In Memoriam

From time to time, I like to buy the current Baseball Digest, a publication “for love of the game since 1942.” It’s mostly features without a whiff of analytics. BD was one of those magazines I’d pick up off the rack at Charles’ Drug Store on the corner of 55th and Kedzie. I had no idea so many of the people appearing then would end up in the Tribute section now. Let’s just say that a whole bunch of former ballplayer died between December of 2022 and 2023. It’s like everyone from the 1965 Strat-O-Matic season had a target on their backs. I mean, Jay Alou; Bobby Bolin; Brooks Robinson; Ken Suarez. Stop, already. But it doesn’t. It seems that the White Sox were especially hard hit: Dave Frost; Ray Herbert; Dennis Higgins; Deacon Jones; Fred Klages; Cotton Nash; Dave Nicholson; Gary Peters; Bob Priddy; Dennis Ribant; and Lee “Bee-Bee” Richard. Yikes. Plus Albie Pearson, the first major-league ballplayer I ever laid eyes on, in June of 1962. Suddenly, it feels very cold here in the basement.