Baseball Passings 2017

[MFS62]

Chad Ochoseis wrote: This could go either here or in political - Jim Bunning, 85

Keep it in the baseball forum, so we can say nice things about him.
When he joined the Pirates, my friend the Pirate fan called him "Jim Pennant". It never worked out that way.
I remember him on the Tigers, when he and Paul Foytack were a good 1-2 top of the rotation that threw a lot of home run balls in Briggs Stadium.
Later

[G-Fafif]

I think Catfish Hunter opened the door for Jim Bunning. The case for Catfish was 224 wins and a Cy Young Award. And that's not that much, but it's Catfish. And then somebody says, well, hey, Bunning won exactly the same amount of games, and had a perfect game, cool nickname or not. Hunter went in in 1987, but Bunning had to wait until 1996.

Bunning and Kooz were pretty darn close statistically but Bunning had the sorts of things on his CV that stood out: a hundred wins in each league, the perfect game, the post-career profile. It never occurred to me I was watching a Hall of Famer in Jerry Koosman, but it never occurred to me that Bunning was one, either. (I only caught him toward the end of his career, so maybe I missed his aura, but I really don't remember him being spoken of in reverential terms.) Bunning got in, Koosman was never seriously considered.

Catfish was indeed Catfish. I'm always surprised by retroactive circumspection that he wasn't an automatic. Seaver, Palmer, Hunter for the bulk of the 1970s were strung together as the best in the game. Those impressions don't go away easily.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Don't forget Steve Carlton.

[Frayed Knot]

Catfish crashed pretty early, going 23-24 after hitting age 31 with an ERA north of 4.5 (86 ERA+) and being done entirely by age 33
Had a helluva prime but a much shorter one than the other above mentioned kings of the late '60s & '70s

Of course Koufax, Drysdale and Marichal (165 wins, 209, 243) were also all either gone or were a shell of their former selves at a similar age* and they're all HoF'ers.
Tough to make anyone a comparison to Koufax and his freakish prime but I think the other two comp more closely to Hunter than do the Seaver, Carlton, Palmer trio.






* which should make one take all that 'When REAL men finished games' stuff with a grain of salt

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Don't forget Steve Carlton.

I considered him and rejected him from the aforementioned trio because I think of his consistent prime as coming later. He followed the 27-win season with a 20-loss season and receded from the conversation for a few mid-'70s seasons.

I know we beat him more than we beat anybody else, but I never rubbed my hands in glee that Carlton was next in the rotation, get the bats ready. Tough bastard.

[G-Fafif]

Gene Conley, a champ in two sports, 86. Took a memorable trip with future Met Pumpsie Green.

[G-Fafif]

RIP Bob Wolff, 96, announcer who called Don Larsen's perfect game nationally and the Washington Senators regionally. We who are old enough remember him as the television voice of the Knicks during their championship runs and, later, the main sports guy on News 12 Long Island from its founding forward. A long and storied career that began right around the same time television did and extended, in some capacity, until very recently. Neil Best offers a fine remembrance here.

Bob Wolff was born before the first live radio broadcast of a sports event. He began his announcing career the same spring that a sports event first was broadcast live on television. He interviewed Babe Ruth and Jim Thorpe. He called both a World Series perfect game and “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” And he seemed to have a great deal of fun doing it, approaching a dream job as if it all were a happy dream, making friends across several generations of athletes, coaches, executives, fans and colleagues. To say that Wolff, — who died Saturday at the age of 96 according to News 12 — had a heck of a run would be to understate the obvious. He liked it so much that he worked deep into his 90s, cementing his status as the longest-working sports broadcaster in history. Wolff was born in New York on Nov. 29, 1920, and attended Duke on a baseball scholarship. When he broke his ankle during a rundown in 1939, he tried his hand at the radio business, and succeeded. From 1947-60 he was the voice of the Washington Senators, during which he enhanced broadcasts of mostly losing teams by interviewing baseball’s biggest names, past and present, including Ruth, Connie Mack, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker. He even was able to tame the famously cranky Ted Williams. More importantly, he had the foresight to keep and organize the recordings, hundreds of which he later donated to the Library of Congress. During that period he also did national work, including radio calls of Don Larsen’s perfect game for the Yankees in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series and the Colts’ overtime victory over the Giants in the 1958 NFL Championship Game. Wolff lived for many years in South Nyack, New York, but he worked at News 12 Long Island, starting in 1986, usually getting a ride to work from his wife, Jane, whom he married in 1945. He also did commentary for News 12. Wolff was honored by the baseball and basketball Halls of Fame, is in the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame and was an inducted into Madison Square Garden’s Walk of Fame. Many baby boomer-era Knicks fans recall him as the TV voice of the team during its championship era in the early 1970s. Two of Wolff’s favorites from that era: The 106-105 victory over the Cincinnati Royals on Nov. 28, 1969, that gave the Knicks their then-record 18th victory in a row, and the Nov. 18, 1972, victory over the Bucks in which the Knicks scored the final 19 points to win, 87-86, at the Garden. Another of his signature events was the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which he called for more than three decades. But the Larsen game, in which he followed the tradition of the time and refused to use the words “no-hitter” or “perfect game” as the day unfolded, remains his signature moment. One of Wolff’s sons, Rick, is an author and weekend morning radio host at WFAN.

[Frayed Knot]

Lee May - 74
18 year (1965 - 1982) major league 1B (and occasional OF) with Cincinnati, Houston, Baltimore, and Kansas City
3x All-Star, 354 career HRs

Brother of ML'er Carlos and grandfather of current Chicago White Sox OF Jacob May

[Edgy MD]

Father of handsome Mets prospect Lee May, Jr.

[fimg=250:os1pgz45]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/71662/71662-1Fr.jpg[/fimg:os1pgz45] [fimg=250:os1pgz45]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/66378/66378-4639765Fr.jpg[/fimg:os1pgz45] [fimg=250:os1pgz45]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/65904/65904-10Fr.jpg[/fimg:os1pgz45] [fimg=250:os1pgz45]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/66546/66546-15Fr.jpg[/fimg:os1pgz45] [fimg=250:os1pgz45]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/60242/60242-562Fr.jpg[/fimg:os1pgz45]

[MFS62]

RIP, Lee.
I rooted for you when you played on the Reds. You and Tony Perez were a powerful pair of bookends in that infield when the manager tried to play one at first and the other third.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

So I'm guessing that Jacob -- currently in the minors but up for a time with the ChiSox earlier in the year -- is the son of Lee Jr.
Jacob is listed as having been born in Williamsport, PA in January of 1992 - right after Lee Jr, now 49, was finishing up his one and only season in AA Williamsport

[Frayed Knot]

Darren Daulton, 55 - Brain Cancer

Edited August 7, 2017 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

1993 Phils. A story that will continue to be written for decades.

[Guest 41Forever]

Seeing a tweet that former Mets coach Don Baylor has passed away.

[Frayed Knot]

Only 68 y/o - multiple myeloma
It's always a bit of a shock when tough guys go before their time.

Baylor used to claim that none of the [u:2844tk0w]267 HBPs[/u:2844tk0w] he received ever hurt and he certainly made sure to act as if none did.

His 1979 MVP as a half-OF/half-DH was a breakthrough of sorts for the recognition of the DH role
Managed the Rockies from 1993-98 and the Cubs in 2000-02, and of course was a NYM opponent in the '86 Series
2.6% in his only HoF ballot - 1994

[Guest themetfairy]

Edgy MD wrote: 1993 Phils. A story that will continue to be written for decades.

There is speculation that the heavy duty chemicals that were in use to maintain the artificial turf could be responsible for the high number of brain cancer cases in Major Leaguers of that era.

RIP to Darren and Don.

[G-Fafif]

In the winter between the 2003 and the 2004 seasons, the Mets dispatched three of their uniformed personnel to their then flagship Clubhouse Store on E. 54th Street: Timo Perez, Vance Wilson and Don Baylor. Mrs. Fafif worked directly across the street, so on her lunch hour she visited the store to surprise me with their autographs. The line was not long.

Her report: Timo didn't make much eye contact; Vance seemed interested in her job as a senior center director; and the coach with whom she was no more than vaguely familiar could not have been more friendly, more engaging or more kind, initiating a genuine conversation with another human being, presumably because that's the kind of human being he was. Somewhere around here I have those autographs (all three were on "Catch the Energy" promotional cards; the Mets didn't spring for 8 X 10s) and in an album there's a picture of Don Baylor smiling for my wife as he signed.

I honestly don't remember anything else about his two-year tenure as Art Howe's bench coach. But I'll always remember that.

[HahnSolo]

Baylor played an interesting role in one of the biggest games in Mets history.

He had a big year as DH for the Sox in '86, but because there was no DH for WS games in NL parks, he found himself on the bench for Game 6. In what turned out to be one of the bigger situations of the game, Davey Johnson brought in Jesse Orosco with the bases loaded in the 8th to face Bill Buckner. The Mets trailed 3-2. John McNamara could have gone to the righty Baylor there, then subbed in Dave Stapleton to play first for the last six outs as the Sox protected their lead.

Instead, Buckner lined out to center and remained in the game...

[Guest 41Forever]

Anything Seaver related counts as Mets content for me!

In Seaver's 300th win, he had to face Baylor with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth. Baylor swung at the first pitch and hit a fly to left, ending a glorious day.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Don Baylor played in the AL during a time I didn't pay much attention to what was going on in that league, but I was at least aware that he was one of the good guys over there. RIP.

[MFS62]

RIP, Don. You were one of the good guys in the game, no matter which uniform you wore.
Later

[G-Fafif]

Paul Casanova, catcher for the Senators and Braves from 1965 through 1974, has passed away at 75. He was the All-Star representative on Gil Hodges's last Washington team in 1967. In his final season, he caught Carl Morton's complete game 1-0 victory over the Mets, a game won on Davey Johnson's eighth-inning single off Bob Miller that knocked in Dusty Baker. Harry Parker took the loss.

[G-Fafif]

Paul Schaal, the Royals third baseman in the franchise's formative years, has died of cancer at age 74. He gave way to a kid named George Brett and liked to say, "I tell everybody it took a Hall of Famer to take my job from me." Paul Schaal's Piazza and Pub became his post-baseball calling card in Kansas City for many years.

[Edgy MD]

And he got the job when the Mets suckered the Royals into giving up Joe Foy. That deal is going to pay off one of these years, mark my words.

[Benjamin Grimm]

His name doesn't ring a bell, so I looked to see what his baseball cards looked like to see if they looked familiar. They didn't, but I see he was good enough to get a 1972 "IN ACTION" card.




Maybe that 1973 card does look a little familiar.

[Edgy MD]

Gene "Stick" Michael, banjo-hitting infielder on Yankee teams from the late sixties and early seventies, and frequently the guy standing in the right place whenever George Steinbrenner decided to fire somebody else, has joined George in the hereafter, succumbing to a heart attack at 79.

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[MFS62]

I remember when he came up as a player with the Pirates, a good field/ no hit infielder.
RIP.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

'Stick' as a player was maybe the last master of the hidden ball trick. Not sure if there's a record of each but he pulled it off at least a couple times.
In the front office he is often, and probably rightfully at least to a certain degree, given credit for the building of the mid-90s Yanquis by NOT trading away all their future talent while George was off on
double-secret probation (otherwise known as a lifetime ban which sadly got reduced to not lifetime).
Was willing, like so many others, to be both publicly and privately abused by George in exchange for a seemingly endless string of revolving jobs within the organization.

[ashie62]

Gene "The Stick" Michael 79

[Edgy MD]

Please read before posting, guys. It's starting to feel weird.