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Sports Legends Passing Away

Luis Tiant, 83. Best known for his run with the Red Sox in the '70s though he had a good run with the Cleveland Indians in the '60s as well. A sentimental star of the '75 Red Sox, he went 3-0 in the postseason that year. One notable stat, Tiant was 52-25 over his career in September/October.
 
alkeiper said:
Luis Tiant, 83. Best known for his run with the Red Sox in the '70s though he had a good run with the Cleveland Indians in the '60s as well. A sentimental star of the '75 Red Sox, he went 3-0 in the postseason that year. One notable stat, Tiant was 52-25 over his career in September/October.
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A legend of the Red Sox off the field too later in his career. One of my favorite "crazy" Tiant stats is he went from 21-9 with a 1.60 ERA and 5th in MVP in 1968 to 9-20 with a 3.71 ERA in 1969.
 
I read up on him after I pulled a 1/1 auto of his a couple of years ago. Terrible name in the auto correct age though.

RIP
 
Fernando Valenzuela. 63.

Too young. "Fernando-Mania" started in 1981. The last time the Yankees and Dodgers played in the World Series. Valenzuela was just 20 years old.

RIP
 
I feel sometimes you can't really read a pitcher from season statistics. Valenzuela in any sense of the word was a genuine sensation in his rookie season. Almost certainly the greatest baseball star ever to come out of Mexico.
 
Former St John's basketball coach Lou Carnecsecca died at 99, just over a month before he would've turned 100. More than 500 wins, a couple Big East titles, a Final Four appearance, and was part of that larger than life collection of coaches in the 1980s Big East.
 
Israel Vazquez, who had a memorable 4 fight series with Rafael Marquez, died of cancer.
 
Rocky Colavito. Extremely popular slugger of the ‘50s and ‘60s. As good a player you could be without being a serious HOF candidate.
 
Tommy Brasher passed away at 84: Brasher was Ron Meyer’s defensive line coach at SMU from 1977-81. In the NFL, Brasher had full-time coaching jobs with the Patriots (1982-84), Philadelphia Eagles (1985; 1999-2005; 2012), Atlanta Falcons (1986-89), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1990), Seattle Seahawks (1992-98), and Kansas City Chiefs (2013-15). At the age of 75, he was the NFL's oldest assistant coach in 2015.
 
Eddie Fisher passed away at 88. Notable for his early 60s run with the White Sox and early 70s run with the Angels. Appeared in 82 games in 1965 (a record at the time) and was instrumental in helping Baltimore to the 1966 World Series (128 ERA+ over 71 IP with 14 Saves).
 
Couple late additions from a couple weeks ago:

Boxer Mike "The Bodysnatcher" McCallum died at 68. He was from Jamaica and was a WBA champion in three weight classes with a 49-5-1 record (36 knockouts).

Also, Minnesota Vikings iron man DE Jim Marshall died at 87. He played 282 games (270 consecutive starts) and was retroactively determined to have 130.5 sacks during his career. He was also infamously at the center of the wrong way fumble recovery.
 
“The Cobra” Dave Parker died at 74. He was set to be inducted in Cooperstown later this summer.

Hell of a player and a bigger personality that personally I’ve gotten to be around a handful of times.

Tough beat to see he won’t get to be there for his enshrinement.
 
Induction was a month from yesterday. Saw a clip of him at a Pirates game and his Parkinson’s was so bad I wonder if he could’ve delivered a speech. Tremendous loss.
 
Diego Segui, 87, pitched for both Pilots and Mariners. Pedestrian MLB record but had a long professional career that saw him win at least 388 professional games.IMG_3144.png
 
Bobby Jenks passed away at just 44 due to stomach cancer :( Was part of the White Sox World Series team in 2005.
 
HarleyQuinn said:
Bobby Jenks passed away at just 44 due to stomach cancer :( Was part of the White Sox World Series team in 2005.
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ESPN got flamed for a tweet stating Jenks was "on the roster." Jenks was on the mound when the Sox won! Jenks was a pitcher who rose and fell relatively quickly, but he was an incredibly important factor for that championship team.
 
Awful. I wonder if tobacco use was a factor. Saw a few people online wondering the same thing. RIP.
 
Joe Coleman passed away. An All Star pitcher for the Tigers in the '70s. From 1971-74 Coleman averaged 285 innings a season. He pitched 288 1/3 innings in 1973. That was good enough for 10th in the American League. To show what an atypical time that era was, 20 years earlier that total would have led the American League.
 
Boxing great Dwight Muhammad Qawi died after a long, full, redemptive and impactful life.
 
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