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Post by jimsteel on Jun 28, 2023 7:49:37 GMT -5
Max Thompson, a former soccer defender in the NASL passed away at the age of 66. A central defender, he scored eight goals in 137 league games in a ten-year career in the Football League. At age 17 years and 128 days, he became Liverpool's youngest ever player (his record has since been broken) when he made his debut in May 1974. He joined Blackpool three years later, and went on to play 99 league games for the club in a four-year spell, and was also loaned out to the Dallas Tornados and Seattle Sounders. He then spent the 1980s with various clubs across the world: AFC Bournemouth, Port Vale, Baltimore Blast (USA), Académica de Coimbra (Portugal), Northwich Victoria, Caernarfon Town, Fleetwood, Newport County, Kramfors (Sweden), and Southport. This picture is unfortunately not the right Max Thompson, this Max Thompson is 21 and currently plays for Sunderland CORRECTED
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Post by jimsteel on Jun 28, 2023 11:05:06 GMT -5
Ulysses Hollimon, a former professional baseball pitcher who played in the Negro American League in a nine-season span from 1948 through 1956 passed away at the age of 92. Hollimon played for several teams during his time in the league, most prominently with the Birmingham Black Barons and the Baltimore Elite Giants. Besides, he pitched in the East–West All-Star Game held at Comiskey Park in 1951, where he hit a double. Afterwards, Hollimon attended Tennessee A&I College and was employed by the Ford Motor Company for 33 years. In addition, he coached Little League Baseball for many years in Plattsburg, Missouri, where he settled. Prior to the 2008 MLB Draft, the Kansas City Royals selected Hollimon as a pitcher in the special draft for surviving Negro league players. Baseball Hall of Fame player Dave Winfield conceived the idea to have this draft, which allowed the MLB teams each select a former NLB player to rectify and recognize those ballplayers who did not have the opportunity to play in the major leagues on the basis of race. The following is an excerpt from Hollimon's online obituary: "The family moved to Memphis, Tennessee during his teenage years where he graduated from Booker T Washington High School. He displayed a gift for athletics. He boxed, played football and baseball. He was a regional Golden Gloves champion in boxing. He played football in high school, college, and in the Army. His football accomplishments earned him a draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers. In baseball, he pitched professionally in the Negro Leagues for the Memphis Red Sox, Baltimore Elite Giants, and the Birmingham Black Barons.
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Post by jimsteel on Jun 28, 2023 11:06:28 GMT -5
Mike Spivey, a former NFL defensive back, passed away at the age of 69. During his career, Mr. Spivey played for the following teams in the NFL: Chicago Bears (1977–1979) Oakland Raiders (1980) New Orleans Saints (1980–1981) Atlanta Falcons (1982) He went to college at the University of Colorado and was drafted in the 2nd round of the 1977 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. He played in 77 NFL games during his 6 year career in professional football.
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Post by jimsteel on Jun 30, 2023 10:34:59 GMT -5
John Miller, a former MLB pinch hitter, left-fielder and first baseman passed away at the age of 79. This info was posted by his niece on a social media post. Prior to the 1962 season, Miller was signed by the Yankees as a amateur free agent. In 1966 he was called up by the Yanks and he played in 6 games in the Majors. On April 3, 1967 he was traded by the New York Yankees with Jack Cullen and $25,000 to the Los Angeles Dodgers for John Kennedy. He was sent back to the minors and in 1969 he appeared in 40 games with the Dodgers. He is one of only two players to hit a home run in his first and last major league at-bats. The other is Paul Gillespie. Miller's first and last major league at-bat home runs (off Lee Stange and Jim Merritt respectively) were the only two home runs he hit in his MLB career. Following his major league career, Miller played for three seasons in Japan, from 1970 to 1972 for the Chunichi Dragons. There, he primarily played first base, batting .245 with 79 home runs over those three seasons.
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Post by jimsteel on Jul 1, 2023 9:51:56 GMT -5
PUTTING IT HERE TO Darren Drozdov, a former nose tackle in the NFL/CFL and a professional wrestler, passed away at the age of 54 After a short career in the National Football League (NFL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL), he went into professional wrestling. He was best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), initially under the ring name Puke (a nickname carried over from his football career), and then under the shortened version of his surname. Drozdov was quadriplegic due to a neck injury sustained from a botched wrestling maneuver, but regained most of the use of his upper body and arms. Drozdov attended the University of Maryland and was a defensive tackle for the Terrapins. He culminated in his collegiate career by graduating with a B.S. in criminal justice. Before his wrestling career, Drozdov was a professional American football player for three seasons with the National Football League's New York Jets pre-season, the Philadelphia Eagles preseason and Denver Broncos. He garnered a measure of notoriety (and the nickname "Puke") when he vomited on television during a Monday Night Football game directly onto the football before the center could snap it. A 1993 Sports Illustrated article stated that he had vomited at nearly every game that season and would reportedly see a psychiatrist for a "chronic vomiting" problem. Drozdov made his World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut in 1998. He claimed the natural ability to regurgitate on command, and WWF management decided to use this as his gimmick. In the documentary Beyond the Mat, his meeting with Vince McMahon is shown, with McMahon requesting Drozdov vomit into a trashcan in his office. Drozdov first wrestled in dark matches and on WWF Shotgun Saturday Night. He debuted on Raw is War on the May 25, 1998 episode as an associate of the Legion of Doom. Dubbed Puke, he was the unofficial third member of the group. In late 1998, he competed in the WWF Brawl for All tournament, making it to the semifinals before losing to Bradshaw. Drozdov's active wrestling career ended suddenly when he suffered a severe neck injury during a match with D'Lo Brown during a WWF SmackDown! Taped in October 5, 1999, just five months after the death of Owen Hart, at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Droz has stated that he was wearing a loose shirt during the match. When Brown attempted his signature running powerbomb, he was unable to gain a proper grip on Droz and Droz was unable to execute a proper jump to aid in the lifting into the powerbomb position. Drozdov landed on his head and fractured two vertebrae in his neck. He was immediately rushed to Nassau County Medical Center, where he underwent hours of surgery to reduce and stabilize the pressure on his injured neck. Because the match was pre-taped, it was not aired to fans during the October 7 broadcast and has never been shown to the public. However, footage of him being taken out on a stretcher has been seen in WWE's "Don't Try This at Home" public service announcement.
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Post by jimsteel on Jul 1, 2023 10:09:10 GMT -5
Tom Beynon, a former offensive tackle in the CFL, passed away at the age of 81. The following is an excerpt from Beynon's online obituary: "Tom was born in Kitchener, Ontario. After finishing high school, he moved to Kingston to attend Queen's University, where he completed a Mechanical Engineering degree and played football for the Golden Gaels. He played on two Yates Cup Championship teams for the school during his time. Upon graduation, Tom dreamed of going to law school, but knew he needed the funds to support it. So, in 1965, Tom was drafted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. By playing professional football, he knew he could fund school at the University of Western Ontario. However, in 1966, Hamilton traded Tom to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, which made attending law school in London, Ontario difficult. Tom was able to negotiate a transfer to continue his law studies at the University of Saskatchewan, meaning that he would have to commute from school in Saskatoon to practice in Regina daily. He played in both the 1966 and 1967 Grey Cup games with the Roughriders. Tom then went on to Ottawa where he articled for law and played for the Ottawa Rough Riders, playing in two more Grey Cup games in 1968 and 1969. In his four and a half years of playing professional football, Tom played in four Grey Cup games, winning three of them: in '66 with Saskatchewan and in '68 and '69 with Ottawa. Upon his retirement from the game, Tom remained an avid supporter of the league and was a member of the CFL Alumni Association. Tom was a partner of Gowlings & Henderson before taking a sabbatical from legal practice in 1986, when he became President and CEO of Waterloo Micro Systems Inc. The job brought Tom and his family back to the town he grew up in. Tom loved Waterloo."
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Post by jimsteel on Jul 1, 2023 10:18:01 GMT -5
YouTube bodybuilding star Joesthetics dies aged 30 of aneurysm after saying he feared over-training would give him a heart attack due to his rare muscular condition
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Post by jimsteel on Jul 2, 2023 17:03:22 GMT -5
Mario Guerrero, a former middle infielder in MLB, passed away at the age of 73. Guerrero signed with the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1968. After four-plus seasons in their farm system, he was sent to the Boston Red Sox on June 30, 1972 as the player to be named later in the deal that brought future Cy Young Award winner Sparky Lyle to the Yankees. Guerrero took the Red Sox out of spring training 1973, and won the starting shortstop job over Rick Burleson the following spring following Luis Aparicio's retirement. During the offseason, Guerrero was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Jim Willoughby. He split 1975 between the Cardinals and their triple-A affiliate, the Tulsa Oilers, batting .239 in 64 games at the major league level. He was assigned to Tulsa in 1976 when he was traded to the California Angels for two minor leaguers. He signed as a free agent with the San Francisco Giants after the 1977 season, only to be sent to Oakland on April 7, 1978 to complete a trade in which the Athletics also acquired Gary Thomasson, Gary Alexander, Dave Heaverlo, John Henry Johnson, Phil Huffman, Alan Wirth and $300,000 for Vida Blue just over three weeks earlier on March 15. He played three seasons in Oakland before his contract was purchased by the Seattle Mariners. He retired following his release from the Mariners in spring training 1981. In 1989, Guerrero played for the Winter Haven Super Sox of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. He batted .315 in 15 games. His brother Epy Guerrero was a coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. The following is an article in a Dominican newspaper the Listin Diario: On Sunday morning, the Leones del Escogido family mourned the death of shortstop Mario Guerrero, at 73 years old. Guerrero, whose Number 11 is retired by El Escogido, played with Leones from the 1970-71 to the 1979-80 season and was the batting leader with .365 in the 1976-77 tournament. With the Scarlets, he participated in 316 regular season games and averaged .294 for life, with 352 hits, 52 doubles, 106 walks, 131 runs scored, .338 on-base percentage and 1 home run. His strikeout frequency (69) relative to his at-bats (1,325) is one of the best in the history of the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League. In the postseason, he participated in 16 games with Hairy, recording an average of .400 (55-22) with 3 doubles, 2 triples and a .977 OPS in 16 games. Guerrero was one of the favorites of the fans of the Escogido during the decade of the 70, due to his great identification with the red shirt and his total dedication on the pitch. During his career in Lidom, Guerrero also uniformed with the Tigres del Licey (1968 to 1970 and in the 1980-81 tournament) and in his last campaign with the Azucareros del Este (1984-85). In the United States he was the 31st Dominican to debut in the Major Leagues and did so on April 8, 1973 with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park against the New York Yankees. That day he batted 3-2 with one run scored and faced the legendary pickers Felipe and Mateo Rojas Alou, who were starting in the Yankees lineup. In the majors he played from 1973 to 1980 with the Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, California Angels and Oakland Athletics. For life, he hit .257 with 7 homers, 170 RBIs and 166 runs scored in 697 starts as an intermediary and shortstop.
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Post by TTX on Jul 2, 2023 18:09:36 GMT -5
I remember reading about him due to the Lyle trade. RIP.
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Post by jimsteel on Jul 3, 2023 14:03:10 GMT -5
Former Arizona Cardinals head coach Vince Tobin died Monday at his home, according to an announcement from the team. He was 79. Tobin, who coached the Cardinals from 1996-2000, helped the organization win its first playoff game in 51 years during the 1998 season. Behind second-year quarterback Jake Plummer, the Cardinals took down the Cowboys in the first round of the ‘98 playoffs. Tobin was hired in 1996 to succeed Buddy Ryan as the team’s head coach and went 28-43 in parts of five seasons. He would be fired after a dreadful start in the 2000 season. Prior to his time as head coach of the Cardinals, Tobin served as an assistant for the Philadelphia Stars of the original USFL. Tobin was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
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