Remembering players, pioneers we lost in ’16

Today, we pause to remember those we said goodbye to in 2016 — to the players and pioneers who will live in our hearts and minds forever, to those who thrilled us and to those who made us laugh or think.

Baseball was better because of men like Monte Irvin and Joe Garagiola Sr. and Ralph Branca. All of them lived long, rich lives with grace, warmth and dignity, and all of them will be missed.

Their lives stand in contrast to Jose Fernandez. He left us at 24, but his laughter and smile flashed through the Marlins’ clubhouse from the moment he arrived as a 20-year-old in 2013 and began lighting up radar guns. He died in a boating accident in September, leaving a hole in the hearts of those who knew him best.

We also remember those in baseball who spent decades behind the scenes and did their part to make the game what it is today.

They would all understand that baseball has the power to get into your being. Some of it is the timeless beauty. Some of it is the memories of the people with whom you shared those hours at the ballpark.

No one ever understood this better than Garagiola, who was 90 when he died in March. He played nine seasons, but his real fame came afterwards when he rose to the highest levels of broadcasting in America.

Garagiola worked hundreds of baseball games, but he did other things, too, like anchoring both the Today Show and Tonight Show. He did it by being himself. He could talk to baseball players or actors or presidents and made all of them feel as if the time he spent with them was the best time of his day.

Garagiola used that fame to make the world a better place. His most passionate cause was warning players of the dangers of smokeless tobacco and helping them kick the addiction.

In retirement in Arizona, Garagiola continued to follow the game he loved. Until his last days, he would stop in at Chase Field or sit in front of a television to watch, cheer and second-guess umpires, managers, etc.

Irvin had some of that same passion. He, too, loved people. He lived until 96 and never seemed to have a bad day. When word got out that Branch Rickey was ready to find a player to break baseball’s color line, several Negro League owners recommended Irvin as the guy with the temperament and talent to do it.

Rickey settled on Jackie Robinson, but Irvin joined the New York Giants two years later, in 1949, playing his first game at age 30. He was part of history when Giants manger Leo Durocher started baseball’s first all-black outfield: Irvin, Willie Mays and Hank Thompson.

On Oct. 3, 1951, Irvin had a front-row seat for one of the most famous moments in baseball history. It was the third and deciding game of a Giants-Dodgers playoff for the National League pennant.

The Dodgers had a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning when the first two Giants got hits. Irvin then fouled out to first base for what would be the only out of the inning.

Irvin was back in the dugout two batters later when Bobby Thomson’s three-run home run won the game — and the NL pennant — 5-4.

Branca had thrown the pitch Thomson hit. That would be the defining moment of a 12-season career in which he made three NL All-Star teams (1947-49).

Branca came to suspect that the Giants were guilty of stealing signs and that Thomson had known what pitch Branca would throw (Thomson denied it). And yet, Branca simply was not obsessed with …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com