Former Red Sox and '50 ROY Walt Dropo dies

Sorry if this is a d_B.

Walt Dropo, the 1950 AL Rookie of the Year and 13-year veteran for Boston, died on Friday of natural causes at age 87.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view/20101218former_red_sox_first_baseman_walt_dropo_dies_at_87/srvc=home&position=recent

 

This hasn't been a great month for baseball deaths. Ron Santo, Bob Feller, Phil Cavaretta and now Walt Dropo. RIP.

 

Heck of a name. Didn't know who he was, but RIP.

 

Pride of Connecticut.

 

I sez to myself, "Dropo, a Red Sock? Why did I think he was an Oriole?" Turns out he finished his career in Baltimore, '59-61.

144 ribbies in '50, his rookie year; never came close again, but as I recall his rep as a slugger stuck with him.

RIP, Moose. You were 6'5" when that was BIG.

 

Probably the best three-sport athlete to ever come out of UConn.

 

That's saying a lot. UConn lost its football team for a while — or at least it seemed like it.

 

Every summer in Birmingham, the Barons (White Sox Double-A team) play a "turn back the clock" game at Rickwood Field, which opened in 1910 but hasn't been used regularly since the late 1980s. But after the game, they let you walk on the field and you can go through the gate in the new fence and take a look at the old concrete wall. In left-center, you'll see this: