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Sports Legends Passing Away

alkeiper

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I feel Ford is something of an underrated pitcher at this point. Casey Stengel would alter his usage so he faced contending teams and skipped cellar dwellers. When Ralph Houk took over and put Ford on a regular rotation, Ford went 66-19 over a three year run. 146 World Series innings pitched, 10 wins and a 2.71 ERA to show for it. The all time leader in World Series wins and innings pitched.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Agreed, he tends to get somewhat underrated (if not short-changed?) in the pantheon of Yankees greats. Worth noting he missed 2 years due to military service and still came back to win over 230 games.
 

Spaceman Spiff

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Wagon-Pretzels.jpg


RIP
 

MFer

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All these baseball legends passing away this year...that paired with MLB's fan demographics being way older than other major sports, and it feels like the game is slowly fading away in a sense.
 

HarleyQuinn

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God damn... fantastic player. Okay announcer although the whole anti-sabermetrics aspect tarnished his legacy a little bit for me. I updated the thread title because I suspect we're gonna be getting a lot more players.
 

alkeiper

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Six Hall of Famers have passed in 2020. Kaline, Seaver, Gibson, Ford, Morgan, Brock. Only other year with six was 1972.
 

strummer

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RIP Joe. Terrific player. He seemed to have a biting sense of humor in real life that he didn't show on tv as a broadcaster. I can remember him being pretty funny on Married .With Children when he did a guest spot.

Didn't agree with his anti statistics beliefs but he could be entertaining interacting with Jon Miller.

What an awful year
 

Dandy

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To me, the heart and soul of the Big Red Machine. Lots of fans want to point to Rose as the hometown boy but Morgan was the piece.
 

alkeiper

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The Reds had made the World Series in 1970. Morgan pushed them into a dynasty.

Eight years with the Reds. Morgan had a five year span where he AVERAGED 22 home runs, 62 steals, 118 walks a season. Four gold gloves. Two MVPs. An average WAR of 9.6. He ground into six double plays a year. One of the greatest players all time about avoiding the double play. Morgan hit .271 over his career. Every single way you can measure a player beyond batting average makes Morgan look better.

RIP Joe. Terrific player. He seemed to have a biting sense of humor in real life that he didn't show on tv as a broadcaster. I can remember him being pretty funny on Married .With Children when he did a guest spot.

Didn't agree with his anti statistics beliefs but he could be entertaining interacting with Jon Miller.

What an awful year
 

alkeiper

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Charley Pride. Country music hall of famer, but also a former player and 2x All Star in the negro leagues. Minority owner of the Texas Rangers, very involved in the sport.
 

Baby Shoes

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Charley Pride. Country music hall of famer, but also a former player and 2x All Star in the negro leagues. Minority owner of the Texas Rangers, very involved in the sport.
I had seen this. He passed due to complications from COVID.
 

King Kamala

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Charley Pride is a devastating loss to the world of country music (and I guess baseball too?) but the silver lining in this I hope is that maybe this means that the long rumored biopic of him starring The Rock will finally happen...
 

King Kamala

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RIP to a Celtics Legend. He tied together the Bill Russell era and the Larry Bird era more than anyone (maybe even more than Tommy).

He also, as Bill Simmons pointed out in The Book of Basketball had the weirdest GD coaching resume of all time....

1967–1970
Brandeis
1970–1971
Harvard (assistant)
1971–1972
Los Angeles Lakers (assistant)
1972–1973
San Diego Conquistadors (ABA)
1973–1976
Capital / Washington Bullets
1976–1977
Milwaukee Bucks (assistant)
1978–1983
Boston Celtics (assistant)
1983–1988
Boston Celtics
1989–1990
Seattle SuperSonics (assistant)
1990–1992
Seattle SuperSonics
1994–1995
Detroit Pistons (assistant)
1996–1997
Boston Celtics (assistant)
1997–1998
New England Blizzard (American Basketball League...the super shortlived WNBA rival)
 

Baby Shoes

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I had gotten a VHS tape about the 1986 Celtics championship team as a kid, so I always remember being hyped for KC back then. Also, when coached the Sonics, the basketball card set had a string of coaches cards from when they were players so I loved that card as a kid too.

Definitely two big time Celtics legends passing this year. I wonder if we will hear something nice from Russell in the coming days seeing they knew each other since college.
 

AA484

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Hall of Fame Broncos RB Floyd Little passed away last night of cancer.
 

alkeiper

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Tommy Lasorda passed. He was the oldest living MLB Hall of Famer. (The oldest is now Willie Mays, who turns 90 in May.)

Lasorda spent 71 years in the LA Dodgers organization. He's also a part of Montreal baseball history, playing in nine seasons for their then AAA team. He never won an MLB game as a pitcher but won 138 games in the minors.
 

HarleyQuinn

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Tommy Lasorda passed. He was the oldest living MLB Hall of Famer. (The oldest is now Willie Mays, who turns 90 in May.)

Lasorda spent 71 years in the LA Dodgers organization. He's also a part of Montreal baseball history, playing in nine seasons for their then AAA team. He never won an MLB game as a pitcher but won 138 games in the minors.
Damn :( He was one of the first managers that really left an impression on me as a kid as being a name manager as big as an actual star ballplayer.
 

Baby Shoes

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Damn :( He was one of the first managers that really left an impression on me as a kid as being a name manager as big as an actual star ballplayer.
I echo the statements of @HarleyQuinn . In a personal anecdote, I saw him riding the Teacups with his granddaughter at Disneyland when I was there as a kid.
 

strummer

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Lasorda was obviously a prominent figure in the game when I started watching. Tv crews from all the networks would famously have constant cuts to the dugout to see his reactions after Dodger mistakes, miscues or poor play. I can remember watching the Dodgers blow a huge ninth inning lead to the Phillies around 1990 or so. Pretty sure it was an espn game and Berman was the announcer. Lasorda's reactions had me howling.

RIP
 
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