Diamonds For Women

[dodgerblue6]

Hobie Landrith has passed away at age 93. The catcher enjoyed a 14-year career, and had the distinction of being the Mets' first-ever draft pick in the 1961 expansion draft (a team he would only play for during their inaugural season). Landrith began in 1950 with the Reds, and also played for the Jints, Cardinals, Cubs and Orioles before retiring in 1963 after one season split between the Orioles and Senators.

The Illinois native passed away on April 6 in Sunnyvale, CA.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Surprisingly, not much has been mentioned of it in the regular publications I peruse that would normally cover this. (I'm not talking about blogs, etc.--for one thing, I haven't found an article on MLB.com or in the L.A. Times.)

But it's been noted on the Angels' Facebook page that Long Beach native Dave Frost, former RHP with the team, passed away at age 70 on Monday. Excelling on the mound for Stanford, Frost was drafted by the White Sox in 1974, and played one season for them (1977) before spending four years in Anaheim. As such, he was a member of the '79 Angels team that made the first playoffs appearance in franchise history, with a 16-10 record. Frost finished his career with the Royals in 1982.

He died in his hometown, the LBC. May he rest in peace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Dick Groat passed away at age 92, it was announced yesterday. He enjoyed a 14-year career in MLB, nine of those seasons with his hometown Pirates, and played for their 1960 world championship team, leading the way as the 1960 NL Most Valuable Player. Groat, a shortstop, also played for the Cardinals, Jints and Phillies. He served in the U.S. Army for two years which interrupted his career after his rookie season.

May he rest in peace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon and a former player for the team, died today. He was 83. He was on both their 1964 & 1967 championship teams (9 years with the Cardinals from 1962-1970).

Rest in peace. Here's the link from CBS Sports.

[sunnyblue]

Vida Blue passed away. He was 73 years old. My dad always talked about what a great pitcher he was, though I was too young to see him play in his prime years, in Oakland. By the time I knew who he was he was playing for those Battery Chuckers! Here's the link.

[dodgerblue6]

What a fine pitcher and stellar world champion of my youth. Rest in peace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Umpire Don Denkinger has passed away at age 86. He called games for the AL for 30 years (1969-1998) and was most known for the blown call in the 1985 World Series that later led to a win for the Royals, who would win the title for the first time in franchise history.

May he rest in peace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

"Roger the Dodger" Craig has passed away at age 93. My he rest in peace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

I've seen Jints fans posting as if he won a championship with them. I understand they liked the HmmmBaby years but he didn't win a title with them. But anyway he is a part of the Dodgers' transition from Brooklyn to L.A.

[forloveofthegame]

Gosh - I thought I had posted about this already! Roger Craig will always have a special place in Padres fans' hearts. First manager to lead the boys to a winning record.
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"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

Former Padre first baseman Mike Ivie has passed away at age 70.

May he rest in peace.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

Yes, I loved him back in the day! I hated when he left to play for the Battery Chuckers.

R.I.P.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

Rest in peace as well to Annette O'Malley, late wife of Dodger royalty (owner Peter O'Malley). She passed away last Friday.

That means the Padres' owner has suffered a loss, as well.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[sunnyblue]

She was royalty in herself. This makes me sad, and I know I'll be sadder when Peter passes.

[dodgerblue6]

This was a nice tribute to Mrs. O'Malley, from the L.A. Times. Prior to reading this, I really had no idea what her contributions were behind the scenes.

"Appreciation: With Warmth and Generosity, Annette O’Malley Cultivated Dodgers’ Family Atmosphere"

BY BILL SHAIKIN
STAFF WRITER
JULY 26, 2023 11:42 AM PT

Peter O’Malley was charmed by the woman visiting from Denmark. He invited her to the Hollywood Bowl, where he looked forward to introducing her to friends with whom he enjoyed concerts.

“That’s when I realized, ‘Whoops, I didn’t get her last name,’” O’Malley said.

He was not about to let a detail like that spoil his date.

“You remember Annette,” O’Malley said to each of his friends, none of whom had met her.

Within a year, her last name was O’Malley. After 52 years of marriage, Annette O’Malley died last week. She was 81, and the family said she died “after a long-standing lung disease.”

Peter and Annette O’Malley met in 1970, the first year Peter replaced his father as president of the Dodgers. The O’Malley family owned the team until 1998.

“It was an honor to know Annette for more than 50 years,” former Dodgers general manager Fred Claire said. “Annette’s warm and caring personality won the respect of all of us in the Dodgers organization during the O’Malley era.”

Annette Zacho was born in Roskilde, Denmark, on Feb. 1, 1942. Her interests were in the arts, not in sports. She was working as a costume designer at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen when she visited Los Angeles, to see whether she might be able to break into Hollywood, and she met O’Malley at a dinner party hosted by Danish opera star Lauritz Melchior.

Zubin Mehta, conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, said Annette O’Malley emerged as a key player in the cultural fabric of Los Angeles. Dorothy Buffum Chandler, the wife of former Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, recruited Annette O’Malley to the Amazing Blue Ribbon 400, a major support group for the Music Center.

The O’Malleys enjoyed Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in concert, and Mehta said he enjoyed Dodgers games with the O’Malleys — and with actor Danny Kaye, who once wrote and performed a song called “D-O-D-G-E-R-S (Oh, really? No, O’Malley!).”

Said Mehta: “Annette, coming from a completely different culture, I think it was so admirable how she changed her whole approach to Peter’s world. She was there every night at the games.”

On her first visit to Dodger Stadium, Peter O’Malley said Annette was amazed by how clean the ballpark was.

“In those days, the stadiums in Europe were kind of dingy,” he said.

The O’Malleys wed in 1971, and her baseball education started in earnest the following spring, at the Dodgers’ legendary spring home in Vero Beach, Fla. One of the interns who would bring drinks to the O’Malleys and their guests at Holman Stadium was Derrick Hall, now president of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It was always Annette who greeted me with a thank you, and by name,” Hall said. “It was shocking to me that the owner’s wife would know who an intern was, but that was who she was.”

The O’Malley family long believed in growing the sport internationally, and Annette joined Peter on journeys to Asia and Latin America — sometimes on tours with the Dodgers, sometimes not.

In 1984, two months after Peter O’Malley and Dodger Stadium hosted the first Olympic baseball games in 16 years — he underwrote them — Annette O’Malley threw out the ceremonial first pitch of Game 7 of the championship series of the top Korean league.

“It was critical for him to create relationships across the globe,” Hall said, “but a big reason that he was able to do so was because of her.”

The O’Malleys prided themselves on a family atmosphere. Indeed, Peter O’Malley has said one reason his family sold the Dodgers to Fox was that, amid the explosion of player salaries via free agency, a family would struggle to match the wealth of a corporation. In retrospect, there is something wistful about this sentence from a 1991 Times profile of Peter O’Malley: “Some in the organization say the demand for ever-greater revenue means changes at Dodger Stadium: luxury boxes, perhaps, or advertising on the outfield walls.”

That atmosphere may be a memory now, but Annette O’Malley gets much of the credit, particularly for Dodgertown springs highlighted by poolside barbecues, carnival games and Christmas-in-March celebrations for Dodger families.

“She made everyone feel like they were part of the family, which was important to Peter,” Hall said. “If you worked for the Dodgers, be it in the minor leagues or on Elysian Park Avenue, you were part of the O’Malley family. I would give her as much credit as I would give Peter.”

Said Jaime Jarrín, the Dodgers’ retired Hall of Fame announcer: “Really, I don’t have enough words to tell you how sweet she was.”

In addition to her husband, Annette O’Malley is survived by her sister, three children and eight grandchildren. Funeral services were private.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[dodgerblue6]

Pat Corrales has passed away at age 82.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame