Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics History Roundtable The Passing Parade: Obituaries: 2019

... [Yankees owner Dan Topping] ordered the call-up, from the Richmond farm, of a kid named Mel Stottlemyre, who’d grown up a Yankee fan despite living cross continent...

Stottlemyre would win nine of twelve starting decisions down the stretch including a five-start winning streak and two shutouts...

The Yankees won the pennant at almost the final minute. Their Series opponents, the Cardinals, won their pennant a little bit later than that. The Phillies’ infamous collapse threatened to send the National League to a three-way pennant tie before the Cardinals survived against the hapless Mets on a final weekend during which the Reds bumped the Phillies off once and for all.

Stottlemyre—who died Sunday at 77, after a long battle with multiple myeloma—went on to beat Bob Gibson handily in Game Two of the World Series. He faced Gibson in Game Five and came out in a 2-0 hole (the Yankees would go on to lose); he faced Gibson again in Game Seven and was done in in the fourth, when rookie infielder Phil Linz couldn’t avoid a takeout slide on what might have been an inning-ending double play, turning instead into a Cardinals three-run inning en route the 7-5 final for the Redbirds...

Alfred K. Newman, one of the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, died at the age of 94 on Sunday in New Mexico.

Newman, who used his native language to outsmart the Japanese in World War II by helping to create an uncrackable code, died at a nursing home in Bloomfield, New Mexico.

“Navajo Code Talker Alfred Newman was a hero, and he stood amongst giants,” tribal President Russell Begaye told the Arizona Republic. “We will be forever grateful for his contributions and bravery, as well as that of each and every one of our Navajo Code Talkers. They are national treasures.”

Eli Grba, the first player to throw a pitch for the Angels, died Monday night in Florence, Ala., after a three-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 84.

Grba, a bespectacled pitcher with a penchant for partying and a competitive spirit, was known as the Original Angel. With the opening selection of MLB’s first expansion draft in December 1960, Angels general manager Fred Haney made Grba the first addition to the Angels’ inaugural roster.

“I’m a trivia question until I die,” Grba said in a 2011 television interview. “I’m the first guy that’s ever been drafted — and the first Angel. You know, that’s kind of nice.”

Michel Legrand, three-time Oscar winner and composer of such classic film songs as “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “I Will Wait for You,” “You Must Believe in Spring” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?,” along with the groundbreaking musical score for “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” has died. He was 86.

Legrand died at his home early Saturday in Paris, his publicist told Agence France-Presse. His wife, French actress Macha Meril, was at his side.

His most recent film score was “The Other Side of the Wind,” composed for Orson Welles’ last film, which was finally completed and released in 2018. Decades ago, after their 1974 collaboration on “F for Fake,” the legendary director had asked for another Legrand jazz score. “I take it as a gift from Orson, through the clouds,” he said early last year.

The well-traveled Les Thornton, former NWA World junior heavyweight champion, has died. He was 84 years old. His wife, Terry, posted the news Facebook: "It is with great sadness we share that Les Thornton peacefully took his leave on February 1, 2019 at 11:15 am, with his devoted wife, Terry at his side." ...

Born in Salford, England, Thornton put in 34 years into the pro wrestling business.

"I broke in the business in 1957 and I didn't come to the States until 1970," he told this writer in 2004. Previous to that, he played professional rugby for 12 years. A few other colleagues went from rugby to wrestling, including Pete Viller, who worked as Pat Curry, and Tommy "Time Bomb" Murthy...

Julie Adams, the comely brunette with the cascading curls best remembered as the damsel in distress in the 1954 horror classic Creature From the Black Lagoon, has died. She was 92.

Adams died early Sunday morning in Los Angeles, her son Mitchell Danton, a TV editor, told The Hollywood Reporter.

In more than six decades in film and on television, Adams also starred with Donald O'Connor in Francis Joins the WACS (1954), played opposite Elvis Presley in Tickle Me (1965) and appeared with Dennis Hopper in The Last Movie (1971) and with John Wayne in McQ (1974).

Fans of Murder, She Wrote know Adams for playing the eccentric realtor Eve Simpson on the long-running Angela Lansbury starrer, and in the early 1970s, she portrayed Jimmy Stewart's wife in the legendary actor's first foray into starring on his own series.

Bob Friend, an ironman right-handed pitcher who never spent a day on the disabled list during his 16-year Major League Baseball career, died Sunday from a cardiac event in his sleep. He was 88.

“It was sudden and there were no warning signs,” his son, also Bob Friend, a longtime pro golfer,said. “He wasn’t suffering and went out quickly and was discovered by my mother [Pat Friend] this morning.”

The elder Mr. Friend, who lived in O’Hara, was a poster boy for the Pirates in the 1950s and 1960s. The 20-year-old was thrust into the starting rotation in 1951 and asked to ride out the storm. The pitiful Pirates lost more than 100 games in three of his four seasons; he had 50 losses to his name before age 24.

As the kid pitcher grew, so did the ballclub. In 1955, Mr. Friend became the first pitcher to have the league’s lowest earned run average, at 2.83, while playing for a last-place team. In 1958, he led the league with a career-best 22 wins. In 1960, the four-time All-Star became a World Series champion.

Prolific slugger. Quintessential hard-ass player and manager. Baseball trailblazer.

Frank Robinson, who died in Los Angeles after a battle with bone cancer, was all of those things in a 60-year Hall-of-Fame career during which he hit (10th all-time) 586 home runs, was the only player in history to win Most Valuable Player awards in both leagues, became the first black manager in major league history, won the Triple Crown with the Orioles in 1966 and, as both a player and later-life MLB dean of discipline, was a vigorous proponent of how the game was supposed to be played. By the time he was done with the uniformed portion of his career, Robinson compiled a .294 average, a .926 OPS, 1,829 runs, 1,812 RBI and a 10th most all-time 198 hit-by-pitches. He also had 10 homers and 19 RBI in 35 postseason games with the Reds and Orioles, and in 1989 was named American League Manager of the Year with the Orioles.

Betty Ballantine, half of a groundbreaking husband-and-wife publishing team that helped invent the modern paperback and vastly expand the market for science fiction and other genres through such blockbusters as “The Hobbit” and “Fahrenheit 451,” has died.

Ballantine died Tuesday at her home in Bearsville, New York, granddaughter Katharyn Ballantine told The Associated Press. She was 99 and had been in declining health.

Ballantine was just 20 and attending school in England, in 1939, when she met and married 23-year-old Ian Ballantine, an American at the London School of Economics. Using a $500 wedding gift from Betty’s father, the Ballantines started out as importers of Penguin paperbacks from England and founded two enduring imprints: Bantam Books and Ballantine Books, both now part of Penguin Random House.

Bruno Ganz, who played Hitler in the 2004 film Downfall, has died aged 77.

The Swiss actor died at home in Zurich on Friday night, his management said.

Ganz was well-known in German-language cinema and theatre and also had roles in English-language films including The Reader and The Manchurian Candidate.

His most famous role, however, was as Adolf Hitler in Downfall. One particular scene depicting Hitler in apoplectic fury became a meme and spawned thousands of parodies online.