Sun 27 Dec 2020
RIP: Baseball Hall of Famers, 2020.
Posted by Steve under Baseball , Obituaries / Deaths Noted[6] Comments
HEADLINE: More baseball players in the Hall of Fame have died in 2020 than in any other year:
Lou Brock, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro, and Tom Seaver.
These men constitute a large portion of my generation’s baseball heroes.
December 28th, 2020 at 7:02 am
So true. Whitey was a favorite from my childhood, and among opposition players, I always liked Al Kaline. Tom Seaver was one of the best.
RIP
December 28th, 2020 at 9:33 am
Growing up in Michigan as I did at the same time he was playing, Al Kaline was my favorite all time players, one of a very few stars who spent his entire career with one team, the Detroit Tigers. He was also one a few “bonus babies” who made good, being signed straight out of high school and never playing a game in the minor leagues.
After Sandy Koufax, and maybe Tom Seaver, but only those two, I think Whitey Ford was the best pitcher ever. I envy you for being able to follow him in action all of the time. What I didn’t know until I read his obituary when he died is that he set a record in 1961 by pitching 243 consecutive innings without allowing a stolen base.
December 28th, 2020 at 11:03 am
Ford, like Kaline, spent his entire career with one team. Too bad the short sighted Mets traded Seaver at the height of his popularity, but then, they had a history of making terrible trades, going back to trading Nolan Ryan (before any of his SEVEN no-hitters) for a washed up Jim Fregosi, one of the worst trades in Major League history. The Seaver trade was different, being punishment for salary demands and outspokenness.
December 28th, 2020 at 11:20 am
Yes, you’re right. Seaver should have been a Met forever. What a stupid trade that was.
And yet another involved Lou Brock, another HoFer who died this year. The Cubs traded him after two years there to St. Louis for Ernie Broglio, a pitcher who won only seven games for them before retiring.
December 28th, 2020 at 11:27 am
Bob Gibson is another player (of another era) who spent his entire career with only one team, the St Louis Cardinals.
December 28th, 2020 at 1:27 pm
Bob Gibson had one of the greatest seasons of any pitcher. One year he had an ERA of only 1.12 and had a record of 22-9. The big question is how did he manage to lose 9 games with the lowest era in the last 100 years?!
Another great year was when Steve Carlton won 27 games for the last place Phillies, which means he almost won half their 59 games.