baseball obituaries 2018

Tom Hausman, pitcher in 160 MLB games 1975-82, and the first FA signed by the Mets

https://www.davisfuneralservices.com/memorialpage.asp?page=odetail&id=99311&locid=48

R.I.P. Jim McKean, legendary umpire and Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer https://t.co/HoYqMnUUuv By: Kevin Glew (@coopincanada ) pic.twitter.com/JGtXPfbnph

— The Canadian Baseball Network (@CDNBaseballNet) January 24, 2019

damn, RIP

Pirates pitching ace Bob Friend

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25917999/bob-friend-pirates-leader-innings-starts-ks-dies-88

frank robinson

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy07TNjU8AEDiUB.jpg

fuck

I once told Frank Robinson I was at Fenway in 1970 when he made great extra-inning catch in RF. “Yeah, and the next day I hit back-to-back grand slams off a couple of Joes,” he said. Thought it was a baseball term. Nope: He hit ‘em off Joe Coleman, Joe Grzenda on June 26, 1970.

— Steve Buckley (@BuckinBoston) February 7, 2019

ha! that's a good story. RIP Frank Robinson. one of my earliest baseball memories was a book about the players who had hit the most home runs, so i was aware of him from an early age and always think of the number 475 whenever he was mentioned. it wasn't til later that i appreciated what a well rounded player he was, and his groundbreaking status as the first black manager in MLB.

er....586. 475 was musial and stargell. shit, i'm starting to lose my baseball stat knowledge.

saw Frank play in his single year with the Dodgers, 1972

i still remember from my first MLB book the top ten HR hitters: Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Robinson, Killebrew, Jackson, Schmidt, Mantle, Foxx, McCovey.

I have this loose definition of "sporting god" when I try to think of which ones are still alive. Basically the inner-inner circle HOF'ers whose peak years were in the '50s and '60s, before television and big-money skyrocketed (e.g.: Unitas, Bill Russell, Howe). Robinson fits the definition. Mays, Aaron, Koufax, Jim Brown, Palmer, Nicklaus...the list continues to dwindle; I'm guessing there are under 10 still around.

I don't think Eckerskey gets the point being made here.

http://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/dennis-eckersley-silences-bill-james-over-frank-robinson-tweet

Bob Gibson: "As a rule, I'm reluctant to express admiration for hitters, but I make an exception for Frank Robinson."

xpost as the article mentioned, it wasn't misunderstanding the point that was the problem, it was the timing:

The immediate aftermath of Robinson's passing might not have been the best time for this discussion, though.

I remember my dad was at this Giants-Mets game at Shea Stadium, and loved Frank's hard-ass attitude:

"A passage in The Baseball Codes describes Giants reliever Jim Barr, upset at being pulled from a game by manager Frank Robinson in 1983:

Frustrated, Barr didn’t wait for his manager to reach the mound before flipping him the ball—a clear act of insolence in the hard-edged presence of Robinson, who made it clear to his pitchers that they were to hand him the ball as they departed.

Barr planned on storming to the dugout, but was interrupted when Robinson caught the baseball, grabbed the pitcher by the arm as he tried to pass, spun him around, and dragged him back up the hill to await (reliever Greg) Minton’s arrival. Robinson had been the league’s most fiery player, and his managerial furnace burned nearly as hot.

As the duo waited for Minton to arrive, Robinson told Barr exactly what he thought of his stunt, poking a finger into the right-hander’s chest to emphasize his point. . . . On the mound at Shea, it was hard to miss the battle brewing, and the New York fans looked on in delight. All four members of the Giants infield raced in and surrounded the pair in an attempt to calm things down.

Barr didn’t help matters when he decided that if he wasn’t allowed to leave until Robinson gave him permission, he wouldn’t leave at all. This meant that when Minton arrived at the mound he found two people, Robinson and Barr, standing between himself and the catcher, which made it somewhat difficult to warm up. “It seemed like five minutes,” said Barr, “even though it was probably only ninety seconds.” Robinson finally led Barr back to the dugout, at which point both pitcher and manager had to be restrained from going after each other."

https://thebaseballcodes.com/2010/06/14/forget-godot-wait-for-your-manager/

you got it?

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/manager-frank-robinson-of-the-san-francisco-giants-gets-news-photo/845718940

(xpost) I now see that...Robinson's '66 MVP/Triple Crown is a large part of his legend. If you've got a statistical tool that casts doubt on the MVP-worthiness of that season (and I don't mean for this to be an anti-WAR thing, not at all), I don't think there's anything wrong with saying no, he was indeed the league's MVP that year, and saying so on the day of Robinson's death. I often flinch at some of the nasty things that get posted about people the day they die, but this seems to me to be the opposite of that.

says something about how much baseball has changed: I'd never heard of Jim Barr, but he threw 64 CG and 20 shutouts in his career. He started 252. while Justin Verlander (to cite one example) has thrown 24 CG and 8 shutouts and started 419. Fellow deserved future HOFer Max Scherzer's career totals of 10 and 5 in those categories fall just shy of Barr's 11 and 5 in 1974.

One last thing I came across: in his first AB in his first game as player-manager, Robinson homered.

don newcombe, 92

great pitcher for a minute. his military service maybe caused him to miss out on the HOF? Might be a stretch, but he wound up missing two years and there was a third where he scuffled upon his return back. Bookended by 19 & 20 win seasons before he left, and 20 and 27 win seasons once he regained his form. Could have finished with over 200 wins and made a better case for enshrinement.

damn

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/List_of_living_Brooklyn_Dodgers_players

Erskine is the last Brooklyn star left.

i don't think newcombe has much of a HoF case stats-wise, but winning a RoY/Cy/MVP and having songs written about him as the first (?) black pitching star goes a long way imo

well, Satchel Paige became an MLB star a hair earlier, no?

i don't really know how paige was thought of at the time, but i think his MLB career was mostly a footnote -- he was already in his 40s, didn't start many games, didn't play for marquee teams

well yeah the thing is Paige was already a legend when he put the Cleveland uni on.

There are a lot of things that made Don Newcombe awesome, but my favorite baseball thing is probably him going to Japan, at 36, as an outfielder, and slugging .473 for Chunichi.

— Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) February 19, 2019

damn, RIP don newcombe. :(

Paige appeared w/ CLE in '48, but was not used consistently as a starter as Newk would be the next year, as mook said. Started 7 games, threw 2 shutouts, relieved 14 times, plus got 2 outs in the World Series.

growing up in the NYC area, read a lot about Newcombe in the papers and The Boys of Summer in the early '70s, around Jackie's death. As one did, since most of the writers had covered the departed teams.

boston globe writer nick cafardo, 62, died today at the red sox's spring training park in fort myers

For the past 34 years, one guy who was always terrific and on top of it, always worth a giggle, as well as a meaningful phone call, and who always was the best of professionals and colleagues, was Nick Cafardo. And I am sick to my stomach and going for a long, long walk. https://t.co/UvVgpTAkFA

— Lynn G. Henning (@Lynn_Henning) February 21, 2019

It is with a heavy heart to report that former #PeoriaRedwings catcher, Terry Donahue passed away last night at the age of 93. She was one of the Canadians who came south to play in the #AAGPBL from 1946 - '49. Please keep her family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. pic.twitter.com/Hqqridfyx6

— AAGPBL Official (@AAGPBL) March 15, 2019

RIP Chuck Harmon, 94, African American baseball pioneer who broke the color barrier for the Cincinnati @Reds in 1954. He was also a basketball star at @ToledoMBB who played and coached hoops professionally. Read his #SABR bio: https://t.co/6gwQvJKvcw pic.twitter.com/LwFxkeRW76

— SABR (@sabr) March 20, 2019

bill buckner

RIP BB

In a statement, Mookie Wilson says he and the late Bill Buckner developed a friendship that lasted over 30 years. The two will forever be linked in history.

"Bill was a great, great baseball player whose legacy should not be defined by one play," Wilson said.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) May 27, 2019

When we started on our fourth day of provincial grade 3 testing this today, it became evident, after about five minutes, that I had totally messed up the first two days. They were supposed to do two language sections last Tuesday; they did one. Two more on Wednesday; they did one. You'd think I would have figured out that something was amiss--both days I was in the staff room complaining about how much time they'd been given to do so little. I had to call the principal to my room this morning: "Um, I've got an emergency."

My little tribute to you, BB.

(I'm being unfair, I know--he was a good hitter who, because of the era he played in, was sometimes mistakenly viewed as a great hitter.)

On Sunday, the last full day of Bill Buckner's life, 16 major leaguers struck out at least three times. Buckner played 22 seasons and never did it once.

— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) May 27, 2019

Some of my earliest childhood memories of watching baseball was Jack Brickhouse announcing "Billy Buck" lining frozen ropes down the right field line in Wrigley.

If you watched Bill Buckner play much, you would obviously see a guy that maximized his skills and with the 2 days of stubble on top of the handlebar mustache and eye black, the guy had the clutch hustler dirty uniform look down that fans come to love. On top of this, by all counts his knees were totally screwed and he pretty much played over a decade on bad legs.

To err is human and Bill Buckner seemed to be a decent human being pretty well centered considering having to deal with that World Series play.

Bob Stanley and Calvin Schraldi should have thanked Buckner for years that most fans probably outside Boston forgot their part in the Red Sox collapse.

Right--Buckner's error let in the winning run in a game that had already become a nightmare. The sequence before the error--singles by Carter, Mitchell, and Knight, then the wild pitch--was the real catastrophe (something I thought at the time).

I watched that ending happen and it was craziest end to any playoff sporting event to that point I had ever seen.* One thing that would be interesting to see is the odds of winning the game and how it changed play by play. That type of graph is pretty easy to find these days, but I have never seen it for that game.

Less talked about than the Cubs/Marlins game, I think the Rangers collapse against the Cardinals being down to the last strike lord knows how many times to win the series in 2011 was pretty awful. It doesn't have that iconic play, but it was just as big a a belly flop failure.

*I'd say for mid-80s, Flutie's BC hail mary against Miami and NC State's tip in against Phi Slamma Jamma were pretty unexpected too. I seem to remember the Dwight Clark catch being a bigger deal after the Sports Illustrated magazine came out with that amazing picture than when it happened in some ways. I do kinda remember Reggie's 3HR game in the World Series, but was too young for Fisk's HR.

if you scroll down a bit, you can find a win expectancy graph for the game here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198610250.shtml

It doesn't have that iconic play

a lot of cardinals fans would point to the david freese walk-off HR

https://sp.yimg.com/j/assets/p/sp/editorial_image/f1/f1a2ffa4922626ec6aa3ecb26c5e14a3/cardinals_put_rally_squirrel_on_world_series_ring.jpg

Fully aware of Buckner's limitations, the strikeout contrasts to today really are amazing. From Posnanski:

In 1980, the year Buckner led the league in batting, he came to the plate 615 times. He struck out 18 of them.

Bryce Harper has struck out 19 times in the last two weeks.

Joey Gallo struck out 207 times in 2018.

Bill Buckner struck out 205 times in the 1970s. The whole decade.

(I will preemptively add that no, I would not take Buckner over Harper--obviously.)