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***Official RIP Dead Ballplayers Thread -- Yer Out! (3 Viewers)

Eephus said:
Lou Brissie 1924-2013

Lou Brissie, who suffered devastating leg wounds in World War II but went on to become an All-Star pitcher with the Philadelphia Athletics and a symbol of perseverance for the disabled, died on Monday in Augusta, Ga. He was 89. The cause was cardiopulmonary failure, his wife, Diana, said.Leland Victor Brissie was born June 5, 1924, in Anderson, S.C. He pitched for six full seasons in the major leagues. Brissie had a 14-10 record in 1948. He was 16-11 in 1949, his best season, and pitched three innings in the All-Star Game at Ebbets Field. After three years with the Athletics, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in April 1951 and appeared with them mostly in relief. He retired after the 1953 season with a 44-48 career record.

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1944, he was slogging through the Apennines in northern Italy with his platoon when a German shell exploded beside him. Fragments broke his right foot, injured his right shoulder and shattered the shinbone of his left leg into more than 30 pieces. As he recalled it long afterward, “My leg had been split open like a ripe watermelon.”

Brissie was evacuated to a hospital in Naples, where an Army surgeon, Dr. Wilbur K. Brubaker, told him he would probably have to amputate his leg, which had become infected.

Brissie explained that he hoped to pitch in the major leagues. Dr. Brubaker wired the shattered bone fragments together and put Brissie on the new “wonder drug” penicillin. His leg was saved, but over the next two years he underwent 23 operations.

Mack encouraged Brissie to hold on to his dream, and in the spring of 1947 he sent him to the Athletics’ minor league team in Savannah, Ga. Brissie wore a metal brace to protect his leg, but he was a sensation, winning 23 games and losing 5. In September, Brissie made his major league debut for the Athletics, starting for them at Yankee Stadium. He was beaten, 5-3, but he had achieved an ambition that hardly seemed imaginable.

Brissie pitched a complete-game four-hitter to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2, in a doubleheader at Fenway Park opening the 1948 season. But he endured a frightening moment when Ted Williams hit a line drive that caromed off his brace.

“I hit a ball back to the box, a real shot, whack, like a rifle clap,” Williams recalled in his memoir “My Turn at Bat” (1969), written with John Underwood. “Down he goes, and everybody rushes out there, and I go over from first base with this awful feeling I’ve really hurt him. Here’s this war hero, pitching a great game. He sees me in the crowd, looking down at him, my face like a haunt. He says, ‘For chrissakes, Williams, pull the damn ball.’ ”
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such a loss

 
Ed Herrmann 1946-2013

Former Major League catcher Ed Herrmann, who played seven of his 11 seasons with the White Sox, died on Sunday morning at age 67 after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer.
Herrmann, known by the nickname "Hoggy," first was diagnosed in 2009, and his condition took a turn for the worse late last year, according to Herrmann's page on the website caringbridge.org, which provided updates on his condition.

Herrmann's grandfather, Marty Herrmann, pitched one game for the Brooklyn Robins in 1918. But the San Diego native went on to a much longer career after signing with the Milwaukee Braves in 1964. He debuted briefly with the White Sox as a 21-year-old in '67, then stuck with the club from '69-'74 before moving on to the Yankees, Angels, Astros and Expos, retiring after the '78 season.

Herrmann built a reputation for toughness, work ethic and passion throughout his career. His friend and former White Sox teammate Bill Melton told the Chicago Tribune that Herrmann would insist on playing every day, no matter his condition. "His famous words were, 'I'll be all right,'" Melton told the Tribune. "You never could get him out of the lineup. He never complained. 'They'll be all right.' That's the way he was."

Another former teammate, **** Allen, wrote about Herrmann's toughness in a post on his personal website back in August, calling him "the very best I ever played with at blocking the plate." "The most impressive thing about Ed Herrmann ... he loved the game," Allen wrote. "Even when he was given a day off from catching, he would go out to work with the pitchers in the bullpen."

Herrmann was a .240 career hitter, with 80 home runs, 320 RBIs and a .674 OPS, reaching double digits in homers every year from '70-'74. Although the left-handed hitter made the American League All-Star team in '74, his finest year with the bat came in '70, when he hit .283/.356/.505 with 19 homers and 52 RBIs in only 333 plate appearances. His biggest contributions might have come behind the plate, rather than at it. According to a recent biography on the website hardballtimes.com, some teammates took to calling him "Fort Herrmann" for his prowess at protecting the dish, with The Sporting News once describing him as "a block of granite."

Herrmann also drew praise as a receiver, particularly when it came to the knuckleball, which was a specialty of a few White Sox catchers of that time, including ace Wilbur Wood. Tigers executive Rick Ferrell, himself a Hall of Fame catcher with knuckleball experience, said Herrmann was the best he ever saw at handling the pitch, according to the Hardball Times piece.

Herrmann also had a hand in history on multiple occasions. On July 9, 1976, while with the Astros, Herrmann caught Larry Dierker's no-hitter against the Expos at the Astrodome and also went 2-for-3 with a home run in a 6-0 victory. On July 4, 1972, he was involved in turning three double plays against the Orioles, setting a record for the most by a catcher in a single game.
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Mike Hegan 1942-2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hegan

James Michael "Mike" Hegan (July 21, 1942 - December 25, 2013) was an Americanformer Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder. He was the son of longtimeCleveland Indians catcher Jim Hegan.

A graduate of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Hegan began his major league career with the New York Yankees in 1964, also playing for the Seattle Pilots (for whom he hit the first home run in franchise history in his first at-bat with the team in 1969),Milwaukee Brewers, and Oakland Athletics as an outfielder and first baseman. He was one of two Pilots to represent the team at the All-Star Game in their lone year of existence, along with Don Mincher. He was a member of the 1972 World Champion Oakland Athletics, chiefly as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement for starting first basemanMike Epstein. Hegan was the last batter in the (pre-renovation) Yankee Stadium, flying out to center field as the Yankees lost to Detroit, 8-5 on September 30, 1973. On September 3, 1976, he hit for the cycle. Hegan also held the American League record for most consecutive error-less games as a first baseman (178), until it was broken by Kevin Youkilis on September 7, 2007.

After his retirement from baseball as a player, Hegan spent the next twelve seasons as a television color commentator for the Brewers. In 1989 he was hired by the Cleveland Indians, and served as a commentator for the team on both radio and television. Beginning in the 2007 season, he worked exclusively on Indians radio broadcasts, paired with Tom Hamilton[1] and later with Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus in 2010 as part of a three-man broadcast team.[2] In 2012, Hegan left the broadcast booth for a role with the Indians as an alumni ambassador. However, on May 23 of that year he filled in for former partner Hamilton, teaming with Rosenhaus to call a game against the Detroit Tigers. He passed away on December 25, 2013 in his home in Hilton Head, South Carolina due to heart failure. Heart problems had forced Hegan to retire from broadcasting.

 
Former All-Star outfielder Paul Blair has died at the age of 69, according to a spokeswoman for Sinai Hospital of Baltimore.

Blair's wife, Gloria, told the Baltimore Sun he collapsed at a celebrity bowling tournament in Pikesville, Maryland following a round of golf.

"Paul was honestly too tired, but he never says no," Gloria Blair said. "During a practice round, he threw two or three balls, then sat down and told a friend, `I feel funny' and kind of collapsed. He lost consciousness and they called 911 and the ambulance took him to [sinai], but the doctors there told me they never got a pulse."

Blair spent 13 of his 17 major-league seasons with the Orioles and along the way distinguished himself as one of the best defensive center fielders of all-time. He ended his career as a two-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner who also tallied 1,513 hits; 134 home runs and 171 stolen bases.

According to Blair's SABR bio, he was born in 1944 in Cushing, Oklahoma and grew up in Los Angeles. Blair was originally signed by the expansion Mets in 1961 but was later nabbed by the Orioles when the Mets left him unprotected. Under Earl Weaver in Baltimore, Blair blossomed. He became renown for playing an improbably shallow center field and using his speed and practiced instincts to run down balls in all directions. With the bat, Blair developed power and in 1969 hit a career-best 26 homers on the season.

After late-career stints with the Yankees and Reds, Blair retired in 1980 and became a coach -- first within the Yankees' organization and then for Fordham University and later Coppin State. His strongest baseball legacy, though, is as one of the most valuable fielders of the modern era.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24387980

 
Jerry Coleman 1924-2014

Former Yankees infielder and long-time broadcaster Jerry Coleman passed away on Sunday at the age of 89. The Padres, for whom he called games since 1972, confirmed his passing.

“The San Diego Padres are deeply saddened by the news today of the passing of Jerry Coleman," said the team in a statement. "We send our heartfelt sympathy to the entire Coleman family, including his wife, Maggie, his children and grandchildren. On behalf of Padres' fans everywhere, we mourn the loss of a Marine who was truly an American hero as well as a great man, a great friend and a great Padre.”

In parts of nine seasons with the Yankees (1949-57), Coleman hit .263 with 16 home runs and 22 stolen bases while helping the team to four World Series titles.

After retiring, Coleman broadcast games for CBS from 1960-62, the Yankees from 1963-69, the Angels from 1970-71, and the Padres from 1972-present. He was given the Ford C. Frick Award in 2005 for broadcasting excellence and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2007.

Coleman served in both World War II and the Korean War, receiving several military medals. He is the only MLB player to see combat in two wars.
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Raider Nation said:
Jerry Coleman 1924-2014

Former Yankees infielder and long-time broadcaster Jerry Coleman passed away on Sunday at the age of 89. The Padres, for whom he called games since 1972, confirmed his passing.

“The San Diego Padres are deeply saddened by the news today of the passing of Jerry Coleman," said the team in a statement. "We send our heartfelt sympathy to the entire Coleman family, including his wife, Maggie, his children and grandchildren. On behalf of Padres' fans everywhere, we mourn the loss of a Marine who was truly an American hero as well as a great man, a great friend and a great Padre.”

In parts of nine seasons with the Yankees (1949-57), Coleman hit .263 with 16 home runs and 22 stolen bases while helping the team to four World Series titles.

After retiring, Coleman broadcast games for CBS from 1960-62, the Yankees from 1963-69, the Angels from 1970-71, and the Padres from 1972-present. He was given the Ford C. Frick Award in 2005 for broadcasting excellence and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2007.

Coleman served in both World War II and the Korean War, receiving several military medals. He is the only MLB player to see combat in two wars.
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RIP Jerry...Loved the "You can hang a star on that baby" along with the star on the fishpole.

 
Ralph Kiner 1922-2014

RIP

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Baseball Hall of Fame says Ralph Kiner has died at age 91.

"Ralph Kiner was one of the most beloved people in Mets history -- an original Met and extraordinary gentleman," New York Mets CEO Fred Wilpon said in a statement. "After a Hall of Fame playing career, Ralph became a treasured broadcasting icon for more than half a century. His knowledge of the game, wit, and charm entertained generations of Mets fans.

"Like his stories, he was one of a kind. We send our deepest condolences to Ralph's five children and 12 grandchildren. Our sport and society today lost one of the all-time greats."
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Imagine a rookie comes into the league and leads it in Homers. then, imagine he does it again in his 2nd season. and 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, and 6th, and 7th

that's what Ralph Kiner did.

 
oso diablo said:
Imagine a rookie comes into the league and leads it in Homers. then, imagine he does it again in his 2nd season. and 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, and 6th, and 7th

that's what Ralph Kiner did.
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He played what, 10 years total? And got the the Hall? Just a brilliant span.

 
Jim Fregosi

Summing up Jim Fregosi's life runs much deeper than his 18 seasons as an All-Star shortstop and 15 years as manager that included an unsuccessful but amusing three seasons with the White Sox.

"He was really larger than life," said childhood friend and longtime baseball evaluator Gary Hughes after learning that Fregosi, 71, died Friday, according to multiple news reports, after suffering a stroke earlier this week during a cruise in the Caribbean.

Hughes, a special assistant with the Red Sox, knew Fregosi from more than just their days playing in a Babe Ruth League in Redwood City, Calif.

The affable and opinionated Fregosi touched many lives, from schoolmates that he would join for fishing expeditions in the Seattle area, to former teammates and executives, to concierge lounge workers at hotels that he would tip generously during scouting missions.

"He took care of a lot of people, and he never made a big deal about it," Hughes said. "He was the life of the party. You never had to worry about what his opinion was."

Fregosi often would hold court with scouts and reporters in press boxes and dining rooms at ballparks, but he saved his best information for the Braves, for whom he worked as a special assistant the past 13 seasons.

"All of Jim's friends at the White Sox were stunned and saddened at the news of his stroke and death," the Sox said in a statement released Friday morning. "Jim was your classic baseball lifer, with the experiences and stories to match a career devoted to the game. He will be missed at the ballpark this spring and our thoughts go out to all of his friends and family."

Fregosi's knack for talent evaluation and managing a game rivaled his talents as a player, in which he made six American League All-Star teams as a shortstop and a 1967 Gold Glove Award — all with the Angels.

In the midst of the 1978 season, the Pirates released Fregosi so he could embark on his managing career with the Angels and he led them to the 1979 American League West title.

In the spring of 1999, immediately after Fregosi left to manage the Blue Jays, a dejected Giants general manager Brian Sabean told beat writers how he learned the importance of scouting your own players from Fregosi, whose input as a scout was instrumental in the Giants winning their first playoff berth in eight years in 1997.

Fregosi's pursuit of information as a scout was relentless.

The White Sox held him in high regard despite three last-place seasons after taking over for Tony La Russa as the franchise embarked on a rebuilding program through the draft.

His greatest managerial success, however, occurred when he sculpted a group of talented but wild Phillies players from last place to the National League pennant in 1993.

Fregosi's managing career ended after the 2000 season despite two winning seasons with the Blue Jays, but the Braves immediately hired him as their top talent evaluator.

As a manager and evaluator, Fregosi was blunt. He once told mercurial Phillies pitcher Jeff Juden after a series of bad outings, ''sometimes you have to look in the mirror to figure out what the problem is.''

As a shortstop at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif., Fregosi loved to say that he told Hughes, a left fielder, "put your back against the fence and I'll field everything in front of you.''

Also, Fregosi would refer to slugger Barry Bonds as the "second best baseball player to come out of Serra High School."

Fregosi, however, knew his shortcomings as a major league player. He initially warned of the transition Alex Rodriguez would have to make from shortstop to third base in 2004 after being traded from the Rangers to the Yankees.

"I know how difficult it is, because I was bad at it," Fregosi recalled of his transition after being dealt from the Angels to the Mets after the 1971 season for four players, including a raw but future Hall of Fame pitcher named Nolan Ryan.

But there was little argument Fregosi was the best all-around athlete to graduate from Serra, which has produced the likes of All-Pro quarterback Tom Brady, Hall of Fame receiver Lynn Swann and Bonds.

As a baseball player, Fregosi stood out well before he attended Serra. There was no organized baseball on the North Peninsula section of the Bay Area, so Hughes recalled one adult picking up any junior high kids who were headed to Serra and driving them to Redwood City to play in the closest Babe Ruth League.

That group included Hughes (who played at San Jose State), Tim Cullen (a seven-year major league infielder) and Fregosi, who would travel 15 miles to play three games a week.

Fregosi excelled in four sports — football, basketball, baseball and track. Hughes recalled Fregosi was the Catholic Athletic League's broad jumping champion and often would compete in home track meets between innings.

The Red Sox drafted and signed Fregosi in 1960 but the Angels selected him in the expansion draft and he made his major league debut in September 1961 at 19.

As a student, Fregosi possessed strong beliefs. Hughes recalled when a popular student faced no competition as student body president.

"Jim said, 'Someone has to run against him,'" Hughes recalled. "He felt it was the right thing to do, so he ran against him. Jim didn't win, but it tells you about the quality of the guy he was."

Fregosi found time to have a life outside of baseball. He owned two fishing boats and occasionally would take some of his former coaches on excursions.

He met Joni, his second wife, during a successful three-year stint managing Triple-A Louisville in the early 1980s and raised two sets of families.

His oldest son Jim Jr. is a scout for the Royals.
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Can't believe Fregosi was over 70. #### I'm getting old. Must be scary for Eephus to see this kids going when he watched them play during his early years of retirement.

 
Fregosi was one of the first great players i saw as a kid. He joined the Texas Rangers in 1973, at age 31. I was almost 8, very formative year. Past his prime by then, of course.

 
Fregosi's raw stats are deceiving because his prime came during an era which strongly favored pitching. If you normalize his numbers using log5, he gains around 20 points of OPS but that method is conservative because it doesn't compensate for the HRs lost because of high mounds and poor lighting. The Big A didn't do him any favors either.

He averaged 5.77 rWAR between age 22 and 28 but his career fell off a cliff after that. If he played today, he would have gotten a huge contract.

 
Eephus said:
Fregosi's raw stats are deceiving because his prime came during an era which strongly favored pitching. If you normalize his numbers using log5, he gains around 20 points of OPS but that method is conservative because it doesn't compensate for the HRs lost because of high mounds and poor lighting. The Big A didn't do him any favors either.

He averaged 5.77 rWAR between age 22 and 28 but his career fell off a cliff after that. If he played today, he would have gotten a huge contract.
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Plus, he played in an era when SS weren't known for their hitting.

And then there's this humorous story from Chris Jones when he was covering the 2000 Blue Jays:

One night, after a terrible game, Fregosi was sitting behind his desk, naked, except for the white towel wrapped around his belly. He was smoking a cigarette. We all kind of traipsed in there, ready for Fregosi's big act. I sat on the low couch in front of the desk. The first couple of questions were lobs, and Fregosi batted them back, building up steam. Then I asked a question — it was about Escobar's off-speed pitches, which weren't fooling anybody — and Fregosi rose up from behind his desk like a great blubbery tsunami.

He was hollering at me for my general idiocy, smoke pouring out of every hole in his body. He began taking short steps toward me, where I remained trapped on the couch. He was throwing his arms around and now he was screaming at the top of his lungs. And then his towel fell off, and Fregosi's **** was swinging maybe two feet in front of my face. It was the closest I'd been to another man's junk. It was not a happy moment for me.

And it went on, interminable, on and on and on, as Fregosi continued to scorch me, his crotch inching closer and closer to my face. He never made contact, but it was like being threatened with facial assault by a short, fat garden hose. My only comfort, and it was a cold one, was that he'd just come out of the shower.

Finally, the tirade ended, and Fregosi picked up his towel and went back behind his desk.
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Eddie O'Brien 1930-2014

One of the baseball playing twins (alongside brother Johnny) for some terrible Pirates teams in the 50s. Before Rickey signed them, the twins were All-American basketball players at Seattle University.

 
Dr. Frank Jobe 1925-2014

In the fall of 1974, Dodger pitcher Tommy John heard his arm snap like a guitar string after delivering a pitch. The torn ligament was the type of injury that commonly ended athletic careers, but John, then a 31-year-old star, pushed team doctors "to figure it out."

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Frank Jobe made what many consider the most extraordinary medical advance in baseball history when he invented a transplant procedure that resurrected the pitcher's arm.

Jobe borrowed the idea of transferring a tendon from one body part to another, which had been used in hand surgery and to reinforce the joints of polio patients but never to repair a joint that endures so much stress — the elbow of a major league pitcher. He snipped a 6-inch tendon from the pitcher's good arm and wove it like a figure eight through holes drilled in the elbow of the injured left arm to replace the ligament destroyed by overuse. It worked so well that Pete Rose, then a player with the Cincinnati Reds, quipped: "I know they had to give Tommy John a new arm. But did they have to give him [sandy] Koufax's?"

Jobe, 88, died Thursday in Santa Monica, the Dodgers announced. No cause was given.

"Many of us go into medicine thinking we are going to change the world, and it just doesn't happen, certainly not to this magnitude," Dr. Timothy Kremchek, the Cincinnati Reds' medical director and one of the few doctors who perform the Tommy John procedure on major league pitchers, said in a 2005 interview with The Times.

Over the next 30 years, Jobe saved hundreds of pitching careers by performing the surgery. He attributed its popularity in part to the increase in million-dollar salaries, which put pressure on team doctors to consider near-bionic solutions to keep such players in the game. Dr. James Andrews, a Jobe protégé widely credited with perfecting the Tommy John surgery, has repeatedly called Jobe a founding father of sports medicine who brought treatment for baseball players out of the Dark Ages. "Jobe initiated all of the things that have made elbow injuries both commonly recognized and treatable," Andrews, an orthopedic surgeon in Birmingham, Ala., told Investor's Business Daily in 2002.

As of 2013, more than 1,000 Major League Baseball players — most of them pitchers — had undergone the Tommy John procedure, the popular term for ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. "The impact he's had on the game can't be measured," Lewis Yocum, the longtime team physician for the Los Angeles Angels and Jobe's colleague, said in 1999. Yocum died in 2013. The Baseball Hall of Fame honored Jobe last summer for developing the "historic elbow procedure" that has helped extend so many major league careers. "Baseball lost a great man and Tommy John lost a great friend," John said in a statement Thursday night. "There are a lot of pitchers in baseball who should celebrate his life and what he did for the game of baseball."

If the Tommy John procedure remains the Mona Lisa of sports surgeries, as Times sportswriter Chris Dufresne once declared, then Jobe's landmark 1990 operation to rebuild the right shoulder of then-Dodger Orel Hershiser could be enshrined down the hall in the Louvre.

When Hershiser, a Cy Young Award winner who led the team to the World Series in 1988, needed surgery to repair cartilage damage and tighten the ligaments in his shoulder, Jobe proposed a revolutionary procedure that had been done on only about 30 people. None were major-league pitchers trying to throw 90 mph fastballs.Until then, such an operation meant disturbing and damaging muscles, which made it almost impossible for a pitcher to come back. Jobe designed a less-invasive approach — instead of detaching the muscle to repair the joint, he split the muscle and made the repair. He used microscopic tools and newly invented anchors that secured the ligament to the bone, minimizing trauma.

Hershiser recuperated from the 45-minute operation in secrecy and allowed no photographs of his 13-month rehabilitation. After winning his first game post-surgery in 1991, he threw a party in honor of Jobe and gave him a trophy. "He gave me back the thing I love," said Hershiser, who went on to pitch 10 more seasons and in two more World Series with the Cleveland Indians.
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It's things like Frank Jobe not making the Hall before he died (and Buck O'Neill before him) that just makes me even furious about the stupid writers playing the morality card. Hello, fellas, it works both freaking ways!!! Don't get holier than though about not letting steroid guys in but then not put Jobe and O'Neill in. Despicable.

/rant

RIP Frank Jobe. A great man whose impact on the game I love was enormous.

ETA: Yes, the ceremony last year was a nice thing, but the dude deserves a plaque. If freaking Bowie Kuhn gets a plaque, Frank Jobe sure as heck should have one.

 
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Bill Henry 1927-2014

WIS RP cookie (1964 season) :wub:

Bill Henry, who starred on Pasadena High’s state championship basketball team in 1946 before embarking on a 16-year career as a major-league pitcher, passed away last Friday (April 11) in Round Rock.

Henry, 86, pitched for six big-league teams, most notably the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds. While with the Reds, he pitched in the 1960 All-Game and in the 1961 World Series.

A tall left-hander, Henry broke in with the Boston Red Sox and eventually developed into a relief specialist. With the Cubs in 1959, he enjoyed one of the best seasons of any reliever in the 1950s. He led the National League with 65 appearances, posted a 9-8 record with 12 saves and a dazzling 2.63 ERA.

Traded to the Reds that winter, Henry was named to the National League All-Star team in 1960. In the 1961 World Series, he made two relief appearances for the Reds against the New York Yankees, striking out baseball’s new home-run record- holder, Roger Maris, in one of them. The Reds lost the Series in five games.

For his career, Henry appeared in 527 games, compiled 90 saves and posted an ERA of 3.26. He also pitched for the San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros. He appeared in three games for the Astros, all in 1969, before deciding to retire.

Henry is survived by his wife of 69 years, Betty Lou Sabo-Henry; his four sons: Charlie, Jack, Billy and Mark; his grandchildren: Brian, Matt, Sarah and Gus; and a brother, Jack.
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Conrado Eugenio Marrero "Connie" Ramos (April 25, 1911 April 23, 2014)

Connie Marrero, a chunky right-hander from Cuba with a windmill delivery and a wicked curveball, was nearly 39 years old when he reached the major leagues with the 1950 Washington Senators.

He went on to become an All-Star in his second season, when he threw a one-hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics, and he won 39 games in five seasons with lackluster Senator teams.

When he died on Wednesday in Havana at 102, two days short of his 103rd birthday, Marrero was the oldest former major leaguer. But his time with the Senators was only one chapter of a long career in which he became a cherished figure in Cuban baseball.

Marrero was one of Cubas leading pitchers in both the amateur and professional ranks. After pitching for the Senators, he tutored many young players in Cuba, having remained there after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. In the late 1980s he was a part-time pitching coach for the Cuban League team in Granma Province, on the southeastern end of the island.

When the Baltimore Orioles played exhibitions against the Cuban national team in Havana in 1999, Marrero was selected to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. He was so enthusiastic that he could not stop. After he hurled several pitches, with the Orioles Brady Anderson standing at the plate, officials finally called a halt to his unofficial comeback.

Listed as 5 feet 5 inches (a few inches taller by some accounts) and 160 pounds or so, Marrero joined the Senators organization in 1947, one of many Cubans they signed over the years.

After pitching three seasons of minor league ball with the Havana team in the Florida International League, he made his debut with Washington four days before his 39th birthday. Delivering off-speed breaking balls, he became a mainstay of a pitching staff that included his fellow Cubans Sandy Consuegra and Julio Moreno at a time when there were few Latins in the major leagues. Marrero was an 11-game winner twice with a career record of 39-40 and seven shutouts.
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With Marrero's death, former Braves/Dodgers/Pirates catcher Mike Sandlock becomses the oldest living major leaguer.

 
Welch was 211-146 Last pitcher to win more than 25 games in a season. Would have been a 20 million plus pitcher in todays games.

Bob has been battling the bottle for many, many years

 
What a beautiful hitter to watch. Want to pitch him inside? Fine. Line-shot double down the 1st-base line. Want to pitch him outside? Fine. Line-shot single between 3rd and short. Just an absolute mechanic. He and Rod Carew were two of my favorite hitters to watch.

RIP, good sir.

 
Babo Castillo 1955-2014

Retired major league pitcher Bobby Castillo died today in a Los Angeles hospital after being treated for cancer, the Dodgers just announced. Castillo was 59 and played for the Dodgers from 1977-81 and again in 1985. Nicknamed Babo, the right-handed Castillo is credited with teaching the screwball pitch to a young Dodgers lefthander named Fernando Valenzuela.

Castillo attended Lincoln High School on the Los Angeles Eastside. He was drafted in the sixth-round by the Kansas City Royals in 1974 and sold to the Dodgers in 1977. Castillo made his big league debut for Los Angeles on Sept. 19 and retired Hall of Famer Johnny Bench for his first big league out, the Dodgers said.

Castillo finished his career with a record of 38-40 and a 3.94 ERA in 250 games, including 59 starts. He pitched for the Dodgers in the 1981 National League Championship Series, the 81 World Series and the 1985 NLCS. He also pitched for the Minnesota Twins.
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Tom Veryzer 1953-2014

Tom Veryzer, the man who preceded Alan Trammell as Tigers shortstop, passed away this week at the age of 61. Veryzer suffered a stroke last week at his home in Long Island, N.Y., and died Tuesday, the Tigers confirmed.

Drafted by the Tigers in the first round in 1971, there were high hopes for the slick-fielding shortstop out of Islip High School in New York. They never quite materialized though. While he had an RBI single in his first major-league at-bat, he batted .231 in five years with Detroit, after debuting in 1973. Then, convinced they had their shortstop of the future in Trammell, the Tigers traded Veryzer to the Indians in December 1977.

He spent four years with Cleveland, one with the Mets and two with the Cubs before retiring after he was cut in spring training 1985.

Nice Posnanski piece about him

 
Jerry Lumpe 1933-2014

Jerry Lumpe, who played the infield for the Yankees in two World Series in the 1950s and was later an All-Star second baseman with the Detroit Tigers, died on Friday in Springfield, Mo. He was 81. His wife, Vivian Lumpe, said the cause was cancer.

When Lumpe (pronounced Lumpy) made his Yankee debut in 1956, he had something in common with Mickey Mantle. Both were from the Ozarks — Mantle an Oklahoman and Lumpe from Missouri — and both had been signed by the Yankee scout Tom Greenwade.

But Lumpe was never destined for great things with the team. He played only briefly as a rookie, then shared duties at third base and shortstop in the following seasons. He appeared with the Yankees when they lost to the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 World Series and when they defeated the Braves in the Series the following year.

Lumpe was traded to the Kansas City Athletics in May 1959 in a five-player deal that brought pitcher Ralph Terry and infielder Hector Lopez to the Yankees. He played mostly at second base after that.

His best season came in 1962, when he hit .301 for Kansas City with 54 extra-base hits and drove in 83 runs.

He was traded to the Tigers after the 1963 season in a multiplayer deal that sent the slugging Rocky Colavito to Detroit. Lumpe was named to the All-Star team in 1964.

Jerry Dean Lumpe was born on June 2, 1933, in Lincoln, Mo., and grew up in Warsaw, Mo., where he played basketball for his high school team. The school did not have a baseball team, but Lumpe was impressive enough playing American Legion and Ban Johnson league youth baseball to be signed by Greenwade in 1951.

Lumpe and the future Yankee Norm Siebern played basketball for the Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State University) teams that won the national championship of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1952 and ’53, but both departed for minor league spring training before the title games.

Lumpe played 12 seasons in the major leagues and retired after the 1967 season with a career batting average of .268.
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Bob Welch died from a broken neck from a fall in his bathroom and not from a heart attack as reported. That had to be one heck of a fall.

 
Frank Torre 1931-2014

Frank Torre, a smooth-fielding first baseman who helped lead the Milwaukee Braves to the 1957 World Series title and who played a key role in guiding the career of his younger brother, Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre, died Sept. 13 at a hospice in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 82.

The Major League Baseball commissioner’s office announced his death. He had previously received heart and kidney transplants, and had been ill in recent years with cancer.

Mr. Torre had a seven-year career in the major leagues, and hit only 13 home runs. But midway through the 1957 season, he took over at first base for the injured Joe Adcock as the Braves marched toward the National League pennant. His teammates included Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.

During a seven-game World Series against the New York Yankees, Mr. Torre hit .300 with two home runs, helping lead his team to the championship.

Mr. Torre had a standout season in 1958, hitting .309 as the Braves won a second-straight pennant before losing to the Yankees in the World Series. After two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, he retired from baseball in 1963.

Frank Joseph Torre was born Dec. 30, 1931, in Brooklyn and signed with the Braves in 1951. He helped mold the future career of his younger brother Joe, encouraging to take up catching, which became his primary position during his 18-year major-league career.
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