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Post by inger on Nov 20, 2019 21:26:16 GMT -5
Both Jim Coates and Irv Noren, two former Yankees passed away a few days ago. Coates was 87, Noren was only 14 days shy of his 95th birthday...
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Post by pippsheadache on Nov 21, 2019 17:51:20 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this, Inger. I would not otherwise have known this. We are among the few here who remember these guys.
Irv Noren was a pretty good player for the Yanks at a time when they were loaded with OFers blocking his path -- he even made the All Star team for them one year -- he was a solid contributor. From the same hometown as Lucille Ball, Jamestown NY. I only know this because one of my best friends is from there. I wonder if Irv and Lucy's paths ever crossed.
Jim Coates I remember very well. Ill-tempered, hard-throwing, hard-drinking pitcher. Old school spot-starter and long reliever. I swear he vultured more wins than just about anybody I can recall. He had a three year stretch where he went 30-9 for the Yankees. For his career he had a .622 winning percentage, yet his ERA+ was only 90. I wonder if there was ever another pitcher with at least 50 decisions who had a higher percentage with a worse ERA+. Probably need the Elias Sports Bureau for that one.
RIP to two more baseball card guys.
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Post by inger2 on Nov 21, 2019 18:15:16 GMT -5
Too early for me to have card board replicas of them, but not for me to have had awareness of them. I didn’t check, but Noren had to be very high up on the list of oldest surviving MLB players when his time came...
Noren’s All Star season was in 1954, when he revived his career with a .319 average. He was one of those players that bursted on the scene as a young man, but didn’t produce near as well for the long term.
In his rookie year with the Nats, he hit 14 HR, and drove in 98. The following year it was 8 HR and 86 RBI. He never reached those RBI highs again, with his 76 (or was it 77? Think it was 77) in that 1954 season being his next best.
Just think... he and Coates both got to play ball with Mantle. Coates probably went elbow-bending and “beaver-shooting” with Mantle, Whitey, and Billy Martin...
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Post by kaybli on Nov 21, 2019 19:25:40 GMT -5
I don't know if this board can handle two ingers! 
What happened? Log in problems?
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Post by pippsheadache on Nov 21, 2019 20:18:02 GMT -5
I don't know if this board can handle two ingers!
What happened? Log in problems?
Is there perhaps an Inger Jr. we don't know about? A chip off the old block, from the look of things. |
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Post by pippsheadache on Nov 21, 2019 20:34:36 GMT -5
Too early for me to have card board replicas of them, but not for me to have had awareness of them. I didn’t check, but Noren had to be very high up on the list of oldest surviving MLB players when his time came... Noren’s All Star season was in 1954, when he revived his career with a .319 average. He was one of those players that bursted on the scene as a young man, but didn’t produce near as well for the long term. In his rookie year with the Nats, he hit 14 HR, and drove in 98. The following year it was 8 HR and 86 RBI. He never reached those RBI highs again, with his 76 (or was it 77? Think it was 77) in that 1954 season being his next best. Just think... he and Coates both got to play ball with Mantle. Coates probably went elbow-bending and “beaver-shooting” with Mantle, Whitey, and Billy Martin... The oldest living former major leaguer is a guy named Val Heim, who only played in 13 games back in 1942 and who is a bit past his 99th birthday. The second-oldest is a fairly well-known player I remember from the tail end of his career, Eddie Robinson, a first sacker who played for every AL team except Boston. He will turn 99 in a few weeks. Also well up the list is ex-Yankee and former AL Commissioner Bobby Brown, still kicking at 95. I don't know for sure, but I am under the impression that Jim Coates was a bit too dour to be a drinking buddy of Mickey and Whitey and Billy. I think he was more the kind of guy who sat by himself at the end of the bar with a bottle of Scotch in front of him. |
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Post by inger on Nov 21, 2019 20:48:36 GMT -5
I don't know if this board can handle two ingers!
What happened? Log in problems?
Yeah. It happened a couple of days ago, too. Seems to have been a temporary glitch. All is well now... As an after thought, I should have made myself Inger54... wonder if Marino knows we’re here, but simply gave up?... |
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Post by kaybli on Nov 21, 2019 21:37:32 GMT -5
I don't know if this board can handle two ingers! [img src="//storage.proboards.com/6828121/images/FaPDancotIiOvGyPqDbu.gif" class="smile" alt=" "]
What happened? Log in problems?
Yeah. It happened a couple of days ago, too. Seems to have been a temporary glitch. All is well now... As an after thought, I should have made myself Inger54... wonder if Marino knows we’re here, but simply gave up?... Probably lurks as he seethes in anger at all of his predictions coming untrue. Remember Austin Jackson > Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner or Judge can't hit anything with a wrinkle on it?  |
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Post by inger on Nov 21, 2019 22:01:56 GMT -5
Yeah. It happened a couple of days ago, too. Seems to have been a temporary glitch. All is well now... As an after thought, I should have made myself Inger54... wonder if Marino knows we’re here, but simply gave up?... Probably lurks as he seethes in anger at all of his predictions coming untrue. Remember Austin Jackson > Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner or Judge can't hit anything with a wrinkle on it? No seething. It’s simple. He can just turn on all of his advisors for feeding him bad information. Secret source at ESPN Elevator Man Door man Head trash collector Cousin’s dentist Fidel Castro Guy on the train Girl on the guy on the train Guy on the girl on the guy on the train Girl on the... okay, enough of that picture... |
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 1, 2020 21:26:51 GMT -5
RIP Don Larsen. There's not many Yankees left from that golden era.
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Post by kaybli on Jan 1, 2020 22:05:32 GMT -5
RIP Don Larsen! The shot of Yogi jumping into his arms after the perfect WS series game is iconic!
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Post by inger on Jan 2, 2020 0:18:12 GMT -5
Another one of my baseball cards passes away. Another player of my youth. Fewer and fewer left. The perfect game stands as a symbol of “you never know what may happen” in sports. A couple seasons before Larsen was 3-21 for the Orioles. The year he was traded away from New York he went 1-10 for the KCA’s .
He was 45-24 while pitching for the Yankees and 36-67 the remainder of the time in MLB.
I have a collectible, signed print of him making the final pitch of that perfect game on my office wall that won’t leave there until I no longer live here or cease to exist in my current form...
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Post by pippsheadache on Jan 2, 2020 5:20:49 GMT -5
I always thought it was cool that Don Larsen threw out the ceremonial first pitch the day David Wells pitched his perfect game in 1999. And that they both went to Point Loma High School in San Diego.
He came to the Yankees in the same 17-player trade with Baltimore that brought Bob Turley over. He had gone 3-21 the year before, but two of the victories came against the Yankees. Later he was traded to the Athletics in the deal where the Yanks got Roger Maris.
He fit in very nicely with the hard-drinking crew of Mantle and Martin. I loved Casey Stengel's reaction to the news that Larsen had smashed his car into a telephone pole at 5 AM -- "he was either up very early or out very late."
The imperfect man has pitched the perfect game -- was it Vin Scully who said that? Sounds like him. You had to root for a guy whose nickname was "Gooney Bird."
Don Larsen, RIP.
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Post by greatfatness on Jan 2, 2020 6:55:49 GMT -5
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Post by sierchio on Jan 2, 2020 16:25:29 GMT -5
RIP Mr. Larsen... he was a nice guy, met him as a kiddo... got 2 autographs
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