Ted Williams

popular name: Tony Conigliaro

date_of_death: February 24, 1990

age: 45

cause_of_death: Pneumonia and kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Tony C was a phenomenal baseball player who, in his first at bat for the Boston Red Sox hit a towering home run on the first pitch. During his 1964 rookie season, Conigliaro batted .290 with 24 home runs and 52 RBI in 111 games. At the age of 22, at age 22, he not only reached a career total of 100 home runs, but attained that milestone at the youngest age for an American League player. Sadly his promising career was derailed by a fastball to the face that left him with debilitating injuries. The grave of Tony Conigliaro at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden Massachusetts is always adorned with baseballs and mementos.

popular name: Ed Delahanty

date_of_death: July 2, 1903

age: 35

cause_of_death: Swept over Niagara Falls

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Ed Delahanty was an American professional baseball player who spent his Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Philadelphia Quakers, Cleveland Infants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Senators. He was renowned as one of the game's early power hitters, and while primarily a left fielder, also spent time as an infielder. Delahanty won a batting title, batted over .400 three times, and has the fifth-highest career batting average in MLB history. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. Upon his death he was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

popular name: Al Campanis

date_of_death: June 21, 1998

age: 81

cause_of_death: Heart disease and complications from diabetes

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Al Campanis was a baseball player, farm team scout and finally an executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He’d been a Montreal Royal shortstop in 1946 playing alongside Jackie Robinson at second base, barnstormed off-season with a racially integrated squad, a Brooklyn Dodger scout who unearthed Roberto Clemente and Sandy Koufax, and who reached the apex of his profession as General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and took them to four pennants and one World Series title. Campanis baseball career came to a complete stop after an interview with Ted Koppel. Campanis, who had played alongside Robinson and was known for being close to him, was being interviewed about the subject. Nightline anchorman Ted Koppel asked him why, at the time, there had been few black managers and no black general managers or owners in Major League Baseball. Campanis's reply was: "I truly believe that they may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager." Later in the interview, to defend his views when pressed by Koppel, Campanis asked: "Why are black men or black people not good swimmers? Because they don't have the buoyancy." Koppel says he gave Campanis several opportunities to clarify ("Do you really believe that?") or back down from his remarks. Instead, Campanis doubled down on his views, suggesting that African Americans "certainly are short" on individuals with strong decision-making capabilities, asking Koppel: "How many quarterbacks do you have? How many pitchers do you have that are black?" Koppel also pointed out that much of what Campanis was saying "sounds a lot like the garbage we heard 40 years ago." Campanis was fired less than 48 hours later.