Goodbye to Earnie Shavers at the age of 78.
Dubbed "The Acorn" by Muhammad Ali, Shavers challenged for the heavyweight title twice on prime-time national television against Ali in 1977 and opposite Larry Holmes in 1979 as one of the many contenders in the best and deepest heavyweight era in the division's history.
Shavers is always mentioned as one of the hardest punchers in boxing history with a one-round demolition of Ken Norton on ABC that was intended as a tuneup fight for Norton before a rematch of his memorable fight with Larry Holmes, which instead earned Shavers a rematch of his own against Holmes, who defeated Shavers via decision in 1978 to earn Holmes his title chance against then-WBC champion Norton.
Shavers badly hurt Muhammad Ali in the second round of his first title challenge but Ali mugged and clowned his way out of danger and Shavers later would say that he never knew how badly Ali was dazed.
Holmes handily outboxed Shavers in their first fight but in the rematch, Shavers dropped Holmes with a thunderous right hand in round seven when you watch the fight today, one realizes the greatness of Holmes for being able to not only get up but survive and win by stoppage in the eleventh round.
Shavers would lose two of his next three fights (to Bernardo Mercado and Randall "Tex" Cobb" and would slip into gatekeeper and journeyman status that would occasionally knock someone out to remain viable as in a fifth-round knockout of rising prospect Jeff Sims and a second round KO of fellow veteran Joe Bugner.
Shavers defeated three world champions in his career- Ken Norton, Jimmy Ellis, and former WBA light heavyweight champion Vincente Rondon and two former world title challengers-Jimmy Young and Joe Bugner.
Goodbye to Mark Littell at the age of 69.
The closer for the Kansas City Royals and St.Louis Cardinals at the latter end of the 1970s, Littell saved 54 games for the two Missouri teams from 1976-79.
Littell is remembered by most as giving up the series-deciding walk-off homer to Chris Chambliss in game five of the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series rather than the Royals.
Littell had saved sixteen games for Kansas City in 1976 and had allowed only one homer in that entire season before the Chambliss home run.
Goodbye to John Stearns at the age of 71.
Stearns, who played one game for the Phillies in 1974, was selected by the Phillies in the first round of the 1973 MLB draft, second overall, and was the seventeenth rounder in the NFL draft by Buffalo as a safety from Colorado.
Stearns still holds the Colorado programs record for interceptions in a career with sixteen but signed a far more lucrative contract with the Phillies.
With Bob Boone established as the Phillies' backstop, Stearns was traded to the Mets in 1975 in a trade that landed Tug McGraw for Philadelphia and while Stearns would never be a star he would make four All-Star teams from a Mets franchise that often needed a representative on the team.
Stearns would later serve on a few major league coaching staffs and as a minor league manager including two seasons with the AA Harrisburg Senators.
Goodbye to Scott Campbell at the age of 65.
A defenseman, Campbell was drafted at the peak of the NHL-WHA hockey war and was selected in the top ten of both league drafts with the Houston Aeros of the WHA selecting Campbell first overall and signing him over the St.Louis Blues.
The Aeros folded before the final season of the WHA with Campbell being assigned to the Winnipeg Jets, who won the final Avco Cup as WHA champions.
When the NHL added Winnipeg, Edmonton Hartford, and Quebec to the league in the merger, the terms were oppressive with each franchise only allowed to keep two skaters and two goalies with the remaining players moving to the NHL clubs in another draft.
Campbell was so highly thought of that he was one of the Jets two protected skaters but following his first NHL season, a chronic asthma condition allowed him to play only fourteen games in 1980-81 and he requested a trade to a warmer climate due to the situation.
Winnipeg kindly accommodated Campbell in trading him to St.Louis (short of the Los Angeles Kings, St.Louis was the most southern team in the NHL at the time) but Campbell would only play three games for the Blues before being forced to retire at only 25.
And a very late addition as Ryan sends word of the passing of Maury Wills.
Goodbye to Maury Wills at the age of 89.
The 1962 National League MVP, Wills was the first player to steal more than 100 bases in a season and led the NL in stolen bases every season from 1960 through 1965.
Wills made the All-Star team in five seasons, won two Gold Gloves, won three World Series with the Dodgers, and finished his career with over 2,100 hits and a career batting average of .281.
After retiring after half a season in 1972, Wills became a somewhat controversial figure in baseball with drug and use alcohol use, a autobiography that Wills claimed to have had an affair with actress Doris Day among other statements that caused a long falling out with his son, former Texas Ranger second baseman Bump Wills, and arguably the wackiest managerial reign ever with the Seattle Mariners over eighty-two games in the 1980 and 81 seasons.
During Wills's reign, Wills had the groundskeepers draw the batter's boxes shorter than regulation, left a spring training game in the sixth inning to fly home, called for relief pitchers to enter the game with no one warming up in the bullpen, and turning in an official lineup card that listed Leon Roberts as the starting centerfielder, who Seattle had traded a month earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment