Ted Williams

popular name: Andy Leonard

date_of_death: August 21, 1903

age: 57

cause_of_death: Hematemesis caused by stomach ulcers

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Andy Leonard was one of the first professional baseball players of the 19th century (and firs of Irish descent), who played primarily left field. He played for a number of teams but was best known for his time with the Cincinnati Red Stockings (the first fully professional baseball team) and the Boston Red Stockings. His greatest success was with Boston where he won six championships during his seven seasons. He later worked for former teammate George Wright's sporting goods firm, Wright & Ditson, for several years before his 1903 death in Boston at age 57 of a stomach ulcer. On Saturday September 9, 2017 The Leonard Family, Major League Baseball and The Society for American Baseball Research dedicated a monument for Andrew Leonard, one of the original ten professional baseball players at New Calvary Cemetery, 800 Harvard Street in Mattapan, Massachusetts. This is the second monument that MLB and SABR have erected in the United States.

popular name: Del Crandall

date_of_death: May 5, 2021

age: 91

cause_of_death: Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, and suffered several strokes

claim_to_fame: Sports

best_know_for: Delmar Crandall was an American professional baseball player and manager. Crandall played as a catcher in Major League Baseball and spent most of his career with the Boston / Milwaukee Braves. He led the league in assists a record-tying six times, in fielding percentage four times and in putouts three times. Crandall appeared in 146 games for Boston in 1949-1950, before entering military service during the Korean War. When his two-year hitch was over in March 1953, the Braves departed Boston for Milwaukee, where they benefited from an offense featuring legendary players Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock. Crandall seized the regular catcher's job from Walker Cooper in 1953 and held it for eight years, handling Braves pitchers such as left-hander Warren Spahn and right-handers Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl. From 1953 to 1959, the Braves' pitching staff finished either first or second in the National League in team earned run average every year except 1955. When he passed away at age 91, Del Crandall was the last surviving player to have played for the Boston Braves.

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.