baseball obituaries 2020

I'm sure many of you have read this before, but it's well worth a re-read in the aftermath of Wakefield's death. By my lights this is the best oral history about any baseball event ever: The Doug Mirabelli trade.

https://tht.fangraphs.com/the-doug-mirabelli-trade-an-oral-history/

baseball writer jim caple, who i used to enjoy reading back in the espn page 2 days and again years later at the athletic

thanks for posting that, tracer hand!

Great read.

Loved watching (and imitating) him.

Hondo, one of the legendary guys from my youth:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/mlb/article-12690331/Frank-Howard-Washington-Senators-dies-87-MLB.html

It's not so much how many HR he hit--under 400 for his career, reached 40+ three times--as when he hit them: 44 in '68 (with a slugging pct. of .552), when pitchers dominated like no year since the 1910s, and 48 in '69, which was wasn't as extreme but still pitching-dominated. And he was huge (standing next to Mantle here).

https://ladodgertalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/gettyimages-52909635-612x612-1.jpg

"His coming-out party came in May 1968, when, during a stretch of 20 at-bats, Howard blasted 10 home runs. It still stands as the record for most home runs hit in one week."

https://www.mlb.com/news/frank-howard-dies

Little bit in Posnanski's post today about how much Ted Williams brought Frank Howard around as a hitter.

Then in 1969, the team hired their new manager, a guy named Ted Williams, and it’s utterly REMARKABLE how much that changed Frank Howard as a hitter. Up to that point, he was a wild free swinger with a .336 lifetime on-base percentage. Under Williams, he immediately cut down the strikeouts and doubled the walks; that year he hit .296/.402/.574 with those career-high 48 homers. The next year, he led the league with 132 walks. Ted Williams was a famously ineffective manager for many reasons, but Frank Howard would always say he made him a great hitter and he would lament not playing for Ted when he was young.

Peter Seidler, grandson of Wally O'Malley, owner/controlling partner of SDP from 2012-2023.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2023-11-14/padres-chairman-peter-seidler-passes-away

Whoa

The Padres are super fucked, jeez

Werehavingafiresale.gif

Willie Hernandez, 1984 CY and MVP winner.

Wow. One of the great then vs. now seasons when tracing historical attitudes towards closers and how they're used. His '84 vs. Felix Bautista's 2023:

WH - 140.1 IP, 1.92 ERA, 3.1 WAR, Cy Young + MVP
FB - 61 IP, 1.48 ERA, 3.0 WAR, 11th-place for the Cy (one 5th-place vote), 0 MVP votes

(Weirdly enough, similar W-L records: Hernandez 9-3, Bautista 8-2.)

Like one of those Academy Award tributes: 2023 in memoriam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JarNaBC2Y4

Meant to say that there's a Seattle Pilot in there: Wayne Comer.

How did we miss this?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39286514/bud-harrelson-scrappy-mets-ss-fought-pete-rose-dies-79

I didn't know about the Alzheimer's. Only won one GG, surprisingly--his defensive reputation was up there with almost anyone's through the '70s. (Usually lost out to Concepcion.) Got an MVP vote in '73 for playing 106 games and hitting .258--his career high till he hit .282/.272 his final two seasons. Immortal, of course, for this (Monday afternoon game, so I was probably sitting in Mr. Gudgeon's grade 8 class and missed it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8xKLnO4hOs

Rose in 2008: "You had Seaver, who was the greatest pitcher I ever saw, and you had great hitters like Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee, and later Rusty and Milner. But the heart and soul of that team — ask anyone who played against them — was Bud Harrelson."

(Note to Thermo: if there was ever a player who was going to have "scrappy" in his obit headline, Harrelson's the guy.)

A member of the @Mets extended family has passed away. (Okay, REALLY extended family). Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” was 99 years old. Her grandnephew Tim Redding pitched for the Mets 15 years ago. TV, if not necessarily Mets royalty. RIP. pic.twitter.com/PlbXqMy0ws

— Howie Rose (@HowieRose) January 14, 2024

Steve Staggs, 72. Not sure if Facebook links to a public group work here:

https://www.facebook.com/TorontoBlueJaysBaseballFans/posts/pfbid0yWgxshR6QWTC1C8d8DFFvAWci77arNW12vSUDmwtvgRHtmWnahK9RbAvRRL2tXa5l

I don't remember him at all, even though he was the Jays' leadoff hitter for half their first season. Looks a lot like Wade Boggs here:

https://i.postimg.cc/9fhb6xDH/staggs.jpg

Jimy Williams (if he'd been a character in Goodfellas, he would have been Jimy One-M).

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/former-blue-jays-manager-jimy-williams-dead-at-80-1.7098047

1) Had the difficult task of taking over from Bobby Cox in 1986, after the Jays' first divisional title.

2) Manger when they collapsed in '87. After play on Sept. 26, the Jays were 96-59, the best record in baseball by 4-1/2 games. They proceeded to lose their final seven games, the last three by one run to the Tigers, the team that overtook them for the A.L. East title.

3) In the middle of probably the most memorable player-manager confrontation in team history:

https://mopupduty.com/a-memorable-blue-jays-opening-day-041117/

The Jays started the '89 season 12-24, Williams was fired and replaced by Cito Gaston, and it went from there.

"Manger"--I do remember invoking Jesus's name a number of times those final seven games.

I don’t know anything about him but you might enjoy this Red Sox Stats tweet about the time he benched Pedro

On August 14, 1999, Pedro was 16-3 with 199 strikeouts, a 2.46 ERA and 1.62 FIP.

He showed up late for a start, and Jimy sat his ass. pic.twitter.com/WJ7av91tU2

— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) January 29, 2024

I'd completely forgotten he went on to manage other teams...Houston, too. Weird: he had a winning record in all three places (.535 for his career), and in every case, the team went on to their greatest success soon after he left (Jays and Red Sox win WS within three years, Houston goes to their first WS the very next year).

Maybe his biggest claim to fame, upon reconsideration, is managing Pedro in 1999 and 2000.

His biggest claim to fame is probably this:

Williams returned to the Braves as Cox's third base coach from 1991-96, memorably giving Sid Bream the green light for the pennant-winning run on Francisco Cabrera's single

I had no idea he was coaching for the Braves, although it makes sense that he'd follow his former boss to Atlanta.

Didn't know that either...eventful career.

Who just died? I briefly saw one of those rotating online headlines about a pitcher who played for 10 seasons dying...can't find anything.

im not seeing anything

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hannan

That'd be him, thanks. Never heard of him. Definite claim to fame: part of the massive Denny McLain trade in 1970.

Geez, missed this:

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/don-gullett-world-series-champion-with-reds-and-yankees-dies-at-73/

Easily the best pitcher on my first favourite team. From Posnanski's post today: best winning percentage for pitchers who won 100 games before turning 27 (44 of them in the 20th century).

1. Roger Clemens, 116-51, .695
2. Don Gullett, 109-60, .686
3. Dwight Gooden, 142-66, .683
4. Jim Palmer, 122-57, .682
5. Pedro Martinez, 107-50, .682

Retired after that--never pitched in another game.

ed ott, 72

u l washington, 71

also tim wakefield’s widow stacy, 57

I remember Ed Ott, who then led me back to Duffy Dyer; Manny's backups.

having grown up with ed ott (and steve nicosia!) i have to stop and think whenever the the crossword is asking for MEL

Ed Ott did Felix Millan dirty. RIP but you will pay for it in the afterlife.

missed this but former pirates/cardinals/white sox/etc pitcher jose deleon died a few weeks ago at 63

Such a strange pitcher, the disconnect between his peripheral stats and his W-L record--he got some attention for it at a time when few pitchers did. Both years he lost 19 (2-19 in '85!), he gave up fewer hits than IP. He walked too many, but he also struck out over 7 batters per 9 when, again, that wasn't common. For his career, a league-average ERA, a FIP of 3.61, and a W-L record 30 games under .500.

kind of amazing that deleon still put up 1.8 fWAR while going 2-19

he was unlucky, but the '85 pirates were a deeply awful team (apart from rick reuschel). their leading home run hitter had 12!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PqXNWS4aRU

Three or four famous Mets on there...Did we mention Bill Plummer on this thread? Remember him well as Bench's backup.

Peter Angelos

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/03/23/peter-angelos-orioles-owner-dies/

Pat Zachry, 1976's NL ROY (tied with Butch Metzger):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2024/04/06/pat-zachry-obituary/a4456638-f465-11ee-a4c9-88e569a98b58_story.html

Also beat Dock Ellis in G3 of that year's WS sweep of the Yankees.

I missed the biggest part of his story: he was one of the four players sent to the Mets for Seaver in '77 (along with Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, and Dan Norman).

catcher, most notably with the mets, jerry grote, 81

the notorious fritz peterson, 82

Wow. Also a close friend of Bouton's (or at least was described that way in Ball Four). If you don't know about the notorious part, look him up!

"I always did my best work when I was scared stiff. In fact, if I'm not scared for a game I'll create some critical situations in my mind. Like, I'll pretend it's a World Series game and that it really counts big. I told Fritz Peterson about how I felt about being scared and one day before I was going to start a game he came over and whispered in my ear: 'If you want to see your baby again you'll win today.'"

-- Ball Four

despite peterson’s notoriety, i was not expecting to receive a new york times push notification about his death

if we're going by ny baseball fan importance jerry grote (rip) way more notable than sex freakazoid peterson, his nice run with the non-competitive yankee clubs not withstanding