Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

Time to catch up with a few passings of late before the list gets too large.
The passings list often grows quickly, so I've tried to do a better job recently of keeping the grass mowed so to speak.

Goodbye to Kaye Ballard at the age of 93.
Ballard was a comedienne and actress that was most famous for her co-starring role with Eve Arden on the late 60s NBC show "The Mothers In Law".
For a show that only lasted two seasons, "Mothers in Law" had a far long run in syndication than one would believe, but back then television seasons were longer and even average shows had a chance at syndication.
Ballard was typecast after "Mothers in Law" and often played the same type of talkative, mouthy character for the rest of her career.
Ballard often was used in the theatre, voice-over work and often on game shows and anthology programs such as "Love Boat" and "Love American Style" for the next forty plus years after the end of "Mothers In Law".


Goodbye to Mel Stottlemyre at the age of 77 per "Lefty" Koch.
Stottlemyre won 164 games for the Yankees from 1964-74 with a career ERA under three.
Stottlemyre had the bad luck to be the acc for the Yankees just as the Yankee dynasty was out of gas and moving to mediocre status.
Still, Stottlemyre won 20 games three times and lost 20 games once during that time period with 152 complete games and 40 shutouts and one could only imagine his numbers, had the Yankees maintained their elite status.
If that had happened, Stottlemyre might have put up the statistics for Hall of Fame consideration.
Stottlemyre was known to the next generation of fans as a pitching coach for four teams, including both New York teams, winning four world championships between the Yankees and Mets.
Two of Stottlemyre's sons Mel Jr. and Todd pitched in the bigs, with Todd winning 138 in a 13-year career spent mainly with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Goodbye to Turk Schonert at the age of 62.
Schonert was a long-time backup for the Bengals to first Ken Anderson and then Boomer Esiason in a ten-year career.
Schonert was thought of many as a backup that never received a chance to start simply because Anderson was better and when the Bengals drafted Esiason in 1984, Schonert looked to be a starter without a team.
It appeared Schonert would be finally given a chance when the Bengals traded him to Atlanta before the 1986 draft for a third round pick, but Schonert was surprisingly beaten out for the job by returning veteran David Archer.
Schonert would play eight games in Atlanta, starting five, but threw eight interceptions against only four touchdowns.
After the season, the Bengals reacquired Schonert, where he would spend the final three years of his career backing Esiason up and winning his only start in that term in his final season of 1989.
Schonert coached quarterbacks for several teams and had spent the last five seasons in the CFL as an assistant with the Montreal Alouettes.
Schonert is the answer to one trivia question- Who was the only player in college or pro that John Elway backed up- Schonert, who as a senior in 1979 at Stanford started ahead of freshman Elway.