2020 a devastating year in many ways
 

We lose Lou Brock, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, and Whitey Ford. For all those who grew up with baseball heroes from 50's, 60's and into the 70's this is so tragic. I cannot stop shedding tears over Whitey. Growing up in SoCal, will never forget Sandy besting Whitey in '63 not once but twice.....including the game four 2-1 W for the sweep - whereby the great Whitey showed up with a TWO hitter. Easy to make a case for Whitey as the best big game P in history - even when he lost. RIP Edward Charles Ford.

Maybe I am what used to be called an old fud, but I really and truly believe that was the all-time best era of baseball, before the big money and free agency ruined it forever. Now it appears to be strictly business; even the post-series-clinching pile-on looks like a cliche, just doing what's expected. The players today don't look like they are just having fun, more like the kind of fun that comes with being paid big-time money, so much that they can't even remember or comprehend what it is like to make what it is that real people make out here in reality land. "Does anyone remember laughter?", as Robert Plant used to say. I can't wait until the names become "Dunkin' Donuts Fenway Park" and "Cal-Edison Dodger Stadium", or "Mutual of New York Yankee Stadium". Do players get nicknames anymore? Can you get an autograph without "On-Field VIP Access"? Do players give interviews without seeming as though they are watching the stock report behind the interviewer, or sounding as if they have a corn cob jammed up their you know what? As good as they are, are there any of the so-called "household names" in baseball anymore? Sad that Whitey Ford passed away? You bet it is. For all of his off-the-field exploits with Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin, the big question is, who is going to fill his cleats?

Sadly, we can now add Joe Morgan to this somber list. When I was 15, in 1973 I watched him hit a home run at Wrigley Field that also scored Pete Rose who was on second. The ball never got more than 25 feet off the ground. But the Cubs won the game.

Don't forget Don Larsen.

Yes, it is sad when many of these legends pass away. Most of the ones mentioned in this thread lived long full lives.

The ones that make me sad are the players cut down in the prime of life; guys like Gehrig, Clemente, Hunter to name a few.

On a brighter note, there are still 17 living players from the iconic 1952 Topps set, including Willie Mays.

15 former Brooklyn Dodgers are still alive too, and if I am counting right, 3 of the 17 living 52 Topps members are Dodgers (Morgan, Erskine and Terwilliger).

That number will naturally dwindle quickly though, with the youngest man age 82. I am not superstitious, but I would like to see the year end without a single Brooklyn player passing in 2020 and I hesitate even mentioning it. Glen Mickens was the last former Brooklyn player to die, back in June 2019, so it has been well over a year but let's take it into 2021 before we have to mourn another! Death is inevitable, but it is nice to see a stretch where we get a break from it.