baseball obituaries 2010

Bobby Bragan

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/news/story?id=4848392

She was the true soundtrack of my youth....

Jane Jarvis, Player of Jazz and Mets Music, Dies at 94
By PETER KEEPNEWS

Jane Jarvis, who brought a jazz sensibility to unlikely places as an organist for the New York Mets and a programmer for Muzak, died on Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home in Englewood, N.J. She was 94.

Her death was confirmed by her son, Brian. She had lived at the actors’ home since shortly after being forced out of her East Side apartment, the result of an adjacent building’s destruction in a crane collapse in 2008.

Ms. Jarvis’s career was bracketed by jazz, which she considered her first love: she formed a jazz band in her native Indiana as a teenager, and she worked steadily as a jazz pianist, mostly in New York, from her mid-60s into her 90s. But for more than two decades she was best known as a ballpark organist.

After eight years playing for the Braves at County Stadium in Milwaukee, she was a fixture at Shea Stadium from 1964 to 1979, performing a repertory that mixed jazz staples like Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple” with more conventional fare like “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “Meet the Mets.”

Few Mets fans knew that Ms. Jarvis had begun her career as a jazz pianist. Even fewer knew that she had a day job with the Muzak Corporation.

Muzak was synonymous with soothing background sounds piped into elevators when Ms. Jarvis was hired for a clerical job there in 1963, not long after she moved to New York and roughly a year before she joined the Mets. She worked her way up to vice president in charge of programming and recording; when she began supervising sessions, she hired Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry and other jazz musicians. The result was canned music considerably more swinging than the Muzak norm, much of which the musicians, including Ms. Jarvis, composed themselves.

Nearing retirement age and wanting to engage the public more directly, Ms. Jarvis left her job at Muzak in 1978 and the Mets a year later (she was not replaced) and, at 64, began looking for work as a jazz pianist.

By the mid-1980s she was a fixture at the West Village nightclub and restaurant Zinno, where she worked with Milt Hinton and other top-tier jazz bassists. She recorded her first album as a leader in 1985, the year she turned 70.

Luella Jane Nossett was born in Vincennes, Ind., on Oct. 31, 1915, the only child of Charles and Luella Nossett. Her father was a lawyer, her mother a schoolteacher; they were both killed in a road accident when she was 13.

She began picking out melodies on the piano at 4, and a year later her parents, impressed, arranged for her to study classical piano at Vincennes University. She went on to study at several conservatories in Chicago.

Ms. Jarvis was married and divorced three times. In addition to her son, she is survived by a daughter, Jeanne, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She began her professional career at 11 on a radio show in Gary, Ind., that featured child entertainers. Within two years she was the house pianist at a radio station in Chicago, accompanying nationally known performers like Ethel Waters and Sophie Tucker.

In 1954 Ms. Jarvis was playing piano and organ in nightclubs and on television in Milwaukee when she was approached by the Braves, newly transplanted after a half-century in Boston, and offered the job of organist.

“I wasn’t a sports fan, and I was uncertain about doing it,” she told The New York Times in 1984. “But money overcame my worries.” By the time she began her long tenure with the Mets, 10 years later, she had become a knowledgeable and enthusiastic baseball devotee.

Despite health problems, Ms. Jarvis continued to perform and record into the 21st century, both as a bandleader and with the Statesmen of Jazz, an ensemble consisting mostly of musicians over 65. She was the only woman in the group.

“I figure I’ve got another 25 years,” she told The Indianapolis Star in 1999. “At least I’ve got 25 years booked out.”

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Jim Bibby

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-bibby-obit0217,0,3055009.story

Jim Lanier, Ty Cobb's personal batboy

http://www.ajc.com/news/james-fargo-lanier-93-308226.html

Former Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis was found dead Tuesday morning in his Burbank home, police said. He was 69.

Authorities said that a neighbor who usually brought breakfast to the former baseball star's Victory Boulevard home found Davis' body.

The case is being handled by the Los Angeles County coroner, but authorities said there was nothing to indicate foul play and that it appears that Davis died of natural causes.

Davis, an All-City athlete in several sports at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights in the late 1950s, became one of the Dodgers' early stars after the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. Known for his offense, Davis played center field for the Dodgers for 13 seasons starting in 1961. He hit in a team record 31 consecutive games in 1969 and batted .305 or above three years straight in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But he also committed a World Series-record three errors in one inning against the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.

Davis left the Dodgers in 1973. His last season in the major leagues was in 1979 with the Angels.

After baseball, Davis made headlines in 1996 when he was arrested at his parents' home near Gardena for allegedly threatening to kill them and burn down the house unless they gave him $5,000. Davis was armed with a set of throwing knives and a samurai sword, officials said.

For all his speed and obvious ability, sportswriters sometimes questioned why Davis was not even better. Jim Murray, the syndicated sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times, suggested that Davis had tinkered with his batting stance too much.

“Willie, you see, did imitations,” Murray wrote. “The only way you could tell it wasn’t Stan Musial was when he popped up.”

In his heyday, his fame as a Dodger led to appearances on television shows like “The Flying Nun” and “Mister Ed,” usually as himself.

Mike Cuellar!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100402&content_id=9058274

that 69-71 stretch was pretty sick - 60 complete games!
rip

A friend gave me a VHS tape of the '71 All-Star Game a few months ago--Reggie's big game. Cuellar got into the game midway. What an entertaining motion! He's got to be right up there with Marichal and Tiant. He struck out Stargell on a pitch that looked like it belonged in a Disney movie with Fred McMurray.

well, 20-30 CG a year was not unheard of for aces in that era. The '71 World Series is the first one I remember seeing much of.

Me too, in a sense. I know I was watching when Rose plowed over Fosse the year before, that would technically have been my first AS game, but my recollections of '71 are much sharper.

Just found this on YouTube (hoping to find some game footage):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9boG6tIYQ

BEP? Yeah, sure, why not--I know Andy Etchebarren always makes me think of Nine Inch Nails.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100504/SPORTS02/100504087/1321/Voice-of-Detroit-Ernie-Harwell-dies-at-92

No death (of someone I never met) could possibly hit me harder.

RIP

Neyer on EH:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/3455/my-visit-with-ernie-harwell

sad day for baseball, RIP Ernie.

should of had his own thread however.

Really sad, RIP Ernie. I only heard bits of his broadcasts here and there, but I read his autobiography when I was younger, so I felt I knew him just a little bit.

http://multimedia.detnews.com/pix/93/36/8f/87/f7/54/20100204005027_harwellstadium.jpg

http://multimedia.detnews.com/pix/d6/8b/69/ed/78/72/20100204235944_harwellcarey91.jpg

Vin Scully on Harwell:

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=7828951

286-game-winner Robin Roberts

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/sports/baseball/07roberts.html?hp

woah

He was also in the 500 HR Club -- gave up 505! (also last guy to pitch six straight years of 300+ innings)

Posnanski on Roberts:

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2010/05/06/robin-roberts-1926-2010/

Dorothy Kamenshek, star first basewoman in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/sports/baseball/22kamenshek.html?ref=obituaries

Jose Lima! So young!

http://deadspin.com/assets/resources/2008/01/joselimareturns.jpg

"lima time is over"
About 1,180 results (0.41 seconds)

;_;

It's LIMA Time!!!!

Haha, Joe Kennedy vs. Jose Lima on Sunday. What's the over/under?

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, June 23, 2005 11:56 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

http://www.uncoolcentral.com/images/joselima/joselimaswife.gif

Wow, I don't know what to say. Jose Lima dead? I can't believe that shutout for the Dodgers happened over five years ago!

i'm going to choose to believe that lima had never seen his wife bare chested, and then she revealed & he had a massive heart attack

Brandon Inge:

"We were playing golf one day in Atlanta. He had just come from a casino where he'd been all night. He was a clean guy. He wasn't doing any drugs. He was just having a good time.

"He went straight from the casino right into the cab to the golf course. It's the ninth hole, and I've got a 5- to 7-foot putt with a pretty good bend to it.

"He's whipping me, and he knows I'm not the best putter in a world when I have 5- to 7-foot putts.

"He takes a wad of cash out of his pocket. It had to be close to $10,000. There were hundreds everywhere. He throws it down on the ground. The wind is blowing a little bit, and cash is blowing all over the green. He says, 'If you make this putt, you can have all that money right there. If you miss it, you've got to give me $100.'

"I was a young player, and $100 was a lot of money to me.

"I missed the stinking putt by 20 feet. It wasn't even close. I was shaking so much. I'd never seen that much cash.

"I remember his cackling laugh for probably two holes. He laughed for about two holes about that. That's how he made a very bland 5-foot putt into something I'll never forget."

hahahaha

I just found out abt this today for some reason; if joe pos is writing 10,000 words on jose lima something bad has happened :\

he must have had the charisma of 10,000 men. lord knows his legacy on the field is mixed at best.

lol @ brandon inge

RIP Cliff Kachline, HOF historian and co-founder of SABR:

http://baseballhall.org/news/museum-news/keeper-history

Ralph Houk. Time to break out Ball Four.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/baseball/mlb/07/21/obit.houk.ap/index.html?eref=sihp

I guess Yogi is relieved that fulfills the Rule of Three Yankees.

Houk was the first Yankee mgr I remember, but more from Detroit and Boston.

I have a somewhat contradictory memory of how Bouton treated him in Ball Four (no index, and I don't have the patience to check): that he was tough on him over specifics, but that he generally liked and respected him. There's very little about him in James's manager book, although he is listed as the second-most successful manager of the '60s--somewhat odd, I think, when you look at both halves of his record for the decade. (Elsewhere, I remember James once pointing out how insane it was to bat Bobby Richardson lead-off for the '61 team.) I remember him primarily for his Detroit time.

btw I believe Neyer pointed out just this week that Houk is 15th on the wins list, right behind Piniella, which makes you wonder if Lou will also miss Cooperstown.

Does the Rule of Threes only apply to deaths, or can it apply to in-the-news more generally? Because Lou Pinella was prominent in Ball Four too. Lou, Houk...I'm thinking that Merritt Ranew or Fred Talbot will be popping up in the news any day now.

Billy Loes, eccentric Brooklyn pitcher of '52-56

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/sports/baseball/28loes.html

Clint Hartung, NY Giant (runner on 3rd for Thomson HR)

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/hondo_hurricane_went_from_south_texas_to_stardom_98684579.html?showFullArticle=y

Bobby Thomson

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5471194

RIP, was way before my time but love seeing that highlight.

greatest Scottish-born player btw

It hasn't happened yet, but:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38771115/ns/today-today_health/

Joe L. Brown, Pirate GM 1956-76:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/sports/baseball/19brown.html

Umpire Satch Davidson:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100823&content_id=13815958&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Great story--he was working the plate for Aaron's 715th and Fisk's Game 6 HR.

Sparky's in hospice care. The Detroit Free Press is acting like he is dead already.

As long as Kirk Gibson remains in baseball, Sparky Anderson will remain in baseball.

* Sparky Anderson with the Tigers and beyond
* Best of Sparky Anderson, Two
* Best of Sparky Anderson, One
* Drew Sharp: Sparky restored roar as Tigers manager
* Tigers legend Sparky Anderson in hospice care
* Do Good Detroit: Honor Sparky Anderson by donating to CATCH
* Letters: Voice well wishes about Sparky Anderson

Well, he's dead now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5764168

Since he was in his 30s and had white hair when he managed the Reds, I thought of guys in their 30s as extra old.

RIP Sparky ;_;

Too many great quotes to cut/paste.

"A baseball manager is a necessary evil."

"If I hear Bowie Kuhn say just once more he's doing something for the betterment of baseball, I'm going to throw up."

wd like to see the list of flash-in-the-pan prospects he touted as future HOFers

A few here:

THE HYPE - Boom and Bust

hahaha -- where's Tom Brookens?

During the 1993 season Fryman continued his success. In a April 17th game against the Mariners he had four hits and scored five times helping the Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners 20-3. Oddly on July 22nd Fryman was walked by Kansas City Royals pitcher Enrique Burogs. Burogs then threw three wild pitches and Travis came around to score. Six days later he became the first tiger in 43 years to hit for the cycle as he does it against the New York Yankees in a 12-7 loss.

“You’ve got the world in your hands” -Sparky Anderson “I’m empty inside” - Fryman

Jim Walewander!

R.I.P. Sparky :(

http://www.deadmilkmen.com/images/walewander/dugout_jim.jpg

http://www.deadmilkmen.com/images/walewander/dugout_sparky.jpg

Neyer:

It does seem odd that Sparky Anderson could have managed the Tigers for so long -- he managed the Tigers nearly twice as long as he managed the Reds -- and been a losing manager during most of his tenure. It does seem odd that Sparky's Tigers never came close to making the playoffs in his last seven seasons as manager.

It seems oddest of all that the Tigers still have not retired Sparky Anderson's number. Bill James once suggested -- as only he can (or could; Bill has softened over the years) -- that Sparky had cost the Tigers 20 wins per season. Of course, Bill wrote that almost immediately before the Tigers won 104 games and eventually the World Series.

The last bit of his managerial career didn't go nearly as well. Maybe someday we'll try to figure out why....

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/6186/sparky-was-one-of-the-greats

looks like the Dead Milkmen don't think hyperlinking is very punk Andy ... cool pics tho

http://www.deadmilkmen.com/images/walewander/dugout_jim.jpg

http://www.deadmilkmen.com/images/walewander/dugout_sparky.jpg

Maybe someday we'll try to figure out why....

Start with the rosters, Rob.

Manager of my first favorite baseball team, the early-'70s Reds. I think I most appreciated guys like Sparky and Lasorda (who I never could stand when he was active--all that rah-rah baseball stuff) during the '94 strike. I was 99.3% behind the players, but I remember feeling sad when I'd see the old-guard managers interviewed, and it seemed like they were the most shell-shocked of anyone over what was happening. For those few months, all that rah-rah stuff seemed more real and more necessary.

And the face, of course--like Stengel's, like Torre's--was Mount Rushmore to the core.

i remember when i was really young - my dad pointing out that Sparky would never step on the lines when visiting the mound.

I remember he took a brief turn in the broadcast booth after he finished managing -- once he talked about having to learn to read lips because of some hearing loss, and he was trying to paraphrase what he saw players/managers/umps saying in a family-friendly way. RIP

Anyone remember the clip of him going completely off on some umpire in the '70s Series? I think it was over a play at the plate...or maybe a called third strike. It's memorable because you get all the audio, too; not sure how, as miking players and managers is a more recent phenomenon. Anyway, I tried to find it on YouTube, but no luck.

"'70 Series"

When Sparky was a kid, he had shoes with holes in the bottom. He stepped on a foul line (lime), which burned his feet.

Most/all players try to avoid screwing up the foul lines, right? The batter's box is different, obv.

And I gotta say it's really bizarre to consider that Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson is the same age now as Sparky was in 1987.

Sparky's first minor league managing gig was in Toronto? I had no idea!

RIP Sparky

Ex manager/pitcher Clyde King died the day after the World Series ended.

This is good (and brief):

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/steve_rushin/11/04/sparky.anderson/index.html

I'd forgotten this (from the NYT):

During spring training in 1995, when the club owners brought in replacement players to take the spots of striking major leaguers, Anderson was the only manager who refused to take them on, citing the integrity of the game. He went on unpaid leave, then returned when the regular players came back before the delayed opening of the season.

Artie Wilson, Birningham Black Barons shortstop:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/sports/baseball/08wilson.html

StoneLarry Larry Stone
Terrible news: Dave Niehaus, legendary Mariners announcer, has died.

Man.

Ron Santo

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2010/12/3/1852617/cubs-legend-ron-santo-dies-at-70

Sad. A mainstay when I first started to watch baseball, and later on the first player I associate with sabermetrics as advocacy: James used to write a lot about how he deserved to be in the HOF.

well, thank God Bowie Kuhn went in the Hall ahead of him

pretty terrible that the hall found room for dudes like rice and dawson but not him (yet.)

the hof are monsters

Ron: I think I'm going to be throwing some lobsters on the grill for the family.

Pat: Pitch was low and outside, 2 and 2

Ron: I might be making some burgers too, but I'm not sure. Why do you think lobsters are so expensive at the resturant.

Pat: Pitch was outside again, 2 and 3

Ron: Lobsters are just so much cheaper when you buy them at the store. Why would people buy them at the resturant.

Pat: and the batter walks.

http://twitter.com/#!/SI_JonHeyman/status/10694126815150080

why would you even admit this, heyman

why

Santo and Phil Rizzuto in the same booth woulda been something

did that convo actually happen!

why would you even admit this, heyman

I like that he did, though--under the circumstances, a tough thing to essentially admit you were wrong.

Feller

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5924684

Here's Posnanski's excellent obit:

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2010/12/16/rip-bob-feller/

I held back from saying anything about Feller, because I'm one of those people who has mixed feelings about him, based only on the fragments that I've read or seen. (E.g., I think about how dismissive he is of Mays' catch in the Ken Burns documentary.) And I'm always uneasy about taking easy shots at people who lived during a different time. Anyway, Neyer's remembrance is just about perfect:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/6661/sickels-knowing-bob-feller

well, except they forgot to put John Sickels' byline on it, cuz Neyer gave him the space.

Anyway, he's the only HOFer whose hand I shook (3 summers ago). My fave factoid of his life is that his high-school graduation was covered on national radio.

Roger Angell:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2010/12/postscript-bullet-bob-feller.html

So that's what the "Sickels" meant--I was confused by that.

Anyway, Walt Dropo. There's nothing in the obit, but didn't he once hold a record for consecutive games with RBIs?

no way...one of my earliest memories is meeting walt dropo at a sports bar in my hometown. i dont really remember much of it but according to my dad he was incredibly nice and signed for me a poster that commemorated his 12 consecutive hits streak (which i think is what youre thinking of clemenza)

They're droppin' like flies: 1945 NL MVP Phil Cavarretta.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/sports/baseball/19cavarretta.html

Hits, yes--thanks.

Every time a Phil dies, I die a little too. Is Phil Roof still alive?

really loved that the main photo of Steinbush in the NYT Mag year-in-obits issue was taken at SHEA.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/26/magazine/2010lives.html?ref=obituaries#view=george_steinbrenner

btw via Pete Ridges of SABR: Phil Cavarretta was the last surviving player from any World Series in the 1930s.

bespectacled Yankee reliever Ryne Duren:

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6000341

He'd be high on my list of guys I wish I'd seen. (High on a list of curios, anyway.) I think Bouton wrote about him in Ball Four, also Boyd and Harris in their book. He walked six guys a game and still had a halfway decent K/BB ratio.

Also: Bert Blyleven, cause célèbre.

The 9-year-old girl who was shot in Arizona was a granddaughter of Dallas Green.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/phillies-9-old-girl-killed-arizona-rampage-granddaughter-20110109-080606-998.html

roy-hartsfield-first-blue-jays-manager-dies-at-85