Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

      I'm going to finish the passing post that I planned on writing before I was carried away by writing by Bill Fitch.

Goodbye to Charley Taylor at the age of 80.

The 1964 Rookie of the Year after Washington selected him with the third overall pick in the 1964 draft as a running back but after two Pro Bowl seasons, Taylor would be shifted to wide receiver in 1966 by then-Washington coach Otto Graham.

Taylor became a standout once he was moved outside and would make eight Pro Bowls along with six All-Pro appearances before he would retire as the league's all-time reception leader (649) after the 1977 season, a record which he would hold until he was passed in 1984 by another Charlie- Joiner.

Taylor caught two touchdown passes in Washington's 26-3 victory over Dallas in the 1972 NFC Championship which was likely the franchise's biggest win until their Super Bowl win in 1982.

As a Washington fan as a kid in the George Allen years, Charley Taylor was my favorite player on the team and what I loved most was his touchdown celebration.

It was celebratory yet understated and almost every kid in pickup football games would imitate the Taylor version in which he would hold the ball in one hand and take both arms and reach for the sky before handing the ball to the referee.

Celebrating it in a classy manner never goes out of style.

Goodbye to Gene Clines at the age of 75.

Clines played for four teams in his ten-year career but spent most of his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a part of their four divisional titles in five years (1970-74) run and was on the 1971 World Champion Pirate team during that term.

Clines was best known for his speed and defense (Clines hit only five homers in his career) and hit .334 with six triples for the 1972 Pirates, which many Pirates fans and media still believe was a better team than the previous season's World Champions.

Clines would serve as a hitting coach for five different teams before working as a minor league instructor for the Dodgers and Giants.

Goodbye to Alphabet Soup at the age of 31.

Alphabet Soup won the 1996 Breeders Cup Classic at the age of five for his only Grade I win but did win three Grade II's and a Grade III over the course of his twenty-four race career.

Alphabet Soup's 1996 Classic win at Woodbine, Canada was one of the most dramatic victories in the history of the race as Alphabet Soup outdueled all-time great Cigar and Preakness winner Louis Quatorze at the wire, paying forty-one dollars to win on a two-dollar wager.

Goodbye to Buck's Boy at the age of 29.

The 1998 American Male Turf champion, Buck's Boy stunned the heavy favorite in Europe's Royal Anthem in the Breeders Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park in Florida when he won the mile and a half race from the lead, wire to wire.

Known for his front running speed, Buck's Boy won graded stakes in four different years before the gelding was retired after the 2000 racing season as a seven-year-old.

Goodbye to Julio Cruz at the age of 67.

The speedy light-hitting second baseman spent most of his career with the Seattle Mariners but his 1983 trade to the Chicago White Sox helped spark the White Sox to the 1983 American League West Division title.

Cruz was an original Mariner as he was selected in the 1977 expansion draft by Seattle from the California Angels and played for the Mariners for the second half of their first season.

Cruz was only a . 237 hitter for his career but his 290 steals with the Mariners was the franchise standard until Ichiro Suzuki took away Cruz's team record in 2008.

Cruz was a Spanish language commentator on Mariner games since the 2003 season.