baseball obituaries 2020

so of my closest brushes with death with bill were during the military salutes at mets baseball games at citifield, lol

Ya. Him yelling into their air about brainwashing during god bless America got us some attention.

He invited me to a game when he was in T.O. for the SABR convention, it was the one and only time we met irl. I remember only two things about that game, 1) Bill James sat about three rows directly in front of us (Morbs pointed out a bunch of SABR-celebs from where we were sitting, 2) he was scoring the game and asked me to take over for a few minutes while he went to the bathroom. I hadn't scored a game in years and was so nervous about making a mistake and ruining his Blue Jays Experience. Needless to say, this place won't be the same without him.

Apparently Tommy Lasorda is in p bad shape right now.

tommy sandt, 69

only played 42 big league games but did some managing in the minors and was on jim leyland's staff in pittsburgh, florida and colorado

David Lander has passed away. Many know him as Squiggy in Laverne and Shirley with Michael. He also was an incredible baseball man who was a scout for the Mariners. Always thought his role in League Of Their Own was a perfect fit. #RIP https://t.co/LgGwHbvsnS

— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) December 5, 2020

dick allen

who might have been elected to the hall of fame yesterday had covid not forced the cancellation of the golden era committee meeting

That's really too bad; should have already been in, of course, so they'll end up with another Ron Santo/Marvin Miller-induction on their hands, a year or two too late.

Rest in power to Dick Allen, underrated slugger and owner of one of the best SI covers ever pic.twitter.com/6OPqs6y6uT

— Jon Tayler, Smiling Politely (@JATayler) December 7, 2020

dude was maybe two more productive years away from the HOF.

Just posted that cover on Facebook--unforgettable (and probably the first thing most people remember about him).

Another instance of how you weight longevity/peak: his rate stats still have him high on some all-time lists (Top 20 in adjusted OPS), and he's at 5.3 WAR per season on Baseball Reference. But, yeah, it's pretty much impossible to get in with fewer than 2,000 hits, unless you're a catcher.

i had never seen that cover! badass. also weird to think about smoking a cig and then running onto the field

i used to play ultimate (tons of running) with a guy that would hammer back a smoke between each quarter and i have no idea how he didn't collapse into a hacking pile.

12 playoff PA in his second-to-last season was it for the post-season; must be high on the list of best players without a WS appearance. (Ignoring position/defense, he was a better hitter than Ernie Banks.)

Rogelio Moret today, too:

https://www.lonestarball.com/2020/12/7/22159957/dick-allen-roger-moret-pass-away-death-mlb

I remember him because he went 14-3 for the famous '75 Red Sox team (also 13-2 for the '73 team). But I have no recollection of this (from Wikipedia): "His career ended in 1978 in bizarre fashion. Scheduled to be the starting pitcher against the Detroit Tigers on April 12, Moret was spotted in the Ranger locker room in a catatonic state, with his arm extended holding a slipper. He was unresponsive to examiners, and was immediately taken to a psychiatric facility and placed on the disabled list. He appeared in only six more games after the bizarre incident."

Allen wanted to be called Dick, writers insisted on calling him Richie; I'm guessing Moret preferred Rogelio to Roger.

Goose Gossage on Allen in 2014: "He's the greatest player I've ever seen play in my life. He had the most amazing season (1972) I've ever seen. He's the smartest baseball man I've ever been around in my life. He taught me how to pitch from a hitter's perspective, and taught me how to play the game, and how to play the game right. There's no telling the numbers this guy could have put up if all he worried about was stats."

we're gonna have to talk about bill james vs dick allen at some point; might as well get it out now

I know he was very anti-Allen in the first Historical Abstract; didn't he recant that later on?

Checked the revised Historical Abstract; he didn't, just tempered his criticism with a shorter entry. Which amounts to, by not going along to get along, Allen destroyed his career. In terms of Allen's career, he's right. In terms of Allen's role as a person in the world, in terms of honor and integrity, and in terms of how Allen will be remembered, he's 1000% wrong.

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/reckoning-with-dick-allen-1942-2020

former minor leaguer charley pride, 86

phil niekro, 81

seventh hall of famer to die this year

that's as many as the last four years combined.

tommy lasorda, 93

TIL he was basically the same age (2 months older) as Vin Scully.

a true master of the fuckin language of baseball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rUy9FmzsxY

Kurt Bevacqua! Last hit ever off Jim Bouton. (Not sure if that was MLB or the minors, and it may have been before Bouton's late-'70s comeback.)

Someone's death is the time to say something nice, so: while I hated Lasorda's rah-rah cheerleading while he was active, the one time I appreciated him was some interview I saw during the '94 strike, when he seemed, to me, truly and poignantly distraught by what was happening.

don sutton

2020 can stop any minute now.

17 seasons of at least 2.0 bWAR

Biggest of all.

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2021/01/22/hank-aaron-has-passed-away/

monumental

RIP Hank Aaron

It's been said a million times before, but his level of consistency was something. He never had a season of 10+ WAR like Mays and Ruth and Bonds, but starting in 1955, his second season, and carrying through to 1971, when he was 37, he had an almost unbroken string of years between 6.0-10.0. The only year that fell short was 1970. That was an offensive boom year, so he would have been downgraded a bit for that, but in 1970 he hit 38 HR, knocked in 118, and had a slash line of .298/.385/.574--and that, as measured by bWAR, was his worst season. (Never struck out 100 times in a season.)

still jarring seeing random fans rush him when he was rounding the bases on his 715th after all the death threats he'd been getting

I'll never forget those two teenagers (both white) who circled the bases with him. Aaron has said he was convinced they were there to kill him. They were just excited!

Probably an easy question by now, but do you remember who caught 715?

^otm to both of those posts^

i mostly know him through his stats. i've watched a few old games in which he played or appeared (like all-star games), but wish i would of had a chance to just sit at a game and watch what guys like him do in between plays, in the dugout, with fellow players and the like. but yes, a model of consistent high-level performance (and durability, it seems), just unbelievable.

sorry, xp to mookie's post and clemenza's above that

yeah he was a bit before my time, so i only know him as a legend. and the stats are just . . . we're in here arguing about bobby abreu and scott rolen and aaron was like both of them put together with room left over

tbh i think i first learned about what he went through via snoopy: http://wezen-ball.com/2009-articles/a-rod-aaron-and-snoopy.html

Those two guys always crack me up:

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

I thought 715 was his first swing of the season, but it wasn't. There's some story there involving four-pitch walk beforehand--maybe 714 was his first.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=aaronha01&t=b&year=1974

the nyt obituary is excellent, with a heavy slant towards his experiences with racism. a towering figure, who apparently never liked being called "hank." so r.i.p. henry aaron, a true all-time great.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-dead.html

using first names that '60s black baseball players didn't like seems to have been a thing, wonder what that's about

I knew about Clemente's and Dick Allen's pushback, but I didn't know Aaron shared that. I've always called him Hank, but I'll change that. Weird that the Times wouldn't amend their headline!

hard to reverse 60+ years of sports page colloquialism

Clemenza, the WaPo obit has your answer:

The Dodgers’ pitcher was left-hander Al Downing, who wore the same uniform number as Mr. Aaron, 44. On a 1-0 count, Downing threw a slider that caught too much of the plate, and Mr. Aaron unloaded a blast that carried over the head of Dodgers left fielder Bill Buckner and into the Braves’ bullpen, where it was caught by relief pitcher Tom House.

RIP Hank Aaron.

That's it. It's a great trivia answer--I think he rode that small bit of fame for the rest of his career and many years beyond as a coach. (Highly respected, I think.) I was reading his Wikipedia page and never knew this: "House has admitted to using anabolic steroids in the 1970s making him one of the earliest players to admit to using performance-enhancing drugs...House has stated that 'six or seven' pitchers on every major league staff in the 1970s were 'fiddling' with steroids or human growth hormone." He even tweeted today:

Hank Aaron changed my life. The greatest moment I ever got to be a part of was catching 715. That moment bonded us forever as friends and teammates. My heart hurts today to learn of his passing. We watched Hank shrug off the weight of the world and just keep swinging.

I was at a Jays vs Braves game in T.O. and Aaron was honoured in a special ceremony before the game. That was the only time I "saw" him. Where can you even start with Aaron? He was the very definition of an inner circle HOF. I have never heard a bad word spoken about him. He was the model of consistency, excellence, and grace under pressure. Why did it take 25 years (after his retirement) to name an award after this guy?

Until Bonds (who had a nice tweet today) came along, Aaron's 1973 season was my frame of reference for preternaturally great old-guy seasons. 40 HR in 392 AB for a 39-year-old? It was like science-fiction. And that was the heyday of all those future 300-game winners: Seaver, Carlton, Niekro, and Sutton were all active in the NL.

This is great!.

I want to find a similar piece now on the two people holding up the sign on the back of Kiss's Alive!.