Baseball Passings 2017

[G-Fafif]

Jim Landis, 83, celebrated defensive center fielder for the Chicago White Sox, member of their first pennant-winner in 40 years and their last for the next 46. An All-Century White Sock, and really stayed true to his team right to the end.

The Sox said Landis died surrounded by family and friends in a room that featured bobbleheads and photos of teammates such as Nellie Fox, Billy Pierce and Moose Skowron.

[MFS62]

Back when teams looked to be strong up the middle defensively, Landis was one of the best defensive center fielders in the game.
I remember him being a graceful fielder with a good arm - think Juan Legares - on the 1959 Go Go Sox.
RIP

Later

[G-Fafif]

The three-way trade that sent Landis from the White Sox to the Kansas City A's prior to the 1965 season brought another defensively gifted center fielder to the South Side of Chicago: Tommie Agee. Three seasons later, Agee is a Met, and the season after that...well, you know.

In the same deal, the White Sox received a 22-year-old lefty who'd compiled a 2-11 lifetime record in two seasons. Two Hundred Eighty-Six more wins and a pretty famous surgical procedure awaited young Tommy John over the next quarter-century.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The fact that a guy named Tommy John would one day need Tommy John surgery is one of the great coincidences in baseball history.

[MFS62]

Daniel Webb 28 ATV accident
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2738875-former-mlb-pitcher-daniel-webb-dies-at-age-28-in-atv-accident
RIP
Later

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The fact that a guy named Tommy John would one day need Tommy John surgery is one of the great coincidences in baseball history.

At least since Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease.

[seawolf17]

Frayed Knot wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: The fact that a guy named Tommy John would one day need Tommy John surgery is one of the great coincidences in baseball history. At least since Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig's disease.

"We used to tell him, 'Hey, Lou... there is a disease with your name ALL OVER IT, pal."

[MFS62]

This is really sad. 17 years old.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/red-sox-prospect-daniel-flores-000952456.html
RIP, kid.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Bobby Doerr, nine-time All-Star, World War II vet (though he served stateside), and oldest living member of the Hall of Fame, dies at 99.

[fimg=583]https://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/003/707/719/hi-res-2af6ddfaf8104ffac0b26d34a1cbaed5_crop_north.jpg?h=533&w=800&q=70&crop_x=center&crop_y=top[/fimg]

His middle name was Pershing, after the general.

[MFS62]

The Bosox loving sportscasters on the CT stations are gonna' be all over that tonight.
RIP, Bobby.

Later

[G-Fafif]

A month after Jim Landis headed to that big Comiskey in the sky, fellow White Sox outfielder Jim Rivera, 96, makes the same journey. Jungle Jim was another of the Go-Go Sox American League champs of '59.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: Bobby Doerr, nine-time All-Star, World War II vet (though he served stateside), and oldest living member of the Hall of Fame, dies at 99.

Red Schoendist takes over as oldest living Hall of Famer.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Red looked like he was 90 on his 1972 baseball card.

[Edgy MD]

I forget who they were, but I believe Doerr leaves behind only two other MLB players who debuted before the US entered World War II.

[G-Fafif]

Dick Enberg, winner of the Ford C. Frick Award in 2015, has died of an apparent heart attack at 82. Called games for the Angels and Padres in addition to his time at NBC. Days after accepting his honor at Cooperstown, he was behind the mic for San Diego in that remarkable July 30 game (which we could laugh about by the following week once we had Cespedes and first place), as Justin Upton went deep off Jeurys Familia.

Can you believe this?! Oh my! Upton delivers a three-run shot! And it's not just the rain that's falling at Citi Field. How about the hearts of Mets fans?

Terrible ending, great reaction. And a spectacular broadcasting career.

[Frayed Knot]

G-Fafif wrote: Dick Enberg, winner of the Ford C. Frick Award in 2015, has died of an apparent heart attack at 82. Called games for the Angels and Padres in addition to his time at NBC ...

I like how, after years, decades really, of being the lead voice in national and international events -- Super Bowls, Wimbledon, World Series, all types of basketball -- and after being phased out by the networks as they went for younger, prettier models of him, Enberg closed out his career by going back to local baseball; a big name taking a job which was decidedly not in the big time as a kind of semi-retirement gig simply because he liked it.
Be tough to name better ways to spend your final years than by calling 80-some baseball games a year (like Scully in the end, I don't think he traveled much) in sunny San Diego and then spending your winter in ...well, San Diego.

[MFS62]

First Curt Gowdy, now Dick Enberg.
If things DO happen in threes, please not Vin Scully.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I don't know about threes, but 2017 also claimed Bob Wolff and Felo Ramirez. Jimmy Piersall too.

[G-Fafif]

MFS62 wrote: First Curt Gowdy, now Dick Enberg. If things DO happen in threes, please not Vin Scully.

Curt Gowdy died in 2006.

[MFS62]

G-Fafif wrote: MFS62 wrote: First Curt Gowdy, now Dick Enberg. If things DO happen in threes, please not Vin Scully. Curt Gowdy died in 2006.

Strange. There was a thread started on facebook remembering him this week. It made me think he had just passed away.

Later