Stan Lopata, 87, legendary Phillies catcher of the 1950s

RIP, Stan Lopata…

Stanley Edward Lopata died Saturday from heart complications at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at age 87.

Stan played for the Phillies from 1948 to 1958, accumulating a .257 batting average with 25 triples, 116 home runs and 395 RBI in 822 games.

His biggest year was 1956 when he had 33 doubles, seven triples, 32 homers, 95 RBI and a .267 batting average. He was selected to the National League All-Star team in 1955 and 1956.

Among Phillies catchers, he holds the single-season records for triples (7) and homers (32), both set in 1956.

Stan was a member of the famous “Whiz Kids” team of 1950, which won the Phillies’ first National League pennant since 1915. Stan was sharing the catcher’s spot with Andy Seminick that season and batted .209 in 58 games. The team lost four straight to the New York Yankees in the World Series.

Former Astros manager, Beaumont-native Hatton dead at 90

RIP, Grady Hatton…or as we used to call him The Creeper.

Grady Hatton Jr., a Beaumont-native, major league baseball player and manager of the Houston Astros, died Thursday morning from causes relating to cancer, his daughter-in-law said.

Hatton was born in Beaumont and played in the majors from 1946-60 after attending the University of Texas-Austin. He made his major league debut on April 16, 1946 as a 23-year-old second baseman with the Cincinnati Reds. In 1952, he was named a National League All-Star.

In 1966, Hatton began a three-year career managing the Astros, which concluded with a 164-221 record.

Stan Isaacs, former Newsday sports columnist, dead at 83

RIP, Stan Isaacs. The Columnists will never be the same…

Stan Isaacs took pride in being known for something he had taken. He swiped the Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 world championship pennant from Los Angeles and brought it back to what he considered its home. For generations of readers and colleagues at Newsday, though, he is known for what he gave: a whole new way to view and appreciate sports and reporting.

Isaacs, once one of a group of industry-changing young reporters known as Chipmunks and later a pioneer as a columnist writing about televised sports, died in his sleep at home in Haverford, Pa., Tuesday night, his daughter Ellen said. He was 83.

In his final column for Newsday in 1992, Isaacs wrote that he subscribed to Joseph Pulitzer’s ideal that newspapers should “inform and enlighten.” That would explain his famous question to Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry, who said his wife listened to a World Series game while feeding her baby: “Breast or bottle?”

“He saw humor in things, lightness in things that very few guys did. A lot of us at Newsday learned to do that from him,” said Steve Jacobson, a fellow Chipmunk in the 1960s and then a longtime Newsday columnist.

Bob Turley, former Orioles pitcher, dies

RIP, Bullet Bob Turley...

Bob Turley, who pitched the Orioles’ first home game, died of liver cancer early Saturday morning, according to his son Terry Turley. He was 82.

Turley pitched one single season for the Orioles in 1954, their first in Baltimore, before joining the New York Yankees where he went on to win the Cy Young Award in 1958.

That April 15, 1954 game was a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. A News-Post editorial called it “the most thrilling day in Baltimore history since the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.”

But Turley, who was known as “Bullet Bob”, was traded to the Yankees as part of a package that brought catcher Gus Triandos to Baltimore. Triandos also died this week.

Gus Triandos, beloved ex-Orioles catcher, dies at 82

RIP…Gus Triandos.

Gus Triandos, a brawny slugger who won the hearts of Orioles fans starved for someone to cheer for in the 1950s, died Thursday at his home in San Jose, Calif. He was 82.

“My father died in his sleep,” his daughter, Lori Luna, said. “He’d been dealing with congestive heart failure for 10 years. It was hard for him to get up.

“His heart just gave out.”

A catcher and four-time All Star, Triandos played with the Orioles from 1955 through 1962 and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1981. He hit 142 home runs for the club, 30 of them in 1958, then an American League record for catchers.

...Triandos broke into the big leagues with the Yankees but came to Baltimore in a blockbuster deal that sent pitchers Bob Turley and Don Larsen to New York in exchange for outfielder Gene Woodling, shortstop Willie Miranda and a swarthy, slow-footed catcher who would take the city by storm.

How much did Baltimore love Triandos? In 1962, when he moved his family to a new development in Timonium, they named the road for him — Triandos Drive.

“That [street sign] is my favorite memento,” he said in 2009. “Some years ago, they replaced the sign and mailed the old one to me. It’s one of my few [keepsakes]. I never wanted to be in situations where I had to bore guests with my exploits.”

...At 6-feet-3 and 215 pounds, few pitches got past Triandos, a rugged Greek born in San Francisco.

“Gus was a long ball hitter, an outstanding catcher ... and a big old teddy bear,” said Jim Gentile, onetime Orioles first baseman who replaced Triandos as clean-up hitter.

Gentile, who is also from San Francisco, kept in touch with Triandos to the end.

“We’d talk every few months,” Gentile said. “Some years ago, I took my son to have lunch with Gus, who lived in a trailer park. He was a great teammate and friend.”

Virgil Trucks, 95, threw two no-hitters in the major leagues

RIP…Virgil Trucks.

Virgil Trucks, who spent 17 seasons as a pitcher in the major leagues and served in World War II, passed away Saturday March 23 at his home in Calera, Ala., according to his daughter Carolyn Beckwith. He was 95.

Trucks was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 1938 and immediately posted a record setting season, striking out 418 batters for their Class D team in Andalusia, Ala. He earned the nickname “Fire” from an Alabama sportswriter for his blazing fastball that he used to tear through hitters at the lower levels of minor league baseball. He rapidly ascended the ranks of the Tigers minor league system and was in a major league uniform at the end of the 1941 season.

He spent the next two seasons with the Tigers before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1944. While in the service, he played for the baseball team at the Great Lakes Naval Station, which allowed him to stay in shape for his return to the Tigers just in time for the 1945 World Series. His complete game victory in Game 2 of the World Series helped lead the Tigers to winning the championship in seven games.

...He finished with a career record of 177-135 that included two All-Star appearances in 1949 and 1954. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1974. In 2004, he published his life story, “Throwing Heat: The Life and Times of Virgil Trucks,” with co-authors Bill Bozeman and Ronnie Joyner.

The Alabama native remained a popular figure with fans throughout his retirement, spending countless hours responding to every fan mail request, often replying with hand written letters to those who sought correspondence. “[I receive] 20 or 30 [a week], sometimes more. That’s just letters. It doesn’t count baseballs and pictures they send. I don’t like to keep the stuff around. If I wake up and can’t go back to sleep, I’ll go answer my mail in the middle of the night,” said Trucks to the Birmingham News in 2009.

Mobile baseball great Milt Bolling dead at age 82

Tough weekend continues…RIP, Milt Bolling.

Milt Bolling, who went from Mobile to spend seven seasons playing baseball in the American League, died this morning at age 82 at Providence Hospital, his brother, Frank Bolling, said.

Frank Bolling, himself a two-time big league All-Star, said his brother had been in declining health since undergoing open-heart surgery three months ago.

“He was 15 months older than I was,” Frank Bolling said. “And I always grew up as Milt’s brother. And I didn’t really mind, because I admired him. He was a great athlete.

“Even when I got to the big leagues, I was still Milt’s brother, which was a compliment. It wasn’t until he left the big leagues in 1958 that I became Frank.”

MLB: Cardinals mourn loss of Stan Musial

The entire St. Louis Cardinals family is deeply saddened by the passing of Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial at the age of 92.  Musial, who played his entire 22-year major league career (1941-63) for the Cardinals, died this evening at his home in Ladue surrounded by his family.

“We have lost the most beloved member of the Cardinals family,” said William DeWitt Jr., Chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals.  “Stan Musial was the greatest player in Cardinals history and one of the best players in the history of baseball.” “The entire Cardinals organization extends its sincere condolences to Stan’s family, including his children Richard, Gerry, Janet and Jean, as well as his eleven grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren,” DeWitt said.  “We join fans everywhere in mourning the loss of our dear friend and reflect on how fortunate we all are to have known ‘Stan the Man’.”

Musial was the first player in Cardinals history to have his uniform number retired, and he was a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection in 1969, being named on 93 percent of the ballots.  At his retirement ceremony at the end of the 1963 season, Musial was referred to as “baseball’s perfect warrior, baseball’s perfect knight” by Commissioner Ford C. Frick.    Frick’s words are inscribed at the base of a bronze statue of Musial that stands outside Busch Stadium.  The now iconic statute, which sits on Musial Plaza along Stan Musial Drive, serves as a popular, almost hallowed, gathering spot for generations of Cardinals fans.

Ball Player Passings: Fred Talbot, age 71

RIP, Fred Talbot…

He was a former American League Baseball pitcher from 1963-1970 with the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Pilots. He retired in 1970.