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.

I'm advocating for one of the great villains of the past 35 years here--strictly as a player--so, between the spitting and the sexual harrassment charge, I don't expect any allies here. But I would give the edge to Alomar up to and including 2001, and then he falls off a cliff. (I'd also add a third bit of ugliness, obviously less serious than the harrassment allegation; how he sulked his way out town in 1995.)

Utley was never the "leader", his teammates won MVP's he was underrated even by his own team.

Utley:

5 straight years #1 offensive WAR for PHI
5 straight years All-Star
5 straight years MVP vote getter

seems leader-ly to me

Also Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers... I remember after they won the WS in 2023, Corey Seager complementing Semien as the backbone of the organization and a de-facto captain/heart & soul of the team.

Semien was definitely a leader on the 2021 Jays--I recall that many of the younger players said as much.

I don't mean to harp on Sandberg: again, great, great player. But I don't know if he would have been seen as a leader in his MVP year, a breakout season when he was 24. Clearly the best player on a division winner, but still pretty young. (You could say the same of Alomar when the Jays went back-to-back; for leadership, they had Winfield and Molitor and Carter.) When Sandberg hits his prime from '89 to '92, the Cubs had Andre Dawson; I have to believe he would have been seen as the de facto team leader, although maybe it was him and Sandberg both.

Objectively quantifying any of this stuff, of course impossible.

Nice clip (Shawon Dunston on Sandberg):

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=1308328540714622

Davey Johnson

Great manager: .562 career winning pct., winning record with 5/5 teams (barely with the Dodgers). As a player, he was more of a Brady Anderson than Anderson himself when he hit 43 HR with the '73 Braves--his career high otherwise was 18.

Nice piece on Parker and That Shirt

https://www.daveparker39foundation.com/uploads/3/1/3/6/31366303/origin_of_dave_parker_boppin_shirt.pdf

Mike Greenwell

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46545664/mike-greenwell-ex-red-sox-2-all-star-dies-62

Wow--so young. Use him as a lifetime Sox player on the grid. Was the next guy in line, I think, in the Williams-Yaz-Rice sequence (or was that Burks?)

as a kid i thought him, Rice and Burks/Evans had to be one of the best outfields ever.

Greenwell was almost always in left, which is how I remembered it--would he and Rice have both been in the outfield at the same time? Rice couldn't play center or right.

i will have to check with my 1991 tops baseball cards and get back to you.

Rice, Burks, and Greenwell out there together many times--your childhood memories vindicated!

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/1987-lineups.shtml

That 1988 squad had Greenwell, Burks, and Evans putting up some pretty great stats. Though at that point, Rice was fully in decline. All three of those dudes were excellent in 1989 as well, though Burks didn’t play a full season.

Greenwell had one of the less distinguished careers of any MVP runner-up, I suppose.

sandy alomar sr., 81

I feel so dumb: the Jays broadcasters announced that Alomar's father had died, and I completely forgot that that was Sandy. Alomar and Horace Clarke and Felix Millan and others, they all blur together for me as players: the great fielding 2B leadoff guy who'd choke up and hit .260.

on one hand, don’t call yourself dumb! this is negative self talk, i don’t want it for me or anyone else!

on the other hand, if you feel so dumb, get a load of my dumb — for some reason i always thought sandy alomar sr. was also a catcher

rip

I forgot about Sandy Jr., too. Thanks, z--you just made me feel three times dumber.

*sees wall 400 feet away, walks directly into it and tears rotator cuff*

jesús montero, 35, from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident

former top-five prospect/yankees catcher-of-the-future who was traded to seattle for michael pineda and never panned out

Woooow that sucks

I remember the Pineda trade; don't remember the Jays signing him after Seattle cut him loose. Weird--he had an excellent season in Buffalo in 2016 but never made it back to the majors.

21Savage is dealing

wrong thread

Padres Cy Young Randy Jones.

thing that jumps out at me most: his Cy Young year, pitched 315 innings and managed to strike out only 93 hitters.
that has to be the lowest for a CY, not counting closers?

Memorable cover:

https://i.postimg.cc/wjpthHy6/randy.jpg

(That was Jones's Cy Young year, 1976; he was 18-4 at the end of July, so 30 was still viable. He went 4-10 over August/September, though.

Looks like he tops out at 87

Those pictures of randy johnson where his arm is completely behind him and parallel to the ground - this is the opposite of that

Even in '76, when inducing ground balls and K rates below 6/9 were the norm, the cutline there calls Jones "confounding."

Posnanski::

Reporters called Jones an artist, which he was, sort of, but he was more performance artist than anything. He came at hitters relentlessly, same pitch, same spot, sinker away to righties, slider away to lefties, always on the corner, again and again. He never gave hitters a moment to breathe — Jones pitched fast, crazy fast, impossibly fast, barely even waiting to get the ball back from the catcher before beginning his windup again. In one game against the Astros in August, he threw a two-hitter, gave up one run, and the game lasted one hour and 37 minutes.

“I like to get ‘em over so I can go out and do something else,” Jones told reporters.

"....the game lasted one hour and 37 minutes"!

Other games from Jones's '76 season:

April 23 vs. St. Louis: 1:47
May 21 vs. Cincinnati: 1:39
June 30 vs. Cincinnati: 1:49
July 20 vs. Philadelphia: 1:31
August 27 vs. Montreal: 1:38
September 19 vs. Houston: 1:42

I’ve long wondered if it was a different kind of sinker that was thrown in those days. Maybe the only difference is that it’s a higher velocity pitch now.

Dan Epstein, who wrote a great book on baseball in the '70s, had a post up today about Randy Jones. His death seems to have touched a nerve for a relative footnote in baseball history, Cy Young notwithstanding. Maybe it comes down the question Posnanski ponders at the end of his post:

That was what you heard on Wednesday, when Jones passed away on Tuesday at age 75. He was, the feeling went, a wonderful man from a wonderful time that will never come around again.

And it might just be true that a pitcher with no fastball and a 70-mph sinker couldn’t get out Shohei and Judge and Vladdy Jr. and all the rest of the wonderful hitters. But here’s what you have to remember: Randy Jones didn’t make sense in his own time. Nobody thought a pitcher like Jones could get batters out in the 1970s. He did anyway.

So, yeah; if you managed to get Morgan and Stargell and Schmidt and Bench and all the rest out at your peak, is there any specific reason you couldn't do the same with Shohei and Judge and the game's best hitters today? I don't know.

i never saw randy jones pitch but he reminds me of guys like bob tewksbury and kyle hendricks. also, i love that on that cover of sports illustrated, even jones himself looks confounded

Even though I was a stat-obsessed teenager during Jones's prime, I wouldn't be surprised if--outside of a couple of ASG innings--I never saw him pitch either. The Padres were probably lucky to get one national Saturday game a year, and postseason was a no-go.

Another death today: Steve Hargan, who played for the Jays in '77 (but had a few good seasons a decade before).

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/former-blue-jays-indians-all-star-pitcher-dies-11015706

Nice comparison with Tewksbury. Third-place for the Cy in '92, with a 2.16 ERA and 91 K (and only 20 walks!) in 233 innings. I'm suddenly missing this kind of pitcher.

classic pitch to contact guys! i don't know of the jones' era padres defense (did it have gary templeton?) but the 1992 cards defense was great for tewksbury - ozzie and oquendo up the middle

ok, i looked up the 1992 cardinals and forgot that was when oquendo got injured/old

but that made me look at his 1989 season again. 5.7 fWAR with ONE HOME RUN

jfc oquendo retired when he was 31. damn. ok that' sall i got tonight, thank you for the memories

What a strange career...Didn't realize he played all 9 positions (presumably not in the same game, like Campaneris and Tovar). "Great, I can use him for Immaculate Grid." Except--you usually have to pair a position with an accomplishment, and there's literally nothing else you can use. In a 12-year career, half of it as a regular or semi-regular, Oquendo:

1) never made an AS team, never won a GG (looks like he should have in '89);
2) has exactly one black ink number in his career box, the year he led the league by playing 163 games;
3) never had a 6.0 WAR season (an IG category--nothing lower than that is useful);
4) the real surprise--never reached even the most modest benchmarks...never hit .300, never scored 100 runs, never hit 30 doubles, never hit 10 triples, never walked 100 times, never stole 30 bases. Not even close for career benchmarks. He never did anything you can use on Immaculate Grid.

So along with the nine positions, all you're left with are two teams (Cards/Mets), born in Puerto Rico (an occasional category), and played in a World Series (ditto). I think he did just set a record for most commentary in the Baseball Obituary thread for a guy who's still alive.

Randy was easily, no comparison, the most high profile, ever-present ex-Padres players in San Diego. Literally always around, always at the games.

https://fb.watch/DwVvQVb3eK/

Barry Zito reel about Randy

george altman, 92

one of just three people ever to play in the negro leagues + MLB + NPB

Albert Hall (last week, but still not recorded on Baseball Reference):

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/braves-outfielder-who-made-atlanta-history-dies-at-67-11250197

(No nickname recorded on BRef; then and now, can't believe no one thought to nickname him "Royal.")