MLB history: Who was lost to baseball in 2017
The list of names that were lost to MLB history in 2017 is nearly 100 names long. Who are all the names we lost in 2017?
As we enter 2018, it is always good to reflect on MLB history and the players, managers, and other important parts of the game that were lost over the previous year. Some were stars, some were up for just a single season, some didn’t even get an official plate appearance or inning in the major leagues, but we are going to cover them all here.
We are primarily looking at major league players and managers for this list with a scattering of names remembered throughout the season that passed away. There are undoubtedly numerous coaches, umpires, and non-field personnel that were lost throughout the game, and while researching this article was an incredible jaunt through MLB history, there has to be a line drawn somewhere, so if a name you were expecting to see is not on the list, please understand that it is no slight whatsoever to the loss of that person!
A look at the entire list
So, a quick look around the list. There are 94 names on the list for this article (not an all-encompassing list by any means, either). Here are some of the details of those we lost in 2017:
- Two are Hall of Famers
- Players combined to play in 52 All-Star games
- One won Rookie of the Year
- One won MVP
- Players won two Cy Young Awards
- Players combined for 9 Gold Gloves
- 24 players played for at least 10 major league seasons
- Hitters combined for over 2,600 major league home runs, with 9 seasons of 30 or more
- Pitchers combined for over 1,200 wins, with 8 seasons of 20 or more
- Managers won over 2,000 major league games
- Managers reached 2 World Series and won 1 championship
We will go through the list in order by month. Let’s get started with those we lost all the way back in January of 2017…
January deaths
2) Daryl Spencer – Spencer hit 105 home runs in his 10-year major league career, but his most notable contribution was hitting the first home run in San Francisco Giants history as well as the first home run between two teams in the Pacific Time Zone. Spencer was 88 years old.
6) Bob Sadowski – Sadowski was a Missouri boy who was able to make it to the majors with the Cardinals, but spent the next three seasons with three different organizations, never playing more than 90 games in a single season, finishing with a .222 career batting average in 368 plate appearances. He was 79.
6) Greg Jelks – Jelks got just a cup of coffee in 1987, creating one of the more amusing moments when he and teammate Steve Jeltz were mistaken for one another by an opposing announcer. He was 55 when he passed away.
7) Bill Champion – Champion was known for being long and lanky at 6’4″ and under 190 pounds for his career. Champion was a swingman over his 8-year major league career with the Phillies and Brewers, with a 4.69 ERA over 202 games, 102 of which were starts. He was 69.
8) Jackie Brown – Brown pitched for 3 organizations over 7 seasons, including moving with the second iteration of the Senators to Texas when they became the Rangers. He was a swing man that made 214 appearances and 105 starts. His brother, Paul, was a pitcher with the Phillies for four seasons. Brown was 73.
18) Dick Starr – Starr played for the Yankees, Browns, and Senators over a 5-year career. Starr had gotten to the brink of the major leagues when he was called away to military service, then when he returned, he finally made his way to the major leagues with the Yankees in 1947. He earned a complete game win in his first start. He also has the unique background of being involved in two trades in his career, and in both trades, the same player headed to the other team (though the first trade was not a 1-for-1 deal). He was 95.
18) Red Adams – While he just had one 8-game stint in the major leagues in 1946, Adams spent 19 years in minor league baseball, even losing most of two seasons to military service. He won 193 minor league games as a pitcher, throwing over 3,000 minor league innings. He passed away at 95.
19) Walt Streuli – Streuli was one of the youngest players when he made the major leagues in 1954 for his major league debut with the Tigers. Streuli played just six games at catcher in 3 seasons, and just one year after his final brief major league season, he was out of baseball for five seasons before making a brief appearance in the Orioles minor league system for one final season at age 25. He was 81 years old.
21) Ken Wright – A “big” pitcher for his era, Wright was 6’2″ and 210 pounds, but his workhorse size didn’t translate to the field as Wright made just 113 appearances, 24 of them starts. He was notably part of the trade that sent Lou Pinella to the Yankees. He was 70 years old.
22) Yordano Ventura – On a horrid day in the Dominican, two young lives were taken from the baseball world. The only active player that passed away in 2017 was also the youngest baseball death of 2017 at just 25 years old. Ventura was just establishing himself as a major league pitcher, having gone 38-31 in his career over 94 games (93 starts), throwing 547 2/3 innings, with a 3.89 ERA and 1.34 WHIP, sporting a 211/470 BB/K ratio. He was killed in an accident in his native Dominican Republic.
22) Andy Marte – Due to the tragic circumstances around both deaths on the same small island, Marte was originally thought to have been in the same accident as Ventura, but the 33 year-old was tragically killed on the same day as the young hurler.
Marte was a very highly-regarded prospect as he traversed through the minor leagues, ranking as high as the #9 overall prospect in the game with Baseball America (and 3 times ranking in the top 15), but he could never bring that success forward to the major leagues. He hit .218/.276/.358 over 307 games with 3 different organizations in the major leagues.
24) Morris Nettles – The incredibly-fast Nettles was drafted out of high school by the Angels, but he never could develop anything beyond his elite speed on the baseball field, making the major leagues in 1974, and spending the 1975 season as the Angels’ 4th outfielder. In 518 career plate appearances, he hit .247/.310/.279 with 42 stolen bases, though he was caught 26 times (61.8% success rate).
27) Bob Bowman – By the end of the season, another Bob Bowman had put a bad spin on Bowman’s name in the game as the MLBAM exec was dismissed for inappropriate behavior. This Bowman was a part-time outfielder for the Phillies in the 1950s. He passed away at age 85.
February deaths
1) Mark Brownson – One of the more tragic stories of 2017 was the loss of Brownson at just 41 years old. Brownson was a guy with middling stuff that had to learn how to set up and out smart hitters to make it to the majors, which he finally did in 1998 at age 23.
He made just 11 major league appearances, throwing 48 innings with a 6.94 ERA. He continued playing minor league and independent baseball until he was 29. By that point, he had developed an addiction to pain killers that could tear apart his life, leading to divorce, and eventually a stronger addiction, heroin, which led to homelessness and a suspected overdose that eventually killed him.
10) Mike Ilitch – Ilitch was the founder of the fast food pizza franchise Little Caesars, and he turned the money he made from that into ownership in the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers. He was one of the most passionate owners in the game, frequently found at the ballpark or rink supporting his teams. He passed away at 87 years old.
The Tigers had been making some significant pushes the last few seasons to attempt to win during Ilitch’s lifetime, and that likely has put the team in the position of rebuilding that it is now. Ilitch also owned an Arena Football League team.
19) Harry MacPherson – During World War II, a number of players made major league appearances while regular major leaguers were serving overseas. One of those was young Harry MacPherson. He was just a month past his 18th birthday when he made his one major league appearance for the Boston Braves, throwing a scoreless inning. He was called into service himself after the 1944 season, and when he returned for the 1946 season, he never could make it back to the major leagues, pitching until 1951. He was 90 years old.
26) Ned Garver – Very feasibly stung by pitching for such poor teams over his career, Garver is not in the Hall of Fame, primarily because he has 129 total wins in his career, in spite of having much better seasons than some of his contemporaries that found their way to the Hall.
Garver had an incredible run in the early 1950s with the St. Louis Browns, who were one of the league’s worst teams. He led the entire American League in bWAR in 1950, but his 13-18 record didn’t get him a lot of MVP notice. In 1951, he led AL pitchers in bWAR, going 20-12, and he finished 2nd in the MVP voting. Garver was 91.
March deaths
7) Bill Webb – Webb was the national director for Fox Sports for many years, and worked for SNY before that covering the Mets, and he is credited with making some incredible leaps forward with camera positioning and cuts in production to allow for a smooth feel for the viewer to feel as if he/she was there in the ballpark. He was 70 years old.
9) Bill Hands – Though he didn’t get to the majors until he was 25, Hands had a solid 11-year career with the Cubs, Twins, Rangers, and Giants. His best years were with the Cubs, where he was a workhorse starter for a 5-year run when he averaged 37 games (35 starts), 251 innings, a 3.08 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and a 56/145 BB/K ratio. His arm couldn’t keep up with the heavy use, and he was never the same after 1971, and he never again started more than 20 games in a season after he left the Cubs after the 1972 season. He was 76.
14) Bob Bruce – Bruce struggled to crack the Tigers big league club, but a move to Houston in 1962 gave him new life, allowing him to have a 5-year run as a starter for the Colt 45’s/Astros before pitching his way out of the league in 1967 with the Braves. Bruce was a back-end starter that finished with a 3.85 ERA and 1.32 WHIP over 1,122 1/3 innings. He was 83.
21) Jose Zardon – A rarity in the majors in 1945, Zardon made the major leagues as a Cuban due to his light skin, but played just one major league season in 1945 while other major leaguers were serving in war time, though he certainly produced, hitting .290/.326/.374 over 142 plate appearances. He played another decade in the minor leagues, but he never made the major leagues again.
22) Mark Higgins – The 7th overall selection of the June draft in 1984, Higgins had a decorated career with Chipola College and the University of New Orleans. The big 1B/OF could never translate that hitting into the major leagues, however, hitting well in the lower minors, but struggling at upper levels and the majors, appearing in just 6 games in 1989 in the major leagues.
22) Dallas Green – Known more for his time after his playing career was done, Green passed away at 82 with many recalling his time as a manager and front office tactician. Green, however, did have a major league career, making 185 pitching appearance, throwing 562 1/3 innings, with a 4.26 ERA.
Green made an immediate impact as a manager in the major leagues, taking over the Philadelphia Phillies part-way through the 1979 season and leading the team to a World Series championship in 1980. Being a player on the infamous 1964 Phillies team that struggled and lost the pennant, he stated in interviews that he felt the 1980 championship brought a level of vindication.
Green truly had a nose and interest in scouting, however, and he worked as the assistant farm director for the Phillies before managing. He was pleased after stepping away from managing in 1981 to find a role in the front office with the Chicago Cubs, making trades to acquire pieces that led to the Cubs 1984 division title.
Green will in the end be most well known in Chicago for his pro-active work with the city of Chicago that laid the foundation for lights to go into Wrigley Field. He was not in the GM position any longer when the lights were finally installed, but he had worked for years through acres of red tape to get the ground work done for lights.
25) Jack Faszholz – Signed out of high school, Faszholz was climbing up the Boston farm system when he served his wartime service. Two seasons after returning from WWII, the Cardinals drafted him in the minor league draft, and he won 20 games in the minor leagues in his first season in the organization. He struggled to crack the major leagues in the 1950s with St. Louis, however he spent much of his Cardinals career in AAA, leaving professional baseball after 1956, having just made 4 major league appearances in 1953. He was 89.
26) Todd Frohwirth – Frohwirth passed away at 54 after a battle with stomach cancer. Notable for his sidearm pitching, Frohwirth was a critical part of the 1991-1992 Orioles bullpens, posting a 2.18 ERA over 116 combined games in those two seasons, throwing 202 1/3 innings. He was struggling with injury when the 1994 strike hit, and he never made it all the way back. He’d served as a scout in his post-baseball years.
31) Ruben Amaro – The slick fielder, winner of the 1964 Gold Glove at shortstop, in spite of splitting his time nearly evenly between shorstop and first base, was known well enough for his defense that he stuck in the major leagues for 11 seasons. This was in spite of hitting .234/.309/.292 for his career with a total of 8 home runs and 11 stolen bases over 940 games in his big league career. He was 81.
April deaths
1) Katy Feeney – Feeney was the senior executive in charge of scheduling when she passed at 68 years old. She was a trailblazer for women in the game, the daughter of former National League President Charles S. Feeney. Katy Feeney worked in baseball for nearly 40 years, and she was noted for her willingness to encourage and assist women in getting into the game. At the winter meetings, Major League Baseball honored Feeney by hosting their first Katharine Feeney Leadership Symposium, inviting a contingent of women who are involved in the game and cover the game in media
3) Roy Sievers – Beginning his career as the 1949 Rookie of the Year for the St. Louis Browns, Sievers was one of the most feared sluggers of the 1950s, but he played on poor teams, meaning he was kept from the spotlight his impressive power truly deserved. Sievers did make 5 All-Star teams in his career, so he was recognized in his time, but he failed to get more than 1% of the ballot in Hall of Fame voting.
Sievers’ pair of seasons in 1957-1958 was as impressive as any in that era, as he hit .298/.373/.561 with 81 total home runs and more walks than strikeouts. Over his major league career, Sievers hit 318 home runs, with a .267/.354/.475 line.
6) Bob Cerv – In the 1950s, the Kansas City Athletics were often seen as the “farm team” for the New York Yankees, and Cerv was a good example, as he struggled to crack the starting lineup for six seasons with the Yankees before going to the Athletics, where from 1957 until he was traded back to the Yankees in 1960, he hit 75 home runs and put up a 129 OPS+.
Cerv would still not crack the Yankees starting lineup in 1960 or 1961, but he was a valuable reserve, such that the Yankees traded three players to the Angels for Cerv after he was drafted by the Angels in the expansion draft. Cerv was a .276/.340/.481 hitter for his career with 105 home runs in 829 games. Cerv was 91.
13) Vic Barnhart – The epitome of a wartime ballplayer, Barnhart was the son of a major league player, served his time in the service early in the war, and then when he returned, he found himself among the best options for the Pirates in 1945. His 71 games in the major leagues that season were nearly all of his 74 total in his career, spending 6 more seasons in the minor leagues before his career was finished. He was 94.
18) Vic Albury – Albury was a crafty lefty who spun four seasons with the Minnesota Twins in the mid-1970s as a swing man. He threw 372 2/3 innings over those four seasons with a 4.11 ERA, registering more walks than strikeouts. He was 69 when he passed away.
28) Luis Olmo – The second Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues, Olmo became the first Puerto Rican in MLB history to play in the World Series when he played in the 1949 seres. Olmo was on his way to being a tremendous player for the Dodgers, putting up a .313/.356/.462 season with 27 doubles, 13 triples, 10 home runs, and 15 stolen bases while playing center field.
He was banned as part of a group of Latin players who were banned at that time, missing 5 years in the prime of his career (his age 26-28 seasons completely gone). He returned to be a bench player for the Dodgers in 1949-1951, but was out of the game after ’51.
May deaths
1) Sam Mele – Mele enjoyed a decade-long career as a quality hitter in the major leagues, breaking in with a .302 batting average in 1947 with the Red Sox. He hit .267/.328/.408 over his career, but played mostly first base, which asked more than the 80 home runs he offered in over 1,000 MLB games.
Mele had a very impressive run at the helm of the Minnesota Twins after playing, taking over the manager job at just 39 years old. He would end up winning over 500 games, including winning the 1965 American League title, leading the Twins to the World Series in just their 5th year in Minnesota. He was 95.
14) Steve Palermo – One of the most popular umpires in the game while he was in the game, Palermo is a rarity among umpires who has his number unofficially retired among his fellow umpires, as it has not been worn again since Palermo retired following paralysis following being shot when Palermo intervened in an attempted robbery outside of a Dallas restaurant.
He was an umpire from 1977 to 1991 in the major leagues, umpiring the 1983 World Series and 1986 All-Star Game among his career highlights. Palermo served in the role of reviewing and supervising umpires after his retirement from active umpiring. He was 67.
15) Bob Kuzava – Kuzava spent his career as a swingman around various teams, pitching for 8 teams in 10 seasons. The most distinctive thing about Kuzava’s career, where he posted a 4.05 ERA over 862 innings was that he was truly a midseason hired gun, being moved midseason in half of his ten seasons in the major leagues. He was 93 years old.
19) Steve Waterbury – Waterbury was signed out of high school and the 6’5″ righty pitched his way through the Cardinals minor league system in the 1970s, making his debut in 1976. He would make only 5 major league appearances, and he never go to the major leagues again, ending up out of baseball after the 1978 season. Waterbury was 65.
19) Ed Mierkowicz – Mierkowicz, ironically nicknamed “Mouse”, stood 6’4″ and over 200 pounds, making the major leagues in his second professional season. He never could translate his power from the minor leagues to the major leagues, though, and he played just 35 major league games. He hit 129 minor league home runs over 13 seasons played. He was 93.
19) Dave McDonald – One of the premier college hitters in the nation in his final season at the University of Nebraska, McDonald came to the Yankees with the expectation of developing into a powerful left-handed presence in the lineup. McDonald worked his way to the major leagues slowly, flashing power, but seemingly getting caught up in the shuffle of a deep Yankees farm system at the time. By the time he made his major league debut at 26, he’d already hit 80 minor league home runs.
He struggled to make major league contact, hitting .145 in 33 games across 2 seasons, and he was out of baseball after the 1974 season, having hit 165 minor league home runs. He passed away at 73 years old.
26) Jim Bunning – The first Hall of Fame player to pass away in 2017, Bunning had a pretty remarkable life, all things considered, and an entire article could be dedicated just to his accomplishments.
Though he was the ace of the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies team that collapsed down the stretch, losing the National League pennant, Bunning actually spent over half of his major league career with the Detroit Tigers in the 1950s to the early 1960s.
Bunning made 9 All-Star games, finished 2nd in the 1967 NL Cy Young voting, and finished with 224 career wins. He was selected to the Hall of Fame in 1996 by the Veteran’s Committee.
Bunning served as a Congressman from Kentucky, as both a Representative and a Senator, developing a reputation for being direct and blunt in his approach on Capital Hill. He was 85.
June deaths
2) Herm Starrette – The North Carolina native had some very solid minor league seasons in the Baltimore system, but it was 5 years before he could finally crack his way to the majors in the bullpen, only lasting 3 seasons at the major league level, in spite of a 2.54 ERA over 27 games combined. After one more season of an 8.57 ERA in AAA, he was out of pro ball. He was 80 years old.
3) Jim Piersall – Known as much for “Fear Strikes Out” as for his playing career, Piersall did have an extensive major league career, playing 17 years for 5 different organizations. Most know him from his time with the Red Sox, where he made two All-Star games and won the first of his two Gold Gloves.
Piersall battled bipolar disorder in a time when he really did not receive the treatment that would have allowed him to properly manage his symptoms. He was able to work in broadcasting, even being paired with Harry Caray doing White Sox broadcasts. He was 87.
5) Hector Wagner – Wagner passed away at 48 after complications from stomach cancer. He was originally signed out of the Dominican in 1986. He worked his way up the Royals minor league system, making it to the majors in 1990 and 1991 for a total of 7 starts, but he posted a 7.83 ERA. He struggled with injury after that, missing all of 1992. He did return to independent ball after 6 years away from the game, pitching for Newark in 1999 and 2001.
12) Bob Zick – Originally signed out of college by the Philadelphia A’s, Zick made his major league debut two seasons after being acquired by the Chicago Cubs in the minor league draft, but he posted an 8.27 ERA over 8 appearances. He played one more minor league season and was out of baseball as a player.
27) Anthony Young – Young had one of the most hard-luck stories of this entire year’s group. While still a young man at 51 years old when he did as result of a brain tumor, Young’s on-field life was marked with hard luck as well. Young holds the major league record for losing 27 consecutive decisions from May of 1992 to July of 1993. In a little larger sample (April 1992 to May 1994), Young also lost 27 consecutive starts without recording a win. He pitched to 13 quality starts during the latter streak, including game scores as high as 75, but he never got the breaks at the right time to get a win.
Young finished with a career record of 15-48 in 181 games (51 starts) with the Mets, Cubs, and Astros, but his other numbers look fairly solid with a 3.89 career ERA, 1.39 WHIP, and even 20 saves over 460 innings.
July deaths
2) Bob Perry – Perry was incredibly talented, but seemed to struggle to harness that talent on the field, which is why 8 organizations gave him minor league time over the course of 16 minor league seasons, in which he hit 240 minor league home runs. He played two major league seasons with the Angels in 1963-1964, totaling 131 games, hitting .266/.310/.362 with 6 home runs.
4) Gene Conley – An incredibly unique player in major league history, Conley was a 4-time All-Star in his 11 years with the Braves, Phillies, and Red Sox. He also won the World Series with the 1957 Braves. The 6’8″ Conley had the unique experience of also being a 3-time champion in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, where he was a reserve power forward. He and Otto Graham are the only two athletes to win championships in two of the major sports. He was 86.
6) Dom Zanni – Zanni was originally signed out of high school and endured 7 minor league seasons in the Giants organization before making the major leagues in his 8th professional season at age 26. Zanni pitched for three major league organizations for a total of 7 years, making 111 appearances, all but 3 in relief, with a 3.79 ERA. He was 85.
15) Bob Wolff – Wolff was an incredible influence on broadcasting, spending years covering baseball. He holds the Guinness World Record for longest sports broadcasting career, which he eclipsed in 2014. Wolff had the honor of calling Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series among his incredible broadcasting credits. He was the primary voice for the Washington Senators starting in 1947 and moved with the team when they moved from D.C. to Minnesota. He was 96 years old.
18) John Rheinecker – In a tragic story, former Rangers left-hander Rheinecker took his life at age 38 after suffering from heavy alcohol and heroin use after his baseball career. The lefty made his major league debut in 2006 at age 27 after being a 1st round selection 6 years prior. He holds a unique note on his major league career as he is the only player to be hit by pitch in his only plate appearance as a major leaguer.
29) Lee May – When recalling the Big Red Machine, many list names like Bench, Rose, Morgan, Perez, and Foster, but often many forget May, who was the powerful first baseman on those early Red Machine teams before he headed to Houston and then Baltimore. May peaked at 39 home runs in a season, hitting 354 in his career over 18 seasons with the Reds, Astros, Orioles, and finally the Royals. May returned to the Royals as a hitting coach, earning a World Series ring with the 1985 Royals. He’s had a son and now a grandson play in minor league baseball. May died at age 74 of pneumonia.
August deaths
6) Darren Daulton – While Mitch Williams or Lenny Dykstra may have had claims on the best nickname on the 1993 Phillies club, “Dutch” was the heart and soul of the Phillies, gritting through incredible pain in his knees to play his most games in 1992-1993. He totaled 51 home runs in those two seasons in two of the most healthy seasons of his career, but that extended playoff run really drained his body, and he was never quite the same. He attempted to play the outfield in 1997, but he chose to retire after the season, after winning a World Series title with the Marlins.
Daulton had a troubling post-baseball life, peaked when he had two brain tumors removed in 2013. The cancer returned in 2017, taking his life at 55 years old.
7) Don Baylor – One of the most respected men in the entire game, Baylor had an incredible career in the game that began when he was drafted out of high school by the Baltimore Orioles in 1967. Baylor had an elite career as a player, hitting 338 career home runs, and winning the 1979 AL MVP, when he hit .296/.371/.530 with 36 home runs and 22 stolen bases.
Baylor had a long career after his playing days were over as a coach and manager, winning the Manager of the Year award as the manager with the Colorado Rockies. Baylor was well-regarded for his ability to teach hitting, working as a hitting coach with the Braves, Mariners, Angels, and Diamondbacks. He also served as the bench coach for the Mets and managed the Cubs. Baylor was 68.
9) Danny Walton – A big swinger, Walton could crush a ball when he got ahold of it, but he struggled with high strikeout rates when he didn’t hit the ball. His power was such that he was able to find major league time with six different major league teams over 9 seasons from 1968 to 1980. In that time, he had 880 plate appearances, hitting 28 home runs and striking out 240 times. He was 70.
10) Don Gross – Gross had an ascent to the major leagues interrupted by military service in the early 1950s, and once he resumed his pursuit of his dream, injuries that modern medicine likely could have solved were the bane of his career, leaving a very promising lefty to a career of just 398 major league innings, though with a 3.73 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. He was 86.
12) Paul Casanova – Big in any era for a catcher, Casanova was a giant in the 1960s when he played, a rarity already as a dark-skinned Cuban catcher, but his 6’4″ height certainly stood out. Yet, Casanova was highly regarded for his defense, earning an All-Star appearance in 1967 based almost exclusively on his defense. He played a decade between the Senators and Braves, hitting .225/.252/.319 in his career, but he caught 40% of those attempting to steal against him in his career. Casanova was 75.
September deaths
1) Stan Swanson – Swanson was signed out of high school by the Reds, and displayed power immediately. He struggled to combine power and batting average, however, seemingly seeing his power fall off in seasons where he hit well for average. After 8 years in the Reds organization, including 4 at the AAA level, he was traded to the Montreal Expos near the end of spring training in 1971, and he ended up making his pro debut, getting his only major league time that season, hitting .245/.310/.330 with 2 home runs over 49 games. He was 73.
1) Paul Schaal – Schaal was the definition of a gritty infielder in his time in the major leagues, though he likely would have been more valued in modern baseball, as he was able to walk at a very high rate. Over his 11 major league seasons, he hit .244/.341/.344 with a 516/466 BB/K over 1,128 games with the Royals and the Angels.
5) Tom Wright – A quality pinch hitter with little power, Wright made his biggest splash in his first extended major league exposure, hitting .318 in 1950 with the Red Sox over 54 games, but amassing just 115 plate appearances. Wright hit .255/.335/.355 over his 9 years in the league, totaling just 774 plate appearances with just 6 home runs total in his career. He was 93.
7) Gene Michael – While Michael was a solid major leaguer, playing 10 years and starting at shortstop in the early 1970s for the Yankees as a glove-first shortstop, he is certainly most well known for the work he did off of the field after he retired.
Michael was a master of the hidden ball trick on the field, and many felt his work as General Manager with the Yankees was nothing short of trickery as Michael took the team from its longest period of losing and built what would become the prime championship dynasty in the 1990s and 2000s.
Michael worked as Yankees manager in spurts of 1981 and 1982 as well as the Cubs manager from 1986-1987. His true skill was in his second go-round as the GM for the Yankees, however, as he put together the prime pieces that would win their first title in 1996 after he left the job, staying close to the team but enjoying more of an advisory role.
9) Jim Donohue – Big (6’4″) with a powerful fastball coming out of college, Donohue worked his way up the minors, making the majors in 1961, and pitching for three teams in the majors over his two seasons. Donahue was utilized as a long man, making 70 appearances and throwing 155 1/3 innings with a 4.29 ERA with the Angels, Tigers, and Twins. He was 79.
17) Dave Hilton – Hilton is often referred to when referencing the folly of the early MLB draft, as he was the #1 overall selection in the 1971 draft in the January phase. A year later, he made his major league debut, and he tried the next two seasons to establish himself in the Padres starting lineup. He hit .213/.265/.298 over 551 plate appearances. Hilton did go on to a successful career in Japanese baseball, hitting 38 home runs over 251 games in Japan.
20) Ed Phillips – Phillips worked his way up the Boston system with success until 1970, which happened to be the season he made his one and only season of appearances in the major leagues. Phillips posted a 6.62 ERA in AAA in 1970, actually improving out of the bullpen with the Red Sox, posting a 5.32 ERA over 18 relief appearances. He struggled to a 7.09 ERA in the minor leagues in 1971, and he was out of professional baseball after that season. He passed away at 73 years old.
20) Garry Hill – While Hill has only one big league appearance with the Braves to his major league credit, the former first round selection was able to influence many young people after he left the game through On Deck Baseball/Softball Skill Development Academy, an academy to develop the youth in the game, a passion he passed on to his sons. Hill was 70.
20) Mickey Harrington – The most limited of major league lifetime experience, Harrington’s one appearance in the major leagues was as a pinch runner for the Phillies in 1963. He passed away this year at 82 years old in his native Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
October deaths
2) Solly Hemus – Hemus was a glove-first shortstop that spent most of his 11 years in the major leagues as a backup, in spite of hitting .273/.390/.411, with his peak season in 1953, when he hit .279/.382/.443 with 110 runs scored, 32 doubles, 11 triples, and 14 home runs, with an 86/40 BB/K ratio.
Hemus was a fiery ball player who took his passion on the field as a player into the manager’s chair, but due to issues he reportedly had with the integration of the game, Hemus did not last as a major league manager, serving 2 1/2 years as Cardinals manager, going 190-192. He served as a coach for a number of years after that before leaving baseball to enter the oil business. He was 94.
3) John Herrnstein – Herrnstein spent 5 years as a backup outfielder in the 1960s. He was an elite athlete in high school that eschewed a multi-sport full-ride to Ohio State to attend Michigan due to family legacy (ironically, his son would eventually play football for Ohio State). After being traded three times over the course of the 1966 calendar year, Herrnstein retired and had a successful career in banking and investments. He was 78.
7) Jim Landis – On a personal note, my grandfather once discussed defensive outfielders with me as we watched Andruw Jones patrol the Atlanta outfield. He related that Andruw didn’t have his Landis. I asked what he meant, and he related that the thing that made Willie Mays so great was that there was another player in the game at the time named Landis that was as good defensively, but nowhere near the all-around player, which allowed people to really appreciate Mays.
Landis is highly-regarded as one of the top center fielders to have ever roamed a major league outfield. Oddly, in his 11-year major league career, he made only two All-Star games (both in 1962, when MLB used to hold two All-Star games in a season). This likely had to do with Landis’ offensive skills, as he was a career .247/.344/.375 hitter. He did win 5 Gold Gloves as evidence of his defensive prowess, but his career quickly slumped after age 30 when he lost a step in the outfield, and his bat could no longer hold him up as a major league player. He was 83.
8) Don Lock – Lock immediately made a splash in the outfield, hitting 55 home runs in his first two full seasons after hitting 12 in a half-season when he first came up in 1962. Swing and miss was the downfall for Lock, as he could not provide enough power to compensate for striking out over 100 times per season, especially in the era he played. Lock finished with 122 home runs over 8 major league seasons with three teams. He was 81.
9) Mike McQueen – A quality lefty swingman in an era when the Atlanta Braves really were not an elite team, McQueen was likely rushed to the majors, making his major league debut just one year after being drafted out of high school. He turned 22 in his final Braves season in 1972, having throwing 203 1/3 innings over 63 appearances, 19 of which were starts, tallying a 4.69 ERA. He missed the 1973 season due to injuries suffered in an automobile accident and made his way to the majors with the Reds in 1974, but then missed two more seasons due to injury-related break from the game, and he could not get to the majors again, leaving professional baseball after his age 26 season. He was 67 years old.
9) Roy Hawes – After serving in World War II, Hawes returned to begin what would be a 14-year professional baseball career. He spent all but 3 games of that career in the minor leagues, accumulating just 6 plate appearances with the Senators in 1951. He totaled 167 minor league home runs, and he is still the Chattanooga Lookouts career home run leader with 109. He passed away at 91 years old.
14) Daniel Webb – In a tragic manner, 28 year-old Webb lost his life in an ATV accident. Webb spent the 2017 season rehabbing after Tommy John surgery without a team affiliation, but he was hoping to sign with a club this offseason for a chance to earn a reliever role in 2018. Webb made 94 appearances with the White Sox, with a 4.50 ERA.
17) Ed Barnowski – Barnowski was extremely successful on the mound, getting two quick late-season appearances with the Orioles, with 6 relief appearances bringing a 2.45 ERA. He spent a few more seasons with Rochester at the AAA level, and he found a home there, taking over as the General Manager with Rochester for a number of years before he left baseball to work in sales. He was 74.
21) Chuck Churn – Churn had an 18-year professional baseball career as a right-handed pitcher. He only appeared in three seasons in the major leagues, with three different teams, totaling 25 relief appearances, with a 5.29 ERA, though he did earn a World Series ring with the Dodgers in 1959. However, he threw 1,781 1/3 minor league innings before he became a farm manager. He was 87 years old.
25) Ross Powell – In a horrific family tragedy, Powell, 49, and his 72 year-old father were both killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in his work van for his lawn business as the pair were in transport to a job when the poisoning occurred. Powell pitched for 3 years in the major leagues with 3 different teams, making 48 appearances, 4 of them starts.
29) Al Richter – Richter spent 10 years in professional baseball, but just made major league appearances in 2 of those seasons. A shortstop by trade, Richter hit just .091 in his 14 major league plate appearances. His one major league hit, however, did come at Yankee Stadium. He was 90 years old.
31) Bob Talbot – Talbot spent 14 years in professional baseball, with 2 years in the major leagues, spending much of 1954 with the Cubs, playing 114 games with 428 plate appearances. He would never make it to the major leagues again. Over his minor league career, he hit 99 home runs.
November deaths
4) Gene Verble – Verble had an extended career in the game and kept baseball ever-present in his life until passing away at 89 years old. He played primarily shortstop, and he had two seasons in the major leagues in 1951-1952, totaling 81 games with a .202 batting average, but playing 14 years in the minors with a .260 average. Verble managed in the minor leagues for a number of years before returning to his home area in Kannapolis, North Carolina and opening a convenience store that he owned and operated until his passing.
6) Rick Stelmaszek – Stelmaszek had a couple of seasons as a backup catcher in the major leagues, hitting .170 over 60 games, but his big contribution to the game was as a coach, where he made a huge impression in the organization over a 32-year time as a coach in the Minnesota Twins organization. Stelmaszek’s 32 years with the Twins stands as the third-longest tenure for a coach with a single team in MLB history. Pancreatic cancer took his life at age 69, leading to this tweet from Twins pitcher Glen Perkins:
7) Roy Halladay – Stunning the baseball world, former 2-time Cy Young Award winner Halladay was killed in a plane crash at the age of 40. Halladay was a young pitcher who came up with many of the struggles that young pitchers in baseball have, but when he was sent down to the minors after posting a 10.64 ERA over 67 2/3 innings in 2000, he truly rediscovered and redefined himself as a pitcher.
Halladay would go on to 8 All-Star appearances, 3 20-win seasons, and a reputation as one of the elite pitchers in all the game for a decade from 2002 to 2011. He averaged a 17-8 record, 219 innings, a 2.97 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, and a 37/170 BB/K ratio over that decade, much of it during some of the heaviest offense eras in the game, and all of it spent with home ballparks that favored offense.
Halladay had two brilliant moments, both of which happened in the 2010 season. In May of that season, he pitched a perfect game against the Miami Marlins. In October, he joined the elite group that have thrown a postseason no-hitter, hurling his gem against the Cincinnati Reds.
8) Don Prince – Prince got a scholarship in college to play baseball and basketball and spent 7 years in professional baseball, making the major leagues for one game in 1962 with the Chicago Cubs, throwing a scoreless inning. Prince operated a real estate and insurance company in Wilmington, North Carolina for many years after his baseball career before retiring to Myrtle Beach, where he passed away at 79.
11) Rance Pless – Pless put in 14 years in professional baseball as a player, but he only had one season in the major leagues, in 1956 with the Kansas City Athletics, hitting .271/.354/.329, but never getting another major league chance in spite of hitting .303 with 153 minor league home runs over his 14 seasons.
13) Jim Rivera – A late bloomer, Rivera didn’t play his first professional game until he was 27, and he was signed by the White Sox after 1951 out of an independent minor league team. The White Sox traded him to the St. Louis Browns before the 1952 season, but they wanted him back, trading for him mid-season, and he would remain in the White Sox outfield until his final year in the league. Rivera brought a blend of power and speed to the outfield, hitting 26 doubles, 11 home runs, stealing 22 bases, and leading the league with 16 triples in 1953. In 1955, Rivera led the league in stolen bases, though with just 25. Getting started late brought a quick decline to his career, as age and injury cut him down starting in 1957, and he never had 500 plate appearances in a season again. He totaled 83 home runs and 160 stolen bases in his major league career. He was 96.
13) Bobby Doerr – The second Hall of Fame player to pass away in 2017, Doerr lived to an amazing 99 years old, experiencing an incredible life in baseball. Doerr was in the heart of his prime when he went to military service, but he had an extended run playing at an elite level at second base, setting a standard at the position that has led to a difficult measure for future second basemen to match up with his impressive defense as well as a .288/.362/.461 line.
He spent 14 years with the Red Sox, totaling 223 home runs and 381 doubles. One of the most underrated parts about Doerr’s career was his impressive defense. He never had a negative dWAR in his 14-year career, but he played before Gold Gloves were able to recognize his defensive excellence.
18) Bob Borkowski – Borkowski was an elite athlete, which allowed him to stick around in the game as a backup outfielder and pinch hitter for 6 seasons. He served in the military before getting his shot at baseball, and once he did, he showed to be a quality performer off of the bench, hitting .251 over his career. He was 91 years old.
23) Miguel Gonzalez – Considered a fairly big signing when the Phillies signed him in 2014 as Gonzalez was a star in Cuba on the mound. He had some age and injury questions that negated his initial contract, but he still signed with the Phillies, and made the major leagues in his first season with the team, his only major league time. He spent just one more season with the Phillies organization active, released due to injuries by the Phillies in 2016 to his native Cuba, where he passed at age 34. Oddly, this was the second Miguel Gonzalez that passed on the season with baseball roots, as 21 year-old Orioles minor league pitcher also passed away from a car accident, two months before the former Phillie.
30) Dick Gernert – Injuries really hurt the chances that Gernert had to be a long-time slugging star for Boston. He debuted in 1952 with 19 home runs in 102 games. The big right-handed hitter only was able to eclipse 500 plate appearances once in his 11 years in the big leagues, 8 of them with Boston. He hit 103 home runs, 101 of them as a member of the Red Sox.
He was ahead of his time as a patient hitter, often walking more than he struck out, but in his era, he was chastised for his, and it even cost him playing time in 1953, his one healthy season, as his manager said that he took too many pitches. Gernert finished with a .254/.351/.426 line with a 363/462 BB/K ratio over 835 games.
December deaths
1) Ernie Fazio – One of the elite college players in the nation when he was picked up by the expansion Houston Colt .45s, Fazio only had three big league seasons as an undersized middle infielder. His big memory was hitting his first major league home run in 1963 off of future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn. He was 75.
6) Tracy Stallard – While his major league career is probably most remembered for giving up Roger Maris’ 61st home run in 1961, Stallard was also on the short end of Jim Bunning’s perfect game in 1964. His 7-year major league career was fairly inconspicuous otherwise, with a 4.17 ERA over 764 2/3 innings. He was 80.
11) Manny Jimenez – A Dominican native, Jimenez broke into the majors with the Kansas City Athletics in 1962 with a stellar .301/.354/.428 season with 11 home runs, but that would end up representing the high point of his career as injuries would limit his defensive abilities, and he was never quite the same hitter again. He did finish with a career .272 average over 429 games with the A’s, Cubs, and Pirates. He was 79.
13) Frank Lary – Lary spun a dozen years on a big league mound, a shining example of just how quickly the heavy usage on arms in the late 1950s and early 1960s would chew through a quality arm. Lary from 1955-1961 won 117 games over those 7 seasons, with a 3.34 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and an average of 257 innings per season. However, after that 1961 season, Lary only once ever again even reached 100 innings in a season, and he was done as a major league pitcher by 1965.
Known for his glove work on the mound as well as his ability to endure through a game, Lary made three All-Star teams and won a Gold Glove. He also led the league in starts in two seasons, complete games three seasons, and innings pitched in three seasons. He was 87 years old.
17) Doug Gallagher – Gallagher spent all but one season of his 9-year professional baseball career in the Tigers organization, but he got just one crack at the major leagues, a 9-game stint in 1962, where he posted a 4.68 ERA over 25 innings. He went on to serve in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and returned to coach baseball. Gallagher was 77.
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21) Dick Enberg – Legendary broadcaster Enberg passed away at 82 years old. Enberg is one of the legendary voices in the game, having gotten his start at a professional level broadcasting Angels games, a position he held from 1969-1978.
Enberg was prominent as the lead voice for NBC’s baseball coverage, including their Game of the Week for many years. He served as the play-by-play voice as well as the studio host for the network.
His final foray in baseball was with the San Diego Padres, serving as the team’s play-by-play broadcaster from 2010 to 2016.
Of course, Enberg may be most recognized for his role announcing baseball in movies Mr. 3000 and The Naked Gun.
24) Jerry Kindall – Kindall spent 9 seasons as a light-hitting utility infielder primarily. He had one season of run as a starter in 1962, where he hit .232/.390/.349 with 13 home runs for the Indians as their second baseman, but he would eclipse 100 games played just once more in his career and never again eclipse 400 plate appearances in a season, finishing with a lifetime line of .213/.266/.327.
Kindall went on to be one of the elite college baseball coaches in the nation with the University of Arizona. The field at the school is named in his honor. He was 82.
28) Al Luplow – A good athlete with a solid lefty swing, Luplow made a quick splash in the majors, hitting .277/.359/.475 with 14 home runs in just 97 games in 1962 with the Indians. That would remain his best major league season, however, as he played 7 years in the majors with a lifetime average of .235. Luplow is most well-known for making a catch similar to the one that Austin Jackson made in Boston this season, flipping over the wall into the bullpen in Fenway to steal a home run away from Dick Williams. He was 78.