baseball obituaries 2020

Don Larsen

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28407056/don-larsen-pitched-only-perfect-world-series-game-dies-90

dang, i just saw this. here's jaffe's piece: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/imperfect-but-for-one-afternoon-don-larsen-1929-2020/

ed sprague sr, 74

pretty bad pitcher, apart from a solid 1974 campaign with milwaukee

was the orioles scout who signed mike mussina

Jr. hit a very memorable WS home run.

George Nicolau

https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-01-10/george-nicolau-mlb-collusion-drugs-dodgers-dead

Royals owner/Walmart boss David Glass

(yeah, meh)

Just spoke with Mets star Jeff McNeil, who played for John Altobelli, one of the victims of the Calabasas helicopter crash, who managed Brewster in the Cape Cod League in 2012.

Said McNeil: "He's one of the main reasons I’m still playing professional baseball.”

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 26, 2020

roger kahn, author of 'the boys of summer', 92

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/obituaries/roger-kahn-who-lifted-sportswriting-with-boys-of-summer-dies-at-92.html

RIP Rog, even tho ten was probably a little young for me to read the book

I really need to read "The Boys of Summer" again after 30 years.

japanese legend katsuya nomura, 84

catcher who played 26 seasons, hitting .277/.357/.508 with 657 homers (second to oh). also managed for 24 years

tony fernandez, 57

He was so good his first couple of seasons; looked like he was going to be right up there with Ripken and Yount before long. (Probably less impressive analytically, but that was barely around then.) He never stayed at that level, but he had a long, solid career, and his return to the Jays for the '93 WS team was great. So young.

Forgot he was the fourth player in the Carter/Alomar for McGriff/Fernandez trade in 1990. Has there been a bigger-name trade since? I know Alomar hadn't flourished yet, but James had already identified him as a future superstar--I still remember his Alomar entry in The Baseball Book a year or two earlier, where he wrote "GET ROBERTO ALOMAR" whether you were a fantasy player or card collector or whatever. So you had Alomar, one of the 10 best hitters in the game in McGriff, the wildly-overrated-in-retrospect but big-name and big-RBI-guy Carter, and Fernandez, who was still thought of as a possible/probable Hall of Famer. Don't recall a bigger one since, or at least not between two teams--there've been some multi-team transactions along those lines.

Yeah three guys who at their peaks were HOF type talents (one already in, one who will be, and a third in Fernandez who despite maybe never reaching his potential finished with an impressive career WAR due to those early seasons and late career renaissance) and a fourth who was not great but a solid bat in his best years.

So young, I didn't know he was sick. I always think of him as the 22 year old phenom and potential best SS in the game from the '85 division winners. Many people probably remember him as the guy whose error might have given away the '97 WS. Each of his stints with the Jays was memorable in some way. He's one of my favourite players ever and I'm really sorry to hear of his passing.

And yes, that 1990 trade was perhaps the last of its kind. It wasn't about big market vs small market teams, or trying to get value for players before they test free agency, or tanking/rebuilding to prepare for the future. It was a straight up challenge trade of four star players. There may never be another one like it again.

And there was a perfect symmetry to the trade in that the Jays got the best and the least of the four, and the Padres got the middle two guys--things could have gone either way, and if Alomar hadn't developed (which in turn got the Jays over the hump, which brought in Winfield and Molitor, all of which made Carter look better than he was), it could have been a terrible trade for Toronto.

Olerud being able to replace McGriff was a big part of that deal too. iirc he went straight from collage ball to the majors. that aspect was definitely a risk aswell.

orrin freeman, who had been a scout/farm director/special assistant to the gm for the marlins since their inception in 1991

NY/SF Giants ace Johnny Antonelli

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/2020/02/28/johnny-antonelli-dies-new-york-giants-pitcher-world-series-hero-1954-rochester-ny-businessman/4902150002/

yankees' kelly rodman, one of very few female scouts in the game

not sure of the cause, but she was only ~40

Jimmy Wynn was posted in the ILX thread, but he should get one here too.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/legendary-astros-outfielder-jimmy-wynn-dies-at-age-78/

I was a full-fledged Reds fan by '74, so I remember the phenomenal start the Dodgers had that year.

end of April: 17-6
end of May: 36-14
end of June: 52-24

Still, the Reds almost caught them, only finishing 4.0 out (they were within a game-and-a-half on Sept. 14). I thought Wynn had the same kind of start, but not quite: phenomenal May, surrounded by three good but not spectacular months (and a slow August/September). Really good year overall, though (it was a pitcher's year, I think), and he was 5th in MVP voting, finishing well ahead of winner Garvey and runner-up Brock in WAR (and basically tied with Bench, who finished 4th). Weird: spending the bulk of his career in the Astrodome and Chez Ravine, I just assumed he got killed by his home parks, but for his career he was .256/.376/.443 at home, .245/.355/.429 on the road. One of the great nicknames ever, and one of those guys who was a walking machine before anybody cared.

RIP Toy Cannon

We mourn the death of Ed Farmer who passed away Wednesday night.

Farmer worked as a radio broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox for nearly 30 years, played 11 seasons in the major leagues, including three with his hometown White Sox, and was a strong advocate for organ donation. pic.twitter.com/wx7itjfEYk

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 2, 2020

al kaline, 85

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2020/04/06/al-kaline-dies-detroit-tigers/505371001

That's a big one. As I just posted on Facebook, though, of all the famous HOF'ers who played most of their careers in the '60s, I have less of a sense of Kaline than any of them.

I remember seeing him on TV at the end of his career.

per Ben Lindbergh on EW, Kaline had the most career HR (399) w/out ever hitting 30 in a year.

There is a lot of love coming out in the articles about Al Kaline, that guy seems to have been well liked by seemingly everyone. I knew him from baseball cards as a kid, but that he was supposed to be the real deal as a player good all the way around.

the most career HR (399) w/out ever hitting 30 in a year

I'd say that pinpoints his relative anonymity outside of Detroit better than anything.

(By which I mean next to Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Yaz, etc.)

Yaz is a pretty good comparison in a lot of ways -- Kaline didn't have nearly the same peak, but both spent most of their career operating not at that superstar peak but at a slightly lower tier of stardom in terms of production. Similar to Cal Ripken and Brett, I guess -- a couple other members of the 20+ seasons with one team club. Kaline also didn't have the same level of fame as any of those guys, probably just a matter of him not having a single season with truly eye-popping counting stats.

disappointing that he never played catcher even for just an inning, would have been cool for Al Kaline to be part of a battery.

o_O

No dad jokes on the obit thread?

I was going to say he was one of the few players of his caliber where it could be argued his best season was his first full one, but his age 20 season (didn’t turn 21 til December of that year) was actually his second full one.

no, it was solid

tbf, he made 18 all-star games, so *someone* recognized he was good

I quoted the battery line on Facebook!

Kaline was definitely highly thought of by other players. All-Star voting wasn't handed over to fans until 1970; I assume all those AS appearances were voted on by players?

Brooks Robinson said he was the best he played against

gen believed he forsook some power for average and walks

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/remembering-al-kaline-mr-tiger-1934-2020/

Al Kaline’s family put a “regular” obit in the Sunday @freep. By blending in, it’s an example of how one-of-a-kind he really was. pic.twitter.com/CR7ej9aZAT

— Matt Friedman (@mattfrieds) April 12, 2020

Glenn Beckert:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/former-chicago-cubs-star-glenn-beckert-dies/

One of those random stats that will stick in my mind forever: he hit .340 one year, when Rod Carew was the only second baseman who did that. (Okay, I checked--.342.)

hank steinbrenner, 63, non-covid-related

https://nypost.com/2020/04/14/hank-steinbrenner-yankees-co-owner-dead-at-63/

jim frey, 88

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/04/14/former-royals-cubs-manager-jim-frey-dies-at-88

Within a few months of Tony Fernandez, Dámaso García.

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/04/15/long-time-blue-jays-infielder-damaso-garcia-dies/

RIP I remember being super bummed as a 9 or 10-yr old when he was included in that Chambliss trade

And being down on Rick Cerone

Steve Dalkowski, a wild left-hander who was said to have been dubbed "the fastest pitcher in baseball history" by Ted Williams, died this week in New Britain, Connecticut. He was 80.

Dalkowski, who once struck out 24 batters in a minor league game -- and walked 18 -- never made it to the big leagues.

Writer-director Ron Shelton, who spent five years in the Orioles farm system, heard about Dalkowski's exploits and based the character Nuke Laloosh in 'Bull Durham' on the pitcher.

The A's are mourning the loss of former Athletic minor leaguer Miguel Marte, who passed away earlier this week due to complications from COVID-19. Marte played in the A's system from 2008-2012. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.https://t.co/PV7UEuAuvL pic.twitter.com/mVeLdOUciU

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) May 1, 2020

journeyman Matt Keough, AL All-Star as a rookie in 1978 & was selected AL Comeback Player of the Year in 1980, both for the A's.

Tonight my dad and hero Bob Watson has passed away after a long fight with kidney disease.. #Astros #Yankees #RedSox #Braves #Athletics #USABAseball #MLB #1stBlackGM pic.twitter.com/obKe1mwJYc

— K Dubb (@TheReal_KDubb) May 15, 2020

Understand that I realize why, but Watson was the very definition of what James called "the RBI guy with mystique," something you can't have in the era of analytics.

The exclusively one inning closer wasn't a thing until the 90's. In Sutter's prime they would pitch more than 100 innings. In his CY-winning season he had 9.8K/9IP when the league average was probably around 5.

If anything I think Sutter's HOF case has looked stronger since he was elected, seeing how 300 saves has become even rarer and so many top relievers flame out after a few years.

Yeah true dat. Who was the last reliever to compile 100 IP in a season exclusively from relief outings?

When I was a kid it seemed like Sutter was a Cardinal forever and his Cubs years were just a blip. But he was only in St Louis four seasons, and compiled most of his HOF cred in Chicago.

Gaylord Perry

What an amazing character. Obviously underscores the disconnect when it comes to keeping PED guys out of the HOF. One of the very first things I ever got caught up in as a fan was his '72 season, which is probably still one of the top 15-20 seasons for a starting pitcher in the past 50 years (10.8 bWAR and the Cy Young for a 72-84 Cleveland team).

Wow--actually 6th best, behind Gooden in '85 (12.2), Carlton in '72 (12.1), Clemens in '97 (11.9), Wilbur Wood (!) in '71 (11.8), and Pedro in 2000 (11.7).

Mind blown: Perry tried to hide George Brett's bat in the pine tar game! He was stopped and later ejected.

Perry was one of the great old men of MLB, like Niekro or Hough. I mean they looked like old men when playing.

weirdly Jamie Moyer didn’t despite lasting longer — it trips me out to see that he’s 60 years old now

RIP Gaylord Perry, it's been a terrible two days for deaths.

https://www.mlb.com/video/gaylord-perry-dies-at-age-84?partnerId=web_video-playback-page_video-share

RIP Curt Simmons

Famous quote usually attributed to Simmons: "Trying to throw a baseball by Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster." (Posnanski says he's also seen the quote attributed to other players talking about someone other than Aaron.)

tom browning, who threw the reds’ only perfect game, 62

https://i.imgur.com/s76ckOb.png

https://nowtakingthefield.substack.com/p/the-baseball-rip-roster-for-2022

frank thomas (not that one, but another famous one)

RIP Frank Thomas.
Born in 1929 in Pittsburgh, played for the Pirates from 1951-58 (three-time All-Star here), blasted 286 homers over 16 seasons in the majors. pic.twitter.com/OBXhES0Trj

— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) January 16, 2023

also, journeyman ted savage, who just missed being part of the cardinals WS winning teams in '64 and '67

He just had a stroke aiui

four-time all-star 3B and brewers GM sal bando, 78

I don't know if you can say he was underrated in his day, because he did get a lot of attention and MVP support in the early '70s--finished in the Top 4 three times--but Reggie and Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter and maybe even Fingers got more, and he didn't even draw 1% of the vote in his one year on the HOF ballot. Good chance I saw him play in July of '69 when we were in Anaheim, though I can't pin down the game.

I knew who he was because of the reputation of those 70's A's teams, but didn't realize how good his career was until I checked his stats just now.

The 1987 HOF vote was a weird one, with no slam dunk candidates, I sense a lot of apathy on the part of the voters. Bando has the 4th highest WAR of the 28 candidates who received votes, and he finished 26th.

I didn't look at the top of that ballot--in the year he got 0.7% (3/413 ballots), two ex-teammates went in, Billy Williams and Catfish Hunter (both, as you say, with soft support).

Catfish was kinda the Dave Stewart of his time (albeit better at his best), a very good pitcher who pitched for some great teams and racked up so many wins over a short period of time. His best seasons was actually his last w Oakland and first w NY. Beyond that, two more seasons w a bWAR above 3. Might have earned that HOF spot for more meritorious reasons if he wasn’t done as a good pitcher at 30.

He makes sense in the context of his times, not in retrospect, from an analytical standpoint. With 36.3 bWAR, and I bet even lower on Fangraphs, he's obviously not even close to the HOF bar. In his day, though, there were the five straight 20-win seasons, 4/3/1/2 in CY voting, the four WS titles with the A's/Yankees (his post-season record is good), the perfect game, the huge free-agent contract (one of the first), and--again, back then--definite mystique. So I get it, as I think anyone who watched baseball at the time does.

I'm always more impressed by some of the votes the writers somehow got intuitively right. The first one I think of is the 1965 AL MVP: I was puzzled for years by the Zolio Versalles MVP ("but he only hit .273!"), but bWAR does show him as the best position player in the league. (Sam McDowell's a little higher.) Another one--if you put aside pitchers--is the '85 NL MVP. I think even James mocked Willie McGee winning, arguing that Dale Murphy was clearly more valuable, but McGee was indeed the best position player in the league by bWAR, well ahead of Murphy. (Not even close to Gooden, mind you...)

Sal Bando, on the other hand, got screwed by the time he was up for the HOF. Which, again, is strange seeing as how probably many of the same voters gave him lots of MVP support.

Bando’s bWAR is amazing considering how relatively brief his full-time career was. His chances were probably diminished by playing a lot during a pitchers’ era. But for all the sabermetrics chatter about a third baseman like Darrell Evans being one of the underrated greats, Sal might fit that description even more.

Bando was well respected in his prime, as Clem pointed out, he drew decent support in MVP voting. I'd compare him to a George Springer type of player -- a very good player but not quite a star, who will get some downballot support, and produces in the big moments. You absolutely need a couple of players like that to contend year after year. But nobody thinks of him as a HOFer, and he doesn't end up with the flashy round numbers for his career that HOF voters like.

yeah, he's an interesting case i guess, though not quite getting there, despite a 56.6 bWAR from '69-'78. he's a guy who'd maybe be a reputable HOFer due to that peak value. But he was still a solid tier below for example Rolen, and a couple below Santo.

He was arguably the best 3B in the game for a brief window, but then Schmidt, Brett, and to a lesser extent Nettles were really just much better throughout the '70s. He'd have needed another 4-5 years and he'd have a better case (he'd likely have gone the Santo route tho.)

looking at that 70's Athletics team, it's crazy how similar Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter were; yet only one is in the Hall (neither really should be imho). Blue has actually a stronger case (and not just through modern metrics), really – only difference maker I think is Hunter played for the Yankees...

Hunter: 3.26 ERA, 224 wins, 2012 Ks, 36.3 WAR, Cy Young, ERA crown, 8x all star, 5x world series
Blue: 3.27 ERA, 209 wins, 2175 Ks, 44.9 WAR, Cy Young, ERA crown, 6x all star, 3x world series AND an MVP award.

blue has a much stronger case, but he didn't have a cool nickname. big mistake on his part. they both seem like casualties of having to throw way too many innings in their 20s

catfish had 5 seasons in a row of the magical 20 Wins, that must have helped as well. fangraph's interpretation of "value" (based on FIP) is notable with his 1973 season. hunter went 21-5 with a 3.34 ERA over 256 IP. his fWAR, though, was just over replacement, at 0.5 fWAR. his ERA was way below his FIP, which was 4.40. Oakland's defense must have been pretty great that year...

Catfish Hunter had two things that are sure to get solidly above-average/usually not-amazing pitchers into the HOF: a nickname and a great mustache. not a beard (Blyleven rule) it has to be a bushy stache. i'll die on the hill that a clean-shaven Jack Morris is one-and-done on the HOF ballot. Someone should have advised Rick Reuschel to keep his mustache and make it really really bushy.

Vida Blue is a really cool name, though. Didn't have to dress it up. Much cooler than Jim Hunter.

I don't know if Blue's drug issues figured into that or not. He thought so: "I had some issues in my life that might have had a tendency to sway voting. There are some guys in the Hall of Fame who don’t have halos." His holdout in '72 was a huge story at the time: didn't start his season until May 24--big surprise, I think Finley really screwed him--and didn't get a postseason start until the sixth game of the WS. Glad to know he's 73 and still alive.

When Time magazine put baseball players on the cover (I assume they haven't in some time):

https://content.time.com/time/magazine/archive/covers/1971/1101710823_400.jpg

he seems like a good candidate for the Veterans Committee to revisit at some point. not saying it's deserved (he's a peak-value HOF guy but that was a brief and scattered peak), but i could see it.

https://i.imgur.com/zg7OkFL.jpg

Wow, missed that...I was going to say that it looks like the Red Sox winning in '04 was the last MLB Time cover, but I guess this is incomplete. (Rod Carew!)

https://time.com/vault/subject/baseball/

it's funny how 2 of the last 3 baseball-related covers (according to that link) are both about how playing baseball on elite youth teams is bad, and they both feature maybe the least-flattering possible photos of the kid

1999 kid is swinging at a pitch 15 feet outside

2017 kid's hands are about to sting as he weakly fouls off into the third base dugout

only difference maker I think is Hunter played for the Yankees.

During Hunter's prime though, the Yankees had lost their mystique. The A's were the cool, fun, and successful team with larger than life stars sporting nifty mustaches. He was there for the Yanks' '77 and '78 WS wins, but he was done as a star player.

Hunter was elected to the HOF thanks to 1) a great nickname and mustache combo, 2) winning 20 games in five consecutive years, 3) being one of the youngest pitchers ever to reach 200 wins, 4) being a key player on the A's three-peat (they're still the only non-Yankees team ever to do it).

Putting aside analytics, the A.L. '74 Cy Young field has to be the apex of the '70s workhorse era (the DH probably contributed):

1. Hunter - 25-12, 318.1 IP
2. Jenkins - 25-12, 328.1 IP
3. Ryan - 22-16, 332.2 IP
4. Perry - 21-13, 322.1 IP
4. Tiant - 22-13, 311.1 IP

sad to hear this

We mourn the passing of Tim McCarver, an All-Star catcher and decorated baseball broadcaster for generations of fans. He was 81. https://t.co/af8eb0Yyuf pic.twitter.com/6P9LLlDMJD

— MLB (@MLB) February 16, 2023

i've been reading october 1964. good insight in to mccarver as a player.

He was prickly, but I always liked him in the booth. Saw him as a player on the downside of his career, don't remember much, but he caught Gibson and Carlton in their primes, and that's something.

https://i.postimg.cc/hPzN6dNc/32179165-B76-C-490-B-B2-F8-D66-B0-ACE9-A3-A.jpg

Every time I read about pitchers and catchers this quote comes up again and again.

another tim mccarver quote - i'm sure there's a million different slightly different versions of it because he would tell this story pretty much any time bob gibson came up during a broadcast:

“I remember one time going to mound to talk with Bob Gibson. He told me to get back behind the batter; that the only thing I knew about pitching was that it was hard to hit.”

first encountered him alongside ralph kiner (basically insane) and steve zabriskie (utterly straight) doing mets games on WOR in the eighties -- and he was honestly good, unlike his later cardinals/national broadcast persona

also he seemed like a really decent guy. rip

I only knew him from the national broadcasts. He was definitely an old school colour commentator much like Joe Morgan was, relying on his wit and intuition about the game to tell a story. I enjoyed listening to him for the most part.

I hadn't realized that he had a 20-plus year career as a player. He played in four decades!

lol, i missed this 2013 all-star game moment from mccarver. very hard to explain

This will always be remembered as the moment Tim McCarver crossed over into legendary status — hands down #STLCards pic.twitter.com/zaEkdf0313

— 𝙰𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚠 𝚆𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚛 | 🗺 (@drewmaniac) February 16, 2023

(xpost) As a player, I always group him in my mind with Bob Boone and Jim Sundberg, although the other two are much closer in terms of timeline and being mostly about defense.

(kramer voice) joe pepitone!

I literally just read the part in Ball Four where they prank him by putting talc in his hairdryer so when he blow dries his wig after a game he looks like George Washington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vqJ-WSC-QI

I think I've got this right: it's him in Ball Four who puts a piece of popcorn under his foreskin and tells the trainer he's got some new form of VD...As flakes go, he sounded like one the greatest--he was near the end when I started watching.