Thursday, December 13, 2018

Cleaning out the inbox: Passings

There have been several passings of late and the inbox sadly is filled, I'm going to stick to a few sports passings for this one.

Goodbye to former Browns and Giants running back Ron Johnson at the age of 71.
Johnson was the Browns first round pick in 1969 and was traded to the Giants before the 1970 season as part of a trade that saw the Giants send their best pass catcher in Homer Jones to Cleveland and after a strong game in the premiere of Monday Night Football, be essentially worthless for the rest of the season and then through for good at the end of the year.
Back to Johnson, who was pretty much the only reason to watch the Giants, who were generally the worst team in the NFC East for the entire decade, in the early to mid-'70s.
Johnson rushed for over 1,000 yards twice and was the first in Giants history to achieve that milestone, which I was surprised to find out when looking at Johnson's numbers.
The picture of Johnson is a very sharp one as Johnson in the classy unis of the day rushed against the white-helmeted Philadelphia Eagles at the original Yankee Stadium.
Johnson's highlights start at 26;20 in the video below.


Goodbye to Tim Rossovich at the age of 72 (Courtesy of Lefty Koch).
Rossovich was the first round selection of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1968 out of USC as a linebacker/defensive end and became better known for his off-field zaniness and later as an actor.
Rossovich was part of an NFL Films special in 1971 named the "New Breed" that looked at players that were part of the counter-culture of the day and part of Rossovich's behavior which included such things as eating glass.
Rossovich became an actor and to me, the role I remember him most was as a rodeo cowboy in his underwear trying to lasso Shelley Long's prostitute in the Henry Winkler/Michael Keaton comedy "Night Shift".


Another football goodbye as former All-Pro linebacker Isiah Robertson passed at 69 when Robertson's limousine that he was driving skidded in the rain and smashed into two other cars.
Robertson spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Rams, where he was the Rams first round pick in 1971 before finishing in Buffalo.
Robertson was part of those Rams teams that always seemed to be the most talented team, but for various reasons could never get past either the Dallas Cowboys or usually the Minnesota Vikings.
Robertson might be remembered most by many for something that he didn't do-tackle Earl Campbell. who famously took Robertson's best shot and kept on trucking in a Rams-Oilers game at the Astrodome.


Onto baseball, where again it's Lefty Koch sending word on the passing of Al Gallagher at the age of 73.
A journeyman third baseman, Gallagher's best time in his playing career occurred when he was the starter at third base for the 1971 N.L. West champion San Francisco Giants before returning to his role of utility infielder the following year.
"Dirty Al" became a minor league manager for years, including against the Hagerstown Suns with the Durham Bulls in the Carolina League before being "blackballed" for emphasizing winning over development.
Gallagher would spend the rest of his years in baseball managing in various independent leagues.

Finally, a really sad note as former MLB infielders Luis Valbuena and Jose Castillo were killed in Venezuela when the car they were in crashed.
The crash was caused by gangs that place items in the road that cause cars to either leave the road or stop.
Former Indians farmhand Carlos Rivero was also in the car but survived the crash.
Valbuena was a glove-first backup infielder for five teams, including the Indians from 2009-2011.
Castillo was once thought of as possibly becoming a top second baseman when he arrived in Pittsburgh in 2004, but never seemed to live up to those hopes in four years as the Pirates starter, although he did hit 14 homers in 2006, before leaving Pittsburgh entering the 2008 season.
Castillo would spend time with the Giants and Astros in that season and would never play in the big leagues again, his MLB career finished at 27.

Still more passings and more items in the inbox to work on soon, so stay on the lookout for those.









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