Cleaning out the Inbox- Passings

      Once again, it's a sad time but our chance to pay tribute to those who recently left us.

Goodbye to Bill Bergey at the age of 79. 

A second-round pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1969 from Arkansas State, Bergey was named first or second All-Pro from 1974-78 and made five appearances in the Pro Bowl.

Bergey was traded from the Bengals to the Eagles in 1974 for two first-round picks (1977 and 78) and a second-rounder in 1978 after signing a futures contract with the WFL's Florida Blazers, making head coach and owner Paul Brown angry enough to trade away his star linebacker.

One of many great linebackers of the 1970s that have fallen through the cracks in making the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Bergey finished his career with the Eagles Super Bowl loss to the Oakland Raiders in the 1980 season with twenty-seven interceptions and twenty-one fumble recoveries.

Goodbye to Greg Gumbel at the age of 78.

After joining CBS in 1988 from ESPN, Gumbel began rising through the ranks at CBS and would remain with the network (other than a four-year hiatus with NBC from 1994-98) until now.

Gumbel was the studio host for the NCAA basketball tournament, called two Super Bowls, was the studio host for The NFL Today, and in recent years called NFL games usually games on the lower end of CBS's schedule.

The older brother of Bryant Gumbel, Gumbel also worked in NBA games and two Winter Olympics during his long career.

Goodbye to Olivia Hussey at the age of 73.

Hussey burst into prominence in the 1968 film "Romeo and Juliet" in one of the two title roles and starred in horror films such as Black Christmas, as the mother of "Norman Bates" in a 1990 Psycho prequel, and as Mary of Nazareth in a 1977 NBC mini-series.

However, it was Romeo and Juliet she will be most remembered for, including a nude scene filmed when Hussey was only fifteen, and years later along with co-star Leonard Whiting sued unsuccessfully for damages caused by the film.

Goodbye to Lenny Randle at the age of 75.

A utility man who played for five franchises, Lenny Randle had some memorable moments in a career that might have been forgotten without some strange happenings.

As a Texas Ranger in a 1974 game against Cleveland, Indians pitcher Milt Wilcox threw a pitch behind the head of Randle, who later in the at-bat bunted a ball down the first base line, forcing Wilcox to field the ball.

Randle ran over Wilcox and as Randle continued to run down the baseline with Cleveland first baseman John Ellis waiting- with a two-punch combination that knocked out Randle and led to an on-field brawl.

Still a Ranger in spring training in 1977, Randle attacked manager Frank Lucchesi after an altercation, punching his manager three times, breaking his cheekbone, and resulting in a hospital stay that required plastic surgery.

Randle was suspended for a month but was traded to the Mets before the suspension was completed.

In 1981, finishing his career with the Mariners, Kansas City's Amos Otis bounced a ball down the third base line and was likely to beat out the play for a single, but Randle dropped to his hands and knees and blew the baseball foul.

The umpires declared Otis safe and ruled Randle had interfered without touching the baseball.

Goodbye to Aaron Brown at the age of 76.

A long-time reporter and anchor for ABC and CNN, Brown took the lead role in reporting for CNN during the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

Brown should have been a bigger star in news media but he was a person from a different time.

A time when facts mattered more than getting something on the air first and the story was more important than the person reporting.

People say they wish people in media would be more about substance than style and then the opportunities and viewers state the opposite.

Brown did the overnight shift for ABC's "World News Now", where I discovered his work for the first time and was the original anchor for the program in 1992.

Brown had a sly sense of humor on that show as shown when his original co-anchor Lisa McRee left the show in January 1993 and used a life-size cardboard cutout of McRee in her chair until a full-time replacement was hired months later.

Goodbye to Bob Veale at the age of 89.

The bespectacled Veale spent most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, winning a World Series ring in 1971 with the Buccos.

Known for hard-throwing, the southpaw was named to the All-Star team in 1965 and 1966, and led the National League in strikeouts in 1964, fanning two hundred and fifty batters.

Veale won thirteen or more games six times with a high of eighteen in 1964.

Veale holds the Pirates franchise record for strikeouts in a game with sixteen and Veale ranks second in total strikeouts in team history, second only to Bob Friend.