Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

    We continue with our attempt to catch up with various tributes to a few who have recently passed away.

Goodbye to Alex Cole at the age of 57.

Known for his speed, the lefthanded-hitting Cole took Cleveland by storm in his Indians debut in 1990 when Cole stole forty bases in only sixty-three games to finish fourth in the American League in stolen bases.

Cole's basepath performance swayed the Wahoo brass so much that the team decided to move the fences back for the 1991 season- to disastrous results as the Indians would hit only twenty-two homers at home for the entire season.

Cole would steal twenty-seven bases in 122 games and was displaced in centerfield by Kenny Lofton before being traded to Pittsburgh midway through the 1992 season.

Cole would play for three other teams before his final MLB game in 1996.

Goodbye to Mike Ivie at the age of 70.

The top overall pick in the 1970 draft by San Diego, Ivie was drafted as a catcher and made his debut in 1971 as a catcher but developed the 'yips' in throwing the ball back to the pitcher.

Forced to the minors to learn first base, Ivie wouldn't return to the bigs until 1974 and wouldn't bust through as a starter until he was traded to the Giants before the 1978 season.

Ivie hit two pinch-hit grand slam homers in 1978, setting an MLB record that still has not been matched to this day.

Ivie hit .308 in 1978 and smashed twenty-seven homers in 1979 but in the off-season, Ivie badly cut his finger with a hunting knife and struggled for the first few months of 1980 before leaving the Giants due to mental issues.

Counseling allowed Ivie to return later in the season but other than hitting fourteen homers as a part-time player for the 1982 Tigers, he was never the same hitter and left the game for good after 1983.

Goodbye to Juan "Kid" Meza at the age of 67.

Meza was a perennial contender in the junior featherweight division, failing in a title try against Wilfredo Gomez in six rounds in 1982 for the WBC title held by Gomez.

Power-punching Jaime Garza won the same title that Gomez vacated when he moved to featherweight and Garza was thought to be too powerful for Meza, which looked to be true when Garza dropped Meza in round one.

However, Meza countered a Garza hook with one of his own to knock out Garza to win the title and become the first fighter to be knocked down in the first round and win a title in the very same round.

Meza defended the title once stopping Mike Ayala in six rounds as an underdog before losing a decision to Lupe Pintor in an action fight.

Meza would attempt to win the title from Pintor's conqueror Samart Payakarron but was stopped in round twelve in 1986.

Goodbye to Andrea Evans at the age of 66.

A long-time star of ABC's soap opera "One Life to Live" in the 1980s, Evans left acting for almost the entire decade of the 1990s at the peak of her soap stardom to avoid a stalker who was intent on killing her, including an attack in the studios of the show that only the arrival of her co-stars saved Evans from her attacker.

Evans's portrayal of "Tina Lord" was her most famous role but she also appeared in three other soap operas in between runs on One Life to Live, which she returned to in 2008.

Goodbye to Tony Roberts at the age of 96.

Roberts is most remembered for his twenty-six years (1980-2006) as the play-by-play broadcaster for Notre Dame football on the national radio broadcast on the Mutual and later Westwood One radio network.

Roberts's famous scoring call of "Touchdown Irish" was a catchphrase for football fans of the age as the Irish were the only college team with a national radio network for much of Roberts's time in South Bend.

Roberts also called Indiana football and basketball, Washington Senators baseball, and Washington Bullets basketball in his career but as the voice of Mutual sports, it was the voice of Tony Roberts who often updated sports fans on news and scores in the early morning that happened from the West Coast while the East Coast fans slept.

Goodbye to Bob Barker at the age of 99.

The long-time host of "The Price is Right", the longest-running television game show in history, from 1972-2007, also hosted "Truth or Consequences" from 1956-1975 for an extra nineteen years.

So when you remove the four years that both shows ran concurrently, Bob Barker hosted network game shows for fifty-one years.

Barker also hosted the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants from 1967-87, which still is the longest hosting run for both of those pageants.

Known for his advocacy of animal rights, Barker was famous for his wrap-up line as each episode of The Price is Right concluded, gently reminding his viewers to have their pets spayed and neutered.

Barker is also remembered for his famous cameo in the 1996 film "Happy Gilmore" in which Barker is paired with the title character played by Adam Sandler in a golf pro-am tournament, gets into a memorable fistfight with his partner that eventually ends with the senior citizen Barker scoring a spectacular knockout and then strutting away as he shadowboxed.