Goodbye to Dave Parker at the age of 74.
"The Cobra" was possibly the best all-around player in the National League in the late 1970s and was elected to the Hall of Fame earlier this year with his induction scheduled for next month.
The 1978 National League MVP and batting champion in 1977 and 1978, Parker won World Series titles a decade apart with the 1979 Pirates and 1989 Athletics.
Parker wasn't only valuable with his bat, as his arm ranked among the most feared in the game, which he showed in the 1979 All-Star Game, where he gunned down Brian Downing at the plate on his way to winning the game MVP.
Parker struggled in his final four years in Pittsburgh due to off-the-field problems, and his offensive statistics rebounded in his seasons in Cincinnati and Oakland. However, he was never the same all-around player and destructive force as he was during his years as a Pirate.
Goodbye to Billy Hunter at the age of 97.
Hunter was the final surviving player who played for the final season of the St. Louis Browns (1953) and the inaugural season of the Baltimore Orioles (1954).
A journeyman infielder for four teams, Hunter won a World Series as a reserve for the 1956 Yankees but won two more in 1966 and 1970 as Earl Weaver's third base coach with the Orioles.
Hunter took over the Texas Rangers as their manager midway through 1977 and led the team to a 60-33 record as the Rangers moved from fifth to second at season's end.
Texas finished second in 1978, but Hunter was fired on the next-to-last day of the season and was expected to return to the Baltimore coaching staff, but never worked in the major leagues again.
Hunter would become the long-time baseball coach in 1979 and later athletic director at Towson State before retiring in 1995.
Goodbye to Diego Segui at the age of 87.
A vagabond righthander who pitched for six teams, including three stints with the Athletics with both Kansas City and Oakland, and pitched for both the Seattle Pilots and Mariners, Segui pitched in each of the inaugral games for the Seattle franchises, appearing in relief for the Pilots and starting in the Mariners' first game.
Segui won twelve and saved six for the Pilots in 1969, earning the team MVP, and would win the American League ERA title in 1970 for Oakland as both a starter and reliever.
Segui's son, David, would play fifteen seasons in MLB.
Goodbye to Bobby Jenks at the age of 44.
Jenks was the closer for the 2005 World Champion White Sox and was named to the All-Star team in the following two seasons, finishing each with forty and forty-one saves.
The hard-throwing righthander was once clocked at 102 MPH, and it was Jenks who recorded the final out in the 2005 World Series.
Jenks would manage teams in the collegiate prospect league and the independent Frontier League after his retirement as a player.
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