On Wednesday, recent great pitcher Curt Schilling (@gehrig38) shared that he was diagnosed with cancer. Schilling, now an analyst with ESPN and the best player to come from Alaska, had a tremendous pitching career, finishing runner-up in the Cy Young voting three separate times in four years (twice behind teammate Randy Johnson). He also racked up a quiet 3,116 strikeouts. Furthermore, he was a command maniac, not quite Greg Maddux quality, but he led the league strikeout to walk ratio three years (one of which being his age 39 season). More impressively, was an anchor on three World Series teams: '01 D-backs (co-MVP of that series), '04 drought ending Red Sox (the infamous bloody sock game), and '07 Red Sox (arguably the most one-sided Series in the last 30 years). I won't get into Hall of Fame resume right now, but I wanted to post this as a tribute to an impressive pitcher. If he can beat the Yankees in '04, he can beat this, too. Hang in there.
Thursday, Pirates slugger Ralph Kiner passed away at the age of 91. A few days ago, I posted about Hank Aaron's slugging ability, but Kiner takes the cake for slugging percentage. He led the league three times, with his a career high of .658 in 1949. What makes Kiner stand out to me was his service to America in her time of need. Kiner, a young 19-year old semipro, enlisted in the US Navy on December 8, 1941. History nerds out there, why is that important? That's right, the day after Pearl Harbor. Bob Feller is the first Major Leaguer to enlist, but I doubt anyone dropped their career faster than Kiner did to serve his country. He was sent into active duty in June of 1942 and did not leave active duty until 1945. And then he played a stellar 10 years with 369 home runs, 6 All Star selections, and a career slugging percentage of .548. Rest in peace, Mr. Kiner. Thank you for what you did for the game and our country.
Keep these two great baseball names in your prayers (if praying is your thing).
As usual, thanks for reading.
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