Journeyman outfielder Walt "No Neck" Williams has passed at the age of 72 after a heart attack in Texas.
Williams,known best for the nickname "No Neck" which is pretty obvious when you look at his baseball card,played for four teams in his big league career.
Williams was always a fan favorite for his hustle and was noted for being a very fan friendly player.
Williams never hit double figures in homers in any season,but did hit over .300 with 22 doubles for the White Sox in 1969,
Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explains how Williams acquired his neck issue and speaks of knowing Williams personally as a teenager before becoming a writer as a fan of the Indians of the early 1970's...
Jim Davenport,an original member of the San Francisco Giants and one of few surviving members of the New York baseball Giants passed away at the age of 82.
Davenport,who spent his entire career as a Giant,was usually the teams starting third baseman and peaked in hitting .297 with a career high 14 homers for the 1962 National League champions in a 13 year career with the Giants.
Davenport also managed the Giants for one season in 1985 going a dismal 56-88 before moving up to become a scout,advisor and minor league instructor for most of the next thirty years....
Tony Phillips passed away from a heart attack at just 56 in Scottsdale,Arizona.
Phillips known best as the super utility player for the Oakland A's last 1980's dynasty,spent time with six teams in a eighteen year career and was a constant favorite for his well-known hustle and intensity.
Despite being best known for his term in Oakland,when you look at the numbers of Phillips career,his best season came at age 36 with the Angels as he hit 27 homers in 1995 at the age of 36.
This number does look odd considering the time,Phillips advanced age and the fact that he had hit 19 homers just one time in his career before that point.
Phillips was a versatile and winning player-the type of player that good teams always seem to have and rarely stand out on the stat sheet...
I asked my friend and favorite baseball writer Christina Kahrl for some thoughts on Phillips.
Christina is a long time Athletics fan and was a big fan of Phillips.
"Lots of folks note that Tony Phillips was (Ben) Zobrist before Zobrist,but that barely touches the subject of what he brought to the mix.
Phillips was one of the most viscerally aggressive guys on the diamond,but more importantly-he was a guy that visibly enjoyed playing".
"It might have been that hard-charging style that kept him from staying healthy as a regular in the middle infield,but that helped make him the super utility player that he was meant to be"
Thanks to Christina and check her work out on ESPN...
Alan Sepinwall writes on Hitfix about the late comedy Parks and Recreation after it has now been off the air for a year.
Parks,along with the Office,ranks as my favorite comedies of the last 20 years.
It currently can be found in repeats on WGN,I highly recommend it....
Our favorite LPGA player Jessica Korda talks with Golf.com about her struggles during 2015,the Olympics and about her presence on social media among other topics.
The 23 year old Korda currently ranks 22nd in the Rolex sponsored world rankings...
That ALMOST empties the inbox-but the one remaining item will have to wait until our next post and I might even make it a podcast.
I hope you'll like it.
Until then....
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