Goodbye to Baseball Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, who passed away at the age 80 from what the press release labeled "Ongoing health issues".
McCovey had been confined to a wheelchair in recent years and had a few health scares over the last ten years.
McCovey spent all but three of his twenty-two years in the major leagues with the Giants over two San Francisco stints.
The big left-handed swinger known as "Stretch" hit 521 homers over his career and might have easily hit 600, had he not played in such a power sapping stadium in Candlestick Park.
McCovey won the Rookie of the Year for 1959 and was the National League MVP in 1969, but might be best remembered for his vicious line drive smashed right at second baseman Bobby Richardson with runners at second and third in a 1-0 game for the Giants in game seven of the 1962 World Series.
McCovey would later say that ball was the hardest ball that he ever hit, but the ball was hit directly to Richardson, who grabbed it to end the series, which would be the only time that McCovey would play in a World Series. although he would play in the 1971 NLCS with the Giants losing to Pittsburgh.
McCovey entered the Hall in 1986.
My other McCovey memory comes from 1974, when McCovey was traded from the Giants to the Padres.Topps baseball cards being unable to produce a Padres card in time, did one of their less than
wonderful airbrushing jobs on his cap with a crude SD design for his card, but there was more than just that for this card because this was the off-season that the Padres looked to be sold at press time and moved to Washington.
Topps tried to stem the tide a bit by releasing some of the Padres cards with the tag "Washington Nat'l Lea" and McCovey was one of those cards.
The 1974 McCovey "Nat'l Lea" card is a short print and is the one that has the most value due to his HOF status.
As for me in 1974, I spent a lot of time in Kindergarten, trying to figure out just what the hell "Washington Nat'l Lea" meant when by the time the cards were released, McDonald's owner Ray Kroc had bought the Padres, kept them in San Diego and made the Washington move one that wouldn't remembered hardly at all, if not for your friends at Topps.
Goodbye to another Hall of Famer, this time from the Football Hall as former Packers fullback Jim Taylor passed at the age of 83.
Taylor, who was the first of the Lombardi Packers to make the Hall in 1976, rushed for over 1,000 yards in five straight seasons from 1960-64 and won the league MVP in 1962 for the World Champion Packers.
Taylor was the pounding fullback in a backfield with finesse halfback Paul Hornung and was the runner that moved the chain as he averaged well over 200 carries a season for seven years.
Taylor was a member of the Packers first Super Bowl winning team, but not the second, as he used the seldom used "Option Rule" to become a free agent at the end of the 1966 season.
Taylor, who played his college football at LSU, signed with the brand new New Orleans Saints with four one year contracts,but would only play one less than productive season there.
The Packers received the Saints first round pick in 1968 as "compensation" and began the long road of the Saints trading high draft picks for washed up veterans which continued well in the 1980's.
Goodbye to Jack Patera, former NFL linebacker and the first coach of the Seattle Seahawks at the age of 85.
Patera, who played for the Colts, Chicago Cardinals and the expansion Dallas Cowboys in a seven year career, built his coaching resume by coaching two of the most famous defensive lines in NFL history in the Rams "Fearsome Foursome" and the Vikings "Purple People Eaters" before being hired to lead the expansion Seahawks.
Patera coached Seattle for their first six seasons before being fired two games into the 1982 season and had winning seasons in 1978 and 1979, but those teams were known best for the trick plays called by Patera and the scrambling and wild ways of left-handed quarterback Jim Zorn.
Patera never coached again after leaving Seattle.
Patera was also the older brother of 1972 Olympic weightlifter and pro wrestler Ken Patera.
Goodbye to "Doctor Z", Paul Zimmerman at the age of 86.
Zimmerman had struggled with health over the last ten years after a 2008 stroke that left him unable to speak and unable to continue writing for Sports Illustrated.
Zimmerman's writing for SI was way ahead of its time and he spent a few years on ESPN's early NFL Draft coverage.
Zimmerman was profiled by us as a Forgotten Superstar in 2013
I'm planning on a profile on a slow day for another recent passing- Wrestling's "Mr. Unpredictable" Dick Slater, who passed at 67 last month.
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