RIP, three Cleveland Indians players of the 1960s

OF Chuck Hinton:

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-29/local/36617194_1_baseball-coach-jim-hannan-american-league

1B Fred Whitfield:

http://obits.al.com/obituaries/birmingham/obituary.aspx?pid=162798351

3B Steve Demeter:

http://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2013/02/post_63.html

 

My uncle lived in Lakewood and we'd go see the Indians play a series every summer from 1962 until the mid-1970s. Saw Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant, Sonny Siebert, Steve Hargain, Rocky Colovito, Whitfield, Hinton, Leon Wagner, Woody Held, Bubba Phillips, Vic Davallio, John "Honey" Romero ... the Indians had some talent. Walking down to Municipal Stadium after going to the top of the Electric Building and then having lunch at Stouffer's was a real treat.

Gary Bell pitched against Jim Kaat in the first Indians game I ever saw, in the summer of 1962 when I was seven. That night we saw "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation" at some big theatre on Euclid Avenue, I think.

 

Hinton was one of those black players who was robbed of a better career by many teams' disinclination (especially in the A.L.) to have more than one or two black players. He did a lot of neat stuff after his playing career. This was something nutty from the WaPo obit:

"His finest season came in 1962, when his .310 batting average was fourth in the American League. No Senator ever hit .300 again before the franchise moved to Texas after the 1971 season."

 

Great stat. Frank Howard had a bunch of .289 seasons -- of course he was adding 44-122 along with it.

 

Man, this thread made me think of 1993 and that tragic boat ride on Little Lake Nellie.

 

I was thinking about that the other day because I saw a Kevin Wickander baseball card and remembered how he was never the same after that accident killed his best friend (Steve Olin). Not a lot of people remember Cliff Young, a lefthanded reliever for the Indians, also died in November of 1993 when his truck veered out of control in texas.

http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/the-death-of-cleveland-indian-cliff-young/

Very sad time to be an Indians fan.

 

Had same thought. Three Indians players, meeting death (or near-death, Bob Ojeda) at the same time.