Earl W., I'd be pretty nervous right around now.

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If everything happens in threes, if my name was Earl W., I'd be pretty nervous right around now.

Yikes, says this guy.

Less worried? Him -- and him.

[Edgy MD]

Go shatter a glass ceiling in honor of Edith Houghton.

[Frayed Knot]

Ruth Ann Steinhagen - 83

Who?, you might ask. Well I would too.
Turns out that she was the woman who, as a Chicago area teenager, became obsessed with 1940s-era Cubs ballplayer Eddie Waitkus, an obsession which included not just keeping a virtual shrine to him in her apartment (cards, tickets, photos, newspaper articles) but even extended to her developing a craving for baked beans and learning Lithuanian due to Waitkus being from Boston and of Lithuanian decent. It all came to a head in June 1949 when she invited Waitkus, now with Philadelphia, to a room in the hotel where the Phillies were staying and immediately pulled out a rifle and shot him once in the chest. If this all sounds familiar it's because the incident became the basis for the fictional Roy Hobbs in the book and later movie, 'The Natural'. The two-time All-Star Waitkus nearly died and underwent six operations, although did return to play a full season for the pennant winning 1950 Phils and in the majors through 1955.

After an insanity ruling, as well as three years of psychiatric evaluations and Waitkus saying he did not intend to press charges, Steinhagen was freed. She apparently spent the 60-plus years out of the public eye and in relative seclusion with her parents and sister in Chicago to the point where her death in December was only recently stumbled upon by the Chicago Tribune while searching records for something else. She out-lived Waitkus by 40 years as the effects of the shooting may have contributed to his early death in 1972 at age 53.


Waitkus - http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/waitked01.shtml

[batmagadanleadoff]

If this all sounds familiar it's because the incident became the basis for the fictional Roy Hobbs in the book and later movie, 'The Natural'. The two-time All-Star Waitkus nearly died and underwent six operations, although did return to play a full season for the pennant winning 1950 Phils and in the majors through 1955.

Not only The Natural, but the Naked City TV episode (9/26/62), Idylls of a Running Back was based on the Waitkus incident, guest starring Aldo Ray as the Waitkus based star running back and Sandy Dennis as the disturbed fan.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0656796/

[G-Fafif]

Virgil "Fire" Trucks, 95. Pitch a pair of no-no's for the '52 Tigers. Won 177 games in 17 seasons plus one in the 1945 World Series -- and started against the Cubs in the last WS game they won, 68 years ago.

[Edgy MD]

A giant. At least, he is in some beanstalks.

[Frayed Knot]

Virgil Trucks was a relative of the various musical Trucks (Butch & Derek) of Allman Bros and related bands fame.

Also: prior to this I had no idea VT was still alive.
Also also: now that I actually read the link (it didn't work for me at first) I see that it says in there about his relation to Butch & Derek

[seawolf17]

Trucks was a member of the "TTM (Through The Mail) Autograph" Hall of Fame. Super friendly guy.

[G-Fafif]

Bullet Bob Turley, 82, from when guys with nicknames like that were identified so readily that you assumed "Bob" was his middle name. Ruined the 1958 World Series by pitching the MFYs to victory in it.

[seawolf17]

Rick Camp, hitter of the most unlikely home run of all time. Dead at 60.

26th Anniversary video: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=196661

Story: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/breaking-news/former-braves-pitcher-rick-camp-dead-at-age-60/nXXhs/

[Edgy MD]

Ah crap.

My first Strat-O-Matic team was the 1978 Braves.

[smg58]

Danny Heep's reaction remains priceless.

Did anybody actually stay up for it?