RIP Rod Beck

Absolutely. Once asked him about his dramatic improvement from his A's minor league days to his Giants closing days, whether he'd had to adjust to the level of play back then, or whether he was developing new pitches. "Naw," he said. "I was just tubing it and getting lit." His biggest attribute: He treated all people like real people.

 

He was good for baseball, one of the last of his breed. My best to his family and friends.

 

That guy was the epitome of a closer: filthy stuff and a powerful on-the-mound presence. Damned shame. RIP.

 

I wonder if it will be due to a heart-attack or stroke, or maybe a drug overdose.

 

Is it so bad that they did a 900 word obit? Some papers may use it.

Easier to cut from than add to.

 

I'll miss Shooter as much as the next guy, but in what ways was he "larger than life?"

 

Dusty Baker said yesterday on ESPN that he had been hospitalized recently with a staph infection. Not that there's a good way to go at 38, but at least a staph infection would be better than a drug overdose for the family and friends.

 

Agreed. Nothing is worse than coming to terms with a son/daughter having a drug habit that killed them.

 

Was this from an obit or a column?
Either way, why should anyone care when the writer started covering the Giants or that Beck was at his wedding.
It looks like, "hey, look how cool I am cuz Shooter was at my wedding."
If it was an obit, is a dude who invited Beck to his wedding the best, most objective, person to write it?

 

Looked like a column to me. I can't imagine the Trib would let first-person references slide through in a news obit.

 

I always associated Beck with Eckersley. Not because I found them equal closers, but because you looked at them and knew what they were in baseball to do. They looked like closers. I grew up watching Beck and always rooted for him -- especially in 1993 against the Braves.