Goodbye, Harry

They're all gone now.

When I became a baseball fan in the early 1970s, it was of the Philadelphia Phillies. My dad's family came from Philly, and where we lived in Harrisburg, we received the Phils' broadcasts and telecasts.

So the first voices of the game I heard were those of Phillies announcers Byrum Saam, Richie Ashburn and Harry Kalas.

Saam, I'd soon learn, had been broadcasting for the team since 1939, the year after the Phillies moved out of the decrepit 19th-century playing venue known as the Baker Bowl. Ashburn had starred for those same Phillies when they suddenly turned into National League pennant winners in 1950, known to history as the Whiz Kids.

Kalas was the new kid on the block, in his 30s when he joined the broadcast team in 1971. But what a voice he had. I soon heard it on National Football League broadcasts in the off-season, and narrating NFL Films for posterity.

Richie was the first to go, suffering a fatal heart attack after a road game against the Mets in 1997. By lived until 2000, passing away at 85 after enjoying his retirement from broadcasting.

And today, we learn that Harry collapsed prior to the Phillies game scheduled in Washington, D.C., and died shortly afterward. He was 73.

Goodbye, Harry. Thanks for the memories.

Tragedy nothing new to baseball

The baseball world will be reeling for quite a while following the death of Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, who was one of three people killed after their vehicle was struck by a van Thursday.

Adenhart's death, unfortunately, is the latest in a long line of tragedies that have claimed the lives of active major-leaguers. Here as some that I remember occurring over the past few decades:

Josh Hancock, P, Cardinals, April 29, 2007. Hancock was 29 when he died in an auto accident in St. Louis. He compiled a 9-7 record in 102 games, most of them in relief, over six seasons.

Cory Lidle, P, Yankees, Oct. 11, 2006. The plane Lidle was flying crashed into a building in Manhattan during the League Championship Series, after his team had been eliminated from the playoffs. Lidle, 34, posted an 82-72 record in nine major-league seasons.

Lidle's father learned of his son's death on television.

Darryl Kile, P, Cardinals, June 22, 2002. Kile, 33, was found dead of a heart attack in his hotel room prior to a scheduled game in Chicago. He had won 36 games for the Cardinals during the previous two seasons. He won 133 games, including 19 in 1997 and 20 in 2000. In both those seasons, he finished fifth in Cy Young Award balloting.

Steve Olin and Tim Crews, P, Indians, March 22, 1993. Olin and Crews were joined by teammate Bob Ojeda on a Florida spring-training speedboat outing just before opening day. Their boat struck a pier in Little Lake Nellie. Olin died at the site, and Crews died at a hospital in Orlando.

Olin, 27, a submarine-style pitcher, saved 17 games after the 1991 All-Star break for a bad team, and followed that up by saving 29 games for a team that wasn't much better.

Crews had signed with the Indians in January 1992 after spending six seasons with the Dodgers. He was 11 days shy of his 32nd birthday at the time of his death.

Thurman Munson, C, Yankees, Aug. 2, 1979. The team captain was piloting an airplane that went down in Canton, Ohio. He was 32. Munson was the first catcher in American League history to win the Cy Young Award (1970) and followed that up with the Most Valuable Player award in 1976. At the time of his death, he probably had been best known besides his success on diamond for his running feud with teammate Reggie Jackson.

Despite a stellar career for a high-profile team, Munson has not received serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.

Lyman Bostock, OF, Angels, Sept. 23, 1978. Bostock was in the wrong place at the wrong time: He was visiting his uncle, Thomas Turner, in Gary, Ind., and they went to visit Joan Hawkins, a woman whom Bostock had tutored as a teenager, but had not seen for several years. After the visit, Turner agreed to give Hawkins and her sister, Barbara Smith, a ride to their cousin's house. Smith had been living with Hawkins while estranged from her husband, Leonard Smith.

As Turner's vehicle was stopped at a traffic signal, Smith's car pulled up alongside. Smith leaned out of his vehicle and fired a shotgun into the back seat of Turner's car. The blast struck Bostock in the right temple. He died two hours later at a Gary hospital, at age 27.