Cleaning out the inbox- Passings

We return to pay our respects to people (and others) that have recently passed on and give tribute to their achievements.

Goodbye to Tony Fernandez at the age of 57.
Fernandez won four Gold Gloves and made five All-Stars in a career spent mostly with Toronto before bouncing around the league in the later stages of his career, but in Cleveland will always be remembered for his one season with the 1997 Indians where the then-35-year-old Fernandez would hit the highest of peak and the bottomless pit of the low in the Indians postseason.
Fernandez sent the underdog Indians to the World Series when his home run in the top of the eleventh broke a tie in Baltimore in game six of the 1997 ALCS.
The 1997 Indians gave the Orioles some payback for the previous season when the heavily favored Tribe lost in the ALDS to the Orioles, so the upset gave each team a win in the back to back postseason series with the better team losing both times.
Fernandez would hit the depths in the World Series against the then-Florida Marlins when his error in the bottom of the eleventh in game seven contributed to the Marlins winning the game along with the series.


Goodbye to Jimmy Thunder at the age of 54.
The Samoan from New Zealand, Thunder never challenged for the heavyweight title but is well remembered for his many appearances in the U.S. in the mid to late 90s, often on the USA Network's Tuesday Night Fights.
Thunder defeated two former champions in Trevor Berbick and Tony Tubbs and lost to three others-Tim Witherspoon, Chris Byrd, and John Ruiz, but will be best remembered for his Tuesday Night Fights first-round knockout of Crawford Grimsley in which Thunder knocked Grimsley cold with the first punch that he threw.
The entire fight from bell to finish was thirteen seconds and that included the count!
I always thought Thunder resembled "Piston Honda" one of the various competitors in the video game "Mike Tyson's Punch Out".


Goodbye to A.P. Indy at the age of 31 with Joe Plum sending me the word.
The winner of the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders Cup Classic in 1992 as a three-year-old, A.P. Indy was named Horse of the Year and was retired to stud at the end of his three-year-old season.
The son of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy's time in the 1992 Belmont tied Easy Goer for the second-fastest Belmont ever behind only Secretariat as he ran down My Memoirs and Pine Bluff in the long stretch at Belmont Park to earn the victory.
Arguably the most successful stallion in America during his time, A.P. Indy sired 88 Graded Stakes Winners and 12 champions including 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft, 2006 Preakness winner Bernadini and 2007 Belmont winner Rags to Riches.
For more on A.P. Indy along with some beautiful pictures of the champion late in his life, the Blood-Horse wrote this wonderful article last year.


Goodbye to Nesby Glasgow at the age of 62.
Glasgow played for the Washington Huskies Rose Bowl champions in 1977 and intercepted a pass in the waning seconds of the 1978 Rose Bowl that clinched Washington's 27-20 win over Michigan.
Glasgow was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1979 and would play for the Colts in Baltimore and Indianapolis through 1987.
Glasgow was waived by the Colts and was claimed by the Seahawks, where Glasgow would play the final five seasons of his career until his retirement following the 1992 season.

Goodbye to Johnny Antonelli at the age of 89.
Antonelli was the final "Bonus Baby" signed by the Boston Braves to have major league success, but he found his most successful seasons at the Polo Grounds with the lamented (by me anyway) New York Giants.
Antonelli spent time in Boston, but rarely pitched in Beantown and joined the Braves in Milwaukee after a two-year stint in the military, finishing with a 12-12 record but with an ERA of 3.12 that finished fifth in the National League.
This caught the eye of Leo Durocher and the Giants, who were returning Willie Mays to their lineup after his military term, and traded Bobby Thomson as in "Shot heard round the world' fame to Milwaukee as part of a six-player trade to land Antonelli.
Antonelli paid immediate dividends as he won twenty-one games, made his first All-Star team, led the National League in ERA and shutouts and was the top starter for the eventual World Champions.
Antonelli would make the All-Star team every season from 1956-59, which bridged the move to San Francisco from New York and in his final year with the Giants Antonelli would transition to "fireman" which is what teams called their closer in those days and finished with eleven saves.
Antonelli's arm was going bad though and was traded to Cleveland after the 1960 season with Willie Kirkland for Harvey Kuenn, who had been acquired the previous year for Rocky Colavito.
Antonelli was so bad in Cleveland that he was traded to the Braves after only eleven games and after nine more bad appearances in Milwaukee, Antonelli decided to retire.