Ted Williams

popular name: Mike Tiernan

date_of_death: November 7, 1918

age: 51

cause_of_death: Tuberculosis

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Mike Tiernan, nicknamed "Silent Mike", was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB), exclusively for the New York Giants, from 1887 to 1899. Tiernan's debut major league game was on April 30, 1887. On June 15 of that season, he scored six runs in a single game, and is one of only a handful of major league players to have accomplished that feat. Tiernan had 10 Home Runs as a rookie (which was great for this era), and he would help the Giants win the 1888 and 1889 versions of the World Series. Tiernan batted .335 in 1889, and he had six more .300 seasons. His best seasons were in 1890 and 1891, where his 13 and 16 Home Runs would respectively lead the National League, and he had five .490 plus Slugging years, including a league-leading .495 in 1890. Despite his successful career and baseball pioneer, Tiernan was never considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

popular name: Hank Greenberg

date_of_death: September 4, 1986

age: 75

cause_of_death: Metastatic kidney cancer

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Standing at six-foot-four, 215-pound Hank Greenberg was a baseball legend who played first base and outfield for the Detroit Tigers from 1930 to 1946. Greenberg, who was the American League's most valuable player in 1935 and 1940, also was one of the few players to make the transition from the field to the front office. He was a part-owner and general manager of the Cleveland Indians from 1948 to 1958 and a vice president of the Chicago White Sox from 1959 to 1960. Elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1956, Greenberg batted in more than 100 runs seven times during his career. His lifetime batting average was .313 and his career home run total was 331.

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.