Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

    Back for more tributes to a few people who have recently left us.

Goodbye to Mike Greenwell at the age of 62. 

Greenwell was the left fielder in the Boston Red Sox lineage behind Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Jim Rice, and after finishing second in the voting for the 1988 American League MVP, hitting .325 with 22 homers and over 100 RBI, he appeared to be the next great addition in the line.

Greenwell continued to hit well for average ( a career .303 hitter), but never hit more than fifteen homers in a season again and finished his career as a good, not great player.

Goodbye to Warren McVea at the age of 79.

McVea was the first African-American to play for the Houston Cougars and was named All-American in 1967.

McVea spent one season with the Cincinnati Bengals after being drafted in the fourth round in 1968, before being traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was a key part of their offense in their World Championship season of 1969.

McVea would play four seasons with the Chiefs before finishing his career with the World Football League's Detroit Wheels and Houston Texans in 1974.

Goodbye to Nick Mangold at the age of 41.

The New York Jets' first-round draft choice in 2006 from Ohio State was named an All-Pro three times and played in seven Pro Bowls.

Mangold was an All-American for Ohio State in 2005 and was a reserve center for the 2002 National Championship-winning Buckeyes.

Mangold suffered from a genetic kidney problem and had appealed for a transplant in recent months.

Goodbye to Bob Trumpy at the age of 80.

An excellent receiving tight end during an age when tight ends were used more as a blocker, Trumpy was the tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals when Bengals assistant Bill Walsh began to develop the West Coast offense.

Trumpy caught 298 passes in his ten years with the Bengals, thirty-five for touchdowns, and made the All-Star/Pro Bowl four times (two each in the AFL and NFL), but might be better known as a long-time color analyst for NBC Sports, working with several partners, including Don Criqui, Bob Costas, and Dick Enberg.

Goodbye to Richie Adubato at the age of 87.

Adubato was head coach for three NBA teams (Detroit, Dallas, and Orlando), but only one (Dallas) used him as the permanent head man.

The Mavericks gave Adubato four seasons before firing him midway through the fourth season (1992-93) with Dallas's record 2-27.

Adubato would coach for nine seasons in the WNBA with the New York Liberty and Washington Mystics and led the Liberty to three appearances in the WNBA finals, losing all three.