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***Official RIP Dead Ballplayers Thread -- Yer Out! (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Eephus
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PIK95
Footballguy
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Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
He was also one of the first I can recall. What caught my attention was the distinctive way he wiggled the bat before he swung.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
PIK95
Footballguy
This one hurts too. Loved watching him crowd the plate and hit bombs over the monster. R.I.P.
Koya
Footballguy
Not many more loved, liked, revered and respected as Baylor. The guy was baseball in so many ways.
Two of my favourite things were watching The Cobra round the bases, and watching Don Baylor get hit by a baseball. No one will ever get hit like that again.
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/sports/baseball/ken-kaiser-dead-colorful-american-league-umpire.amp.html
Ken Kaiser, a no-nonsense umpire who was unafraid over his colorful 23-year major league career to confront players and managers, but who lost his job during a misguided labor action by his union, died on Tuesday in Rochester. He was 72.
His son John said the cause was most likely congestive heart failure. Kaiser also had diabetes.
Kaiser called more than 2,800 regular season games in the American League and was part of the umpiring crews for the 1987 and 1997 World Series and the 1991 All-Star Game.
An old-school man in blue, he tried to control the game through force of personality and command of the rule book. He could be tough, funny, loud and belligerent. Ron Luciano, a fellow umpire, once likened Kaiser’s physique — 6-foot-2 and nearly 300 pounds — to a “barrel on which two arms had been stuck on backwards.”
David Fisher, who collaborated on Kaiser’s autobiography, “Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life From Behind the Plate” (2003), said in a telephone interview: “Kenny was big, boisterous, tough and arrogant. He walked with a strut. And he took nothing from nobody — never.”
In umpiring school, Kaiser said, he learned that players and managers were the enemy, although his son said that he developed friendships with players like George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Don Mattingly.
Another lesson: “Whatever call you make is the only right call,” he wrote in his memoir. “Never explain, never apologize.”
Like many umpires, Kaiser detested Earl Weaver, the diminutive, cantankerous manager of the Baltimore Orioles, who frequently battled umpires. He also loathed Eddie Murray, a power-hitting first baseman who played for the Orioles and other teams. Near the end of his career, Murray protested a strike-two call by Kaiser.
In his memoir, Kaiser recalled his response: “We ain’t talked in 15 years. Don’t start now.”
When Murray tossed his bat in the air after Kaiser had called him out on the third strike, Kaiser ejected him (one of 75 players or managers he tossed out in his career). Murray, a future Hall of Famer, challenged him to a fight. Kaiser agreed, telling him, “Eddie, you can even bring your bat with you because the way you’re swinging this year, you couldn’t hit me with it anyway.”
Umpiring was not an easy life, especially during Kaiser’s years in the minor leagues and the early ones after he was called up to the American League. Salaries were modest, the travel was grueling, the long seasons took him away from his wife and children for weeks at a time, and umpires generally could trust only one another.
“An umpire will only take criticism from another umpire,” he told The Washington Post in 1978. “It’s your job to change other people’s minds, to bend them to your way of thinking.” In the off-season, he said, his family told him that he could calm down and stop telling them what to do.
Kenneth John Kaiser Jr. was born in Rochester on July 26, 1945. His father was a military policeman in North Africa during World War II and later became a security guard at Eastman Kodak. His mother, the former Annette Moyer, ran a television repair shop.
In 1964, after graduating from high school, Kaiser tagged along with a friend who was heading south to Al Somers’s umpiring school in Daytona Beach, Fla. — attracted more by the warm weather than by any clear ambition to calls balls and strikes.
“Umpire school was definitely not part of my fantasy,” he wrote. “I had never umpired a game of baseball in my life.”
And while he did not excel in school, he got a job in the Florida Rookie League, beginning a 13-year odyssey through increasingly higher tiers of the minor leagues. “I thought about quitting 50,000 times, like we all do,” he told The Post. “In my last year in the minors, I was making $650 — a month, not a week — that’s for five months a year.”
He moved up to the American League in 1977 and called his first game that April between the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome in Seattle. His first ejection came that September, when he thumbed out Ken Henderson, a Texas Rangers outfielder.
Becoming a major league umpire ended a two-year off-season stint as a professional wrestler. Kaiser had donned an all-black outfit and a mask to become a bad guy known as the Hatchet. (He toted a hatchet into the ring with him.)
He never won a match, he said. He recalled that Haystacks Calhoun, who weighed in at around 500 pounds, once “bounced off the rope and flopped on top of me.” In another match, Kaiser’s opponent unmasked him, revealing his true identity to Eric Gregg, another baseball umpire, who was in attendance. Gregg was so surprised, he dropped his popcorn.
Kaiser’s wrestling detour led to long friendships with the wrestling personalities Big John Studd, Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan, known as the Brain. “Those relationships lasted because they loved hanging out with my dad,” John Kaiser said.
He would adopt another mask — one that protected his face when he worked behind home plate — to call 707 of his 2,815 regular-season games.
But he lost his job in 1999 when he and more than 50 other umpires submitted letters of resignation as part of a strategy conceived by their union leader, Richie Phillips, to force Major League Baseball to negotiate a better labor agreement. Twenty-two of the resignations were accepted, including Kaiser’s. And while several of the men were rehired, Kaiser was not among them.
“He never really got over that,” Ted Barrett, an umpire who was a friend of Kaiser’s, said in a telephone interview. “He and the others didn’t get to go out on their own terms. He resented baseball for the way he was treated.”
It took five years after his resignation for Kaiser to receive severance pay, reported to be $400,000.
In addition to his son, Kaiser is survived by his companion, Cheryl Bogner; his daughter, Lauren Kaiser Nelson; and his half brother, David. His marriage to the former Brenda Coccia ended in divorce.
Kaiser conceded that he was not perfect at his job, something that he was regularly reminded of by fans, players and managers. But he insisted that he had never lost control of a game.
“If I didn’t have the respect of the players and managers, I definitely had their attention on the field,” he wrote. “When I was on the field, they knew that if anyone was going to be intimidated, it wasn’t going to be me.”
Ken Kaiser, a no-nonsense umpire who was unafraid over his colorful 23-year major league career to confront players and managers, but who lost his job during a misguided labor action by his union, died on Tuesday in Rochester. He was 72.
His son John said the cause was most likely congestive heart failure. Kaiser also had diabetes.
Kaiser called more than 2,800 regular season games in the American League and was part of the umpiring crews for the 1987 and 1997 World Series and the 1991 All-Star Game.
An old-school man in blue, he tried to control the game through force of personality and command of the rule book. He could be tough, funny, loud and belligerent. Ron Luciano, a fellow umpire, once likened Kaiser’s physique — 6-foot-2 and nearly 300 pounds — to a “barrel on which two arms had been stuck on backwards.”
David Fisher, who collaborated on Kaiser’s autobiography, “Planet of the Umps: A Baseball Life From Behind the Plate” (2003), said in a telephone interview: “Kenny was big, boisterous, tough and arrogant. He walked with a strut. And he took nothing from nobody — never.”
In umpiring school, Kaiser said, he learned that players and managers were the enemy, although his son said that he developed friendships with players like George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Don Mattingly.
Another lesson: “Whatever call you make is the only right call,” he wrote in his memoir. “Never explain, never apologize.”
Like many umpires, Kaiser detested Earl Weaver, the diminutive, cantankerous manager of the Baltimore Orioles, who frequently battled umpires. He also loathed Eddie Murray, a power-hitting first baseman who played for the Orioles and other teams. Near the end of his career, Murray protested a strike-two call by Kaiser.
In his memoir, Kaiser recalled his response: “We ain’t talked in 15 years. Don’t start now.”
When Murray tossed his bat in the air after Kaiser had called him out on the third strike, Kaiser ejected him (one of 75 players or managers he tossed out in his career). Murray, a future Hall of Famer, challenged him to a fight. Kaiser agreed, telling him, “Eddie, you can even bring your bat with you because the way you’re swinging this year, you couldn’t hit me with it anyway.”
Umpiring was not an easy life, especially during Kaiser’s years in the minor leagues and the early ones after he was called up to the American League. Salaries were modest, the travel was grueling, the long seasons took him away from his wife and children for weeks at a time, and umpires generally could trust only one another.
“An umpire will only take criticism from another umpire,” he told The Washington Post in 1978. “It’s your job to change other people’s minds, to bend them to your way of thinking.” In the off-season, he said, his family told him that he could calm down and stop telling them what to do.
Kenneth John Kaiser Jr. was born in Rochester on July 26, 1945. His father was a military policeman in North Africa during World War II and later became a security guard at Eastman Kodak. His mother, the former Annette Moyer, ran a television repair shop.
In 1964, after graduating from high school, Kaiser tagged along with a friend who was heading south to Al Somers’s umpiring school in Daytona Beach, Fla. — attracted more by the warm weather than by any clear ambition to calls balls and strikes.
“Umpire school was definitely not part of my fantasy,” he wrote. “I had never umpired a game of baseball in my life.”
And while he did not excel in school, he got a job in the Florida Rookie League, beginning a 13-year odyssey through increasingly higher tiers of the minor leagues. “I thought about quitting 50,000 times, like we all do,” he told The Post. “In my last year in the minors, I was making $650 — a month, not a week — that’s for five months a year.”
He moved up to the American League in 1977 and called his first game that April between the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners at the Kingdome in Seattle. His first ejection came that September, when he thumbed out Ken Henderson, a Texas Rangers outfielder.
Becoming a major league umpire ended a two-year off-season stint as a professional wrestler. Kaiser had donned an all-black outfit and a mask to become a bad guy known as the Hatchet. (He toted a hatchet into the ring with him.)
He never won a match, he said. He recalled that Haystacks Calhoun, who weighed in at around 500 pounds, once “bounced off the rope and flopped on top of me.” In another match, Kaiser’s opponent unmasked him, revealing his true identity to Eric Gregg, another baseball umpire, who was in attendance. Gregg was so surprised, he dropped his popcorn.
Kaiser’s wrestling detour led to long friendships with the wrestling personalities Big John Studd, Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan, known as the Brain. “Those relationships lasted because they loved hanging out with my dad,” John Kaiser said.
He would adopt another mask — one that protected his face when he worked behind home plate — to call 707 of his 2,815 regular-season games.
But he lost his job in 1999 when he and more than 50 other umpires submitted letters of resignation as part of a strategy conceived by their union leader, Richie Phillips, to force Major League Baseball to negotiate a better labor agreement. Twenty-two of the resignations were accepted, including Kaiser’s. And while several of the men were rehired, Kaiser was not among them.
“He never really got over that,” Ted Barrett, an umpire who was a friend of Kaiser’s, said in a telephone interview. “He and the others didn’t get to go out on their own terms. He resented baseball for the way he was treated.”
It took five years after his resignation for Kaiser to receive severance pay, reported to be $400,000.
In addition to his son, Kaiser is survived by his companion, Cheryl Bogner; his daughter, Lauren Kaiser Nelson; and his half brother, David. His marriage to the former Brenda Coccia ended in divorce.
Kaiser conceded that he was not perfect at his job, something that he was regularly reminded of by fans, players and managers. But he insisted that he had never lost control of a game.
“If I didn’t have the respect of the players and managers, I definitely had their attention on the field,” he wrote. “When I was on the field, they knew that if anyone was going to be intimidated, it wasn’t going to be me.”
Eephus
Footballguy
Gene Michael 1938-2017
His top 10 B-R comps paint a pretty good picture of what kind of ballplayer Stick was
He was a no bat middle infielder for some poor post-Mantle Yankees clubs. He had 3092 PAs with a line of .229/.288/.284. He somehow managed to stick in the big leagues for parts of nine seasons in spite of not reaching the majors until the age of 28.
His top 10 B-R comps paint a pretty good picture of what kind of ballplayer Stick was
- Tom Veryzer (971.5)
- Frank Duffy (961.2)
- Johnnie LeMaster (953.6)
- Bobby Wine (947.0)
- Charley O'Leary (944.8)
- Ted Kubiak (941.9)
- Brendan Ryan (941.7)
- Darrel Chaney (937.7)
- Jose Uribe (936.2)
- George Strickland (934.6)
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
I always enjoyed his radio interviews. He came across as thoughtful and well versed in the game.
The rumor for thirty years is Dallas Green's resignation came about because the Tribune Co. forced him to hire Michael over his first and only choice: John Vukovich.
The rumor for thirty years is Dallas Green's resignation came about because the Tribune Co. forced him to hire Michael over his first and only choice: John Vukovich.
Eephus
Footballguy
Jim Landis 1934-2017
Top Ten B-R comps
He had a 5.7 rWAR season for the 1959 Go-Go Sox. His career decline is accentuated by the dominance of pitching in the mid-late 1960s.
Top Ten B-R comps
- Lee Mazzilli (944.5)
- Bill Tuttle (936.4)
- Pat Kelly (936.0)
- Bobby Tolan (933.0)
- Gary Matthews (931.5)
- Chad Curtis (930.6)
- Mickey Stanley (927.9)
- Ken Landreaux (926.4)
- Grady Hatton (923.1)
- Don Buford (922.6)
Limp Ditka
Footballguy
Former White Sox pitcher Daniel Webb was killed in an ATV accident on Saturday evening.
The 28-year-old right-hander appeared in 94 games with the White Sox from 2013-2016, compiling a 4.50 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and 93/69 K/BB ratio in 110 innings before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Our deepest condolences go out to his friends and family at this difficult time.
The 28-year-old right-hander appeared in 94 games with the White Sox from 2013-2016, compiling a 4.50 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and 93/69 K/BB ratio in 110 innings before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Our deepest condolences go out to his friends and family at this difficult time.
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Eephus
Footballguy
17 year old Red Sox prospect Daniel Flores died from complications during cancer treatment.
Flores was a catcher from Venezuela who had just signed for $3.1M when the international FA window opened in July. BA had him ranked as the #2 prospect from his international class.
Life is brutally unfair sometimes.
Flores was a catcher from Venezuela who had just signed for $3.1M when the international FA window opened in July. BA had him ranked as the #2 prospect from his international class.
Life is brutally unfair sometimes.
Eephus
Footballguy
Doerr was the second oldest living MLB player. With his death, former Braves OF Clint Conatser enters the top ten (born 7/24/1921).
Doerr was also the last player who had played during the 1930s. He made the big leagues as a teenager in 1937. There are now only two players alive who appeared in a game before Pearl Harbor: Chuck Stevens and Fred Caligiuri.
Doerr's top ten B-R comps:
Doerr was also the last player who had played during the 1930s. He made the big leagues as a teenager in 1937. There are now only two players alive who appeared in a game before Pearl Harbor: Chuck Stevens and Fred Caligiuri.
Doerr's top ten B-R comps:
- Tony Lazzeri (895.7) *
- Chase Utley (894.2)
- Victor Martinez (892.8)
- Vern Stephens (890.7)
- Joe Torre (877.4) *
- Bob Elliott (874.7)
- Brandon Phillips (871.9)
- Ray Durham (864.8)
- Ian Kinsler (863.5)
- Ken Boyer (859.5)
Epic Problem
Footballguy
And Red Schoendienst is now the oldest living HOFer
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
Jungle Jim Rivera 1921-2017
He didn't make the majors until he was thirty, but then played until he was almost forty. I couldn't find a reason for why he got such a late start.
JoeSteeler
Footballguy
Ramblin Wreck
Footballguy
Damn, 2nd former Philly pitcher to die this month. Miguel Gonzalez died in a car crash in Cuba. 34 years old.
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
Really Kinda sucks. He was initially an uber hyped prospect, then I think it cooled due to some arm issues, but still got like 12 million. Great fortune for him and hopefully the money was all still saved for his family.Ramblin Wreck said:
Eephus
Footballguy
Frank Lary 1930-2017
Lary has an illustrious B-R comps list with two Cy Young Award winners, a deadball era pitcher and two celebrated headcases:
- Joaquin Andujar (964.6)
- Dock Ellis (962.6)
- Nelson Briles (962.3)
- Mike Scott (955.4)
- Howie Pollet (953.5)
- Ray Caldwell (953.3)
- John Denny (952.1)
- Dave Goltz (951.2)
- Steve Gromek (950.0)
- Bob Purkey (949.9)
Eephus
Footballguy
Rob Picciolo 1953-2018
He must have been a hell of a college player because he was drafted 6th and 4th overall in successive amateur drafts. But he couldn't hit big league pitching with only a .234/.246/.312 career line and only 25 walks in over 1700 PAs.
Peach came up right after the A's dynasty collapsed due to free agency and Charles O. Finley. He hung around as a utilityman in Oakland through the Billy Ball era.
He must have been a hell of a college player because he was drafted 6th and 4th overall in successive amateur drafts. But he couldn't hit big league pitching with only a .234/.246/.312 career line and only 25 walks in over 1700 PAs.
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
He was one of the very first baseball cards I ever owned: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HO8GPxnR44I/SsKsrdnMl7I/AAAAAAAABBw/J4HDmzu4-lU/s320/scan0027.jpg
Limp Ditka
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
Limp Ditka
Footballguy
If the dictionary has a picture next to the word umpire, it should be of Doug Harvey
God has died at age 87
God has died at age 87
Tom Servo
Nittany Beavers
Eephus
Footballguy
Oscar Gamble 1949-2018
His top ten B-R comps list is topped by Daddy Wags and includes some other colorful characters of the game
His top ten B-R comps list is topped by Daddy Wags and includes some other colorful characters of the game
- Leon Wagner (944.4)
- Cliff Johnson (926.5)
- Larry Hisle (922.4)
- Jason Bay (916.5)
- Bobby Higginson (916.4)
- Kevin Millar (915.4)
- Joe Pepitone (913.8)
- Jesse Barfield (913.6)
- Jose Cruz (912.9)
- Carl Everett (912.6)
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Limp Ditka
Footballguy
I'd have to dig through the archives, but fairly confident that I still have this cardOscar Gamble 1949-2018
His top ten B-R comps list is topped by Daddy Wags and includes some other colorful characters of the game
- Leon Wagner (944.4)
- Cliff Johnson (926.5)
- Larry Hisle (922.4)
- Jason Bay (916.5)
- Bobby Higginson (916.4)
- Kevin Millar (915.4)
- Joe Pepitone (913.8)
- Jesse Barfield (913.6)
- Jose Cruz (912.9)
- Carl Everett (912.6)
Yankess Take Gamble On Oscar
Tom Servo
Nittany Beavers
All time best hair in MLB.Oscar Gamble 1949-2018
His top ten B-R comps list is topped by Daddy Wags and includes some other colorful characters of the game
- Leon Wagner (944.4)
- Cliff Johnson (926.5)
- Larry Hisle (922.4)
- Jason Bay (916.5)
- Bobby Higginson (916.4)
- Kevin Millar (915.4)
- Joe Pepitone (913.8)
- Jesse Barfield (913.6)
- Jose Cruz (912.9)
- Carl Everett (912.6)
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
He and Jose Cardenal both played for the Cubs, though separated by a few years. It would have been awesome for them to be in the OF at the same time
Limp Ditka
Footballguy
Eephus
Footballguy
Wally Moon 1930-2018
Top Ten B-R comps
Moon had a Hall-of-Fame unibrow as well.
Top Ten B-R comps
- Hank Bauer (935.0)
- Tillie Walker (934.5)
- Shin-Soo Choo (928.4)
- Andre Ethier (924.5)
- Bruce Campbell (923.2)
- David Segui (921.5)
- Bobby Higginson (921.3)
- Roberto Kelly (921.1)
- Tony Gonzalez (916.2)
- Von Hayes (915.6)
Epic Problem
Footballguy
Good Posting Judge
Footballguy
:finger:
Epic Problem
Footballguy
Rusty Staub dies on opening day
:(
:(
jamny
Footballguy
Da Guru
Fair & Balanced
badmojo1006
Footballguy
:(Epic Problem said:
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
Staub seemed like a genuinely good dude. On those documentary shows on ESPN/MLB Network, he always had an interesting quip. He was also shaped just like Babe Ruth, which is kind of cool.
Tim Kurkijan posted a couple of interesting stats: Staub hit a homerun as a teenager and as a forty-year old. He had five hundred hits with four different teams, and he was on base more than four thousand times in his career.
Tim Kurkijan posted a couple of interesting stats: Staub hit a homerun as a teenager and as a forty-year old. He had five hundred hits with four different teams, and he was on base more than four thousand times in his career.
Eephus
Footballguy
Davey Nelson 1944-2018
There's only one recent player on his B-R comps list
His All-Star season came as a member of a 1973 Rangers club that lost 105 games and was managed by both Billy Martin and Whitey Herzog.
There's only one recent player on his B-R comps list
- John Knight (960.2)
- Jack Brohamer (949.0)
- Abraham Nunez (947.8)
- Bill McKechnie (942.9) *
- Tim Flannery (940.7)
- Damian Jackson (940.0)
- Billy Hitchcock (937.3)
- Billy Clingman (937.2)
- Dave Chalk (934.9)
- Charlie Reilly (934.9)
