R.I.P. Celebrities(Non Wrestlers) 2022

[jimsteel]

Kathy Whitworth, winningest golfer in history, dies at 83

[WTIC]

Dec 25, 2022 12:59:14 GMT -5 jimsteel said:

Star Trek actress Maggie Thrett passed away at the age of 76. She's most known as playing Ruth in the episode "Mudd's Women" in the original series.

For a lot of Star Trek fans, they never forgot seeing Karen Steele, Susan Denberg and Thrett together in that entry. In that episode, the Enterprise crew was helpless against their charms. (Well, except for Spock.) Roger Carmel's dastardly Harry Mudd has been giving the three women a drug called Venus to get them to do his bidding. The actress was born Diane Pine in 1946.

She had some other appearances on hit TV of that era. Wild, Wild West, McCloud, and I Dream of Jeannie especially. Thrett also found success in the 1968 comedy Three In the Attic alongside Christopher Jones, Judy Pace and Yvette Mimieux

Thanks for posting this, Jim! She was my fave of Mudd's Women, for sure!

R.I.P., Maggie!

Todd C
WTIC

[jimsteel]

Arnie Ferrin, a former center in the NBA, passed away on December 27th at the age of 97.

Ferrin attended high school in Ogden, Utah. In college at the University of Utah, he won the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player award in 1944 when the Utes won the NCAA Championship over Dartmouth. Ferrin also helped Utah win the 1947 National Invitation Tournament. He became the only four-time All-American in Utah basketball history.

Ferrin played professionally for three straight years with the Minneapolis Lakers from 1949 through 1951 under coach John Kundla. The team won the BAA (later the NBA) championship in 1949 and won the NBA championship in 1950, both times with the help of Ferrin. He scored 345 points in '49 and 340 in '50, ending his career with 1,037 points in three years. He made 275-of-401 free throws in his career. He was inducted into the Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Hall of Honor during the 2012 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament, March 10, 2012.

[jimsteel]

Fred Valentine a former former outfielder in the MLB passed away on December 26th at the age of 87. Valentine born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, appeared in 533 games over all or part of seven seasons in Major League Baseball for the Baltimore Orioles (1959, 1963 and 1968) and Washington Senators (1964–1968). He also played one season for the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball in 1970.


Valentine attended Tennessee State University and signed with Baltimore in 1956. After completing four seasons in the Orioles' farm system, he was called to Baltimore for his first MLB trial during the final month of the 1959 season. In limited service (12 games total, with seven starts in the outfield), he batted .316 with two multi-hit games. He then returned to the top level of minor league baseball and would not get his second chance with the Orioles until his recall in June 1963. Again, he played sparingly (getting into only 26 games), but he batted .268 as a backup outfielder and pinch hitter. His contract was then sold to the Senators in October. In 1964, Valentine finally spent extended time on the big-league roster, getting into 102 games and substituting in all three outfield positions. But he struggled offensively, hitting only .226, and was demoted to Triple-A Hawaii for 1965. Fortunately, he had a banner season with the Islanders, slugging 25 home runs, batting .324, and leading the Pacific Coast League in runs scored (116), earning him a September callup with the 1965 Senators.
That campaign led to Valentine's career-best season, in 1966. He played in 146 games, starting 127 of them as either Washington's center fielder or right fielder. At the plate, he set personal bests in home runs (16) and runs batted in (59), while hitting a robust .276, second on the team to slugger Frank Howard's .278. He led the Senators in runs scored (77), hits (140) and doubles (29). Then, in 1967, Valentine returned for another season as the Senators' "fourth" outfielder: he played in 150 games in all, and got into 136 games as an outfielder with 111 starts, most of them coming in center and right fields. However, his offensive production fell off in every category, as he hit .234 with 11 home runs. Returning to Washington in 1968, he appeared in 26 games in the outfield during the season's first two months. But he again struggled at the plate, batting .238, and Washington sent him back to the Orioles at the June 15 trade deadline for pitcher Bruce Howard. Valentine then concluded his MLB career as a reserve outfielder, hitting only .187 for Baltimore. On the cusp of winning three straight American League pennants (1969–1971), Baltimore outrighted Valentine to Triple-A Rochester for 1969. That season, the 34-year-old enjoyed one last productive minor-league campaign, hitting .287 with 18 homers. He then played a final year of professional baseball in Japan, where he batted .246 with 11 long balls for Hanshin.

All told, Valentine batted .247 in major league action, collecting 360 hits with 56 career doubles, ten triples and 36 homers.

[jimsteel]

John Kinch, a former running back in the CFL, passed away at the age of 68.

The following is text from Kinch's online obituary: " John then received a full scholarship to play football at Youngstown State University. He was the all-time leading rusher at YSU. He played tailback where his friend Dave

Garden from Fairport Harbor, Ohio blocked for him. They were both very proud of this and it turned into a lifelong friendship. John was inducted into the YSU Hall of Fame in 1995.
After college, John started his professional football career as the number one draft pick in the Canadian Football League. He played for the Toronto Argonauts, Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa Roughriders. His career ended when Terry Metcalf rolled up on his ankle and broke it. They could not make the necessary repairs back then like they could today. He played six years in the CFL. "

[TTX]

the Grim Reaper stays busy. RIP.

[jimsteel]

Stefan Wever, a former pitcher who played a single Major League Baseball game with the New York Yankees in 1982 passed away at the age of 64.

Born in West Germany, Wever moved to the United States as a child, where he took up baseball. He played baseball in high school and the University of California, Santa Barbara, which led to him being drafted by the New York Yankees in the 6th round of the 1979 amateur draft. After four seasons in the minor leagues, Wever made his major league debut on 17 September 1982. On his debut, he suffered a shoulder injury, which he tried to pitch through for two years before having surgery in 1984. He tried to return from the injury in 1985, but retired. After retiring, he opened a bar in San Francisco, which he continues to run.

Wever began his professional career in 1979 with the Oneonta Yankees of the New York–Penn League (NYPL). He pitched in ten games for the team, finishing the season with a 6–3 record, a 1.77 earned run average (ERA), and 70 strikeouts. In the Yankees' championship series against the Geneva Cubs, he pitched a shutout and threw nine strikeouts to win the first game and help the Yankees win the NYPL Championship. The following year, Wever was promoted to the Fort Lauderdale Yankees of the Florida State League. That year, he had a 7–3 record, a 3.64 ERA and 94 innings pitched in 15 games.

In 1981, Wever began the season remaining with Fort Lauderdale. He had a 7–3 record and a 2.00 ERA in 12 games before being promoted to the Nashville Sounds of the Southern League, the Yankees' AA affiliate. With Nashville, he had a 5–2 record and a 2.05 ERA in nine appearances. Wever's pitching coach in Nashville was Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm. Wilhelm felt he had the ability but not the confidence to pitch in the majors, and spent his time in Nashville working on that aspect of Wever's game. The following season, Weber was almost unanimously named to the Southern League All-Star team, thanks to 11 wins and 116 strikeouts through the end of June. He improved to a 16–6 record, a 2.78 ERA, and 191 strikeouts, won the Southern League Most Outstanding Pitcher Award, and accomplished the pitcher's Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. He led Nashville to the Southern League championship, and right after doing so, the Yankees called Wever up to the major leagues.

His first and only major league appearance came against the Milwaukee Brewers on 17 September 1982. The first two batters he faced were Paul Molitor and Robin Yount, both future Hall of Famers, one of only a few players in history to do so. The fourth batter he faced was Ted Simmons, also a future Hall of Famer. Partway through the first inning, he felt a twinge in his shoulder; not wanting to leave his first game early, he pitched through it, and allowed five runs in the first. Partway through the third, after three more runs were allowed, Wever was taken out of the game. He pitched for 2+2⁄3 innings and had eight earned runs, two strikeouts, and three wild pitches. Entering the 1983 season, Wever was projected to be the fifth starter in the Yankees' starting rotation. Because of continued pain in his shoulder, he instead spent the season with the AAA Columbus Clippers, where he went 1–4 with a 9.78 ERA in seven appearances.

Wever spent 1984 with Fort Lauderdale, where he went 1–3 in seven games. After seven games, he visited Dr. James Andrews, who diagnosed the twinge he suffered two years earlier as a torn rotator cuff and torn labrum; it explained why he had been throwing 85 mph since the injury, compared to 95 mph beforehand. He had surgery shortly afterward, and spent the rest of the year rehabbing the injury. He attempted a comeback in 1985 with the Albany-Colonie Yankees and had a 4.91 ERA in five games with the team. In June, having continued to pitch through shoulder pain, Wever retired from baseball and ended his professional career.

[jimsteel]

The man known as the Poet Laureate of the Boston Red Sox has died. Richard "Dick" Flavin was 86.

Flavin was also a former WBZ-TV journalist, playwright and the voice of the Boston Red Sox for many years.

Flavin was born on December 7, 1936, in Quincy and attended Stonehill college. He worked as a press spokesman, speechwriter and press secretary for several Democratic politicians before he turned political reporter in 1970, joining WBZ-TV in 1973. He worked for WBZ-TV for 14 years, winning several Emmys. In 2011, he was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Flavin also wrote a one-man play, "According to Tip," about the life of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tip O'Neill.

However, his greatest fame came when he drove to Florida with former Red Sox players Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky to visit Ted Williams. Flavin rewrote "Casey at the Bat," turning it into "Teddy at that Bat," changing the poem's plot. He recited the poem for the three former Red Sox players. Word of the poem got out, and Flavin was asked to recite it at Fenway Park when Williams died, eventually reciting the poem all over the country.

Flavin continued to write poems about the Red Sox and became the public address announcer at Fenway Park in 2013.

Over the last several years, Flavin has kept a blog on his website, with his last post, "Who's to blame for the Red Sox Woes?" just six days before his death.

[guiltyparty]

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It's being reported that the G.O.A.T, Pele has passed.
link to NY Post report

[TTX]

RIP Pele.