In Memoriam, 2015

Every year, the world loses out on a group of celebrities that succumbed to death in one form or another. It's inevitable for us all, but at least for these celebrities, they entertained us in some way while they were still alive. Over a one year period, there are too many too write about them all in one blog, so instead, I give you 10 celebrities that probably had the biggest impacts on me while they were still alive. Rest in peace...

1. Donna Douglas (8/26/32-1/1/15) 82 years old: Douglas landed appearances on shows such as The Perry Cuomo Show, The Steve Allen Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Twilight Zone, and Route 66 before landing her most famous role as Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. She ran into being type-casted as the sexy country girl after The Beverly Hillbillies went off the air after nine seasons. Eventually she moved on to singing gospel music. Douglas would pass away from pancreatic cancer at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana hospital on New Years Day.

2. Ernie Banks (1/31/31-1/23/15) 83 years old: Known as Mr. Cub, Banks is perhaps the most famous player to play for the famed Chicago Cubs. The Hall of Famer was once quoted as saying, "We've got the setting, sunshine, fresh air, the team behind us. So let's play two!" which became one of the most iconic quotes in baseball history. He was a two-time MVP who hit over 500 homers, and had over 2,500 hits. Some argue that he might be the best shortstop of all time, but he played more games at first base. He was the very first Cubs player to have his number retired and a statue stands in front of him stands in front of Wrigley Field. Banks died from a heart attack at a Chicago area hospital.

3. Leonard Nimoy (3/26/31-2/2715) 83 years old: Known for his iconic role as Mr. Spock in the Star Trek TV shows and movies, Nimoy's role is arguably one of the most famous in sci-fi history. As Spock, he was nominated for three Emmy's before moving on to another hit show, Mission Impossible. He also made appearances on other hits such as Dragnet, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Combat!, The Outer Limits and Get Smart before locking down the role of Spock. Nimoy also tried his hand in photography, music, writing, and directing movies including two of the Star Trek movies and Three Men and a Baby. Nimoy passed away in his home from complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease due to his years of smoking.

4. Grace Lee Whitney (4/1/30-5/1/15) 85 years old: Most famous for her role as Janice Rand in the original Star Trek series and films, Whitney only appeared on eight episodes during the first season before reprising her role in the films. She made many more appearances on other popular TV shows including Mannix, Batman, Bewitched, The Outer Limits, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, and Gunsmoke. Whitney also was a singer who opened up at Chicago nightclubs for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich. She died of natural causes at her home in California.

5. BB King (9/16/25-5/14/15) 89 years old: Ranked as the sixth greatest guitar player in the world by Rolling Stone, King has perhaps the greatest career of any blues artist in history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and is nicknamed "The King of Blues". King began his recording career in 1949 and performed up to the year of his death in 2015. During his career, BB won 15 Grammy Awards and was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom. His song "The Thrill is Gone" is considered by many the greatest blues song ever written and performed. In the 90's, he opened up the BB King Blues Clubs of which two are still open, with two more scheduled to open up soon. His guitar is also one of the most famous in history, nicknaming the Gibson ES-355's he prefers to use "Lucille". Unfortunately, at the end of King's life, he battled diabetes and would have to perform while sitting down on a stool. He eventually passed away while sleeping from multi-infarct dementia brought on by a series of small strokes caused by atherosclerotic vascular disease as a consequence of his diabetes.

6. Yvonne Craig (5/16/37-8/17/15) 78 years old: Craig began her career as a dancer before finding herself in television and movie roles. Finding herself in small roles in the movie version of Gidget, she would go on to play the love interest in two Elvis Presley movies (It Happened at the World's Fair and Kissin' Cousins) as well as finding herself appearing in various hit TV shows such as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, and McHale's Navy. It was then when she was cast in her most famous role as Batgirl in the Batman TV show alongside Adam West and Burt Ward. Not long afterward, she would also be cast in her second most famous role in Star Trek as Marta, the green skinned Orion slave girl. Craig would go on to more appearances in hit shows such as Starsky and Hutch, Fantasy Island, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, and Love, American Style. She died at her home from metastatic breast cancer that spread to her liver.

7. Yogi Berra (5/12/25-9/22/15) 90 years old: Yogi Berra is considered one of the greatest catchers in Major League Baseball history, but despite this, he is almost as well known for his quotes to the press that would be known as "Yogi-isms". Some of them include, "It ain't over till it's over,", "The future ain't what it used to be,", "Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical,", "I really didn't say everything I said." Berra is one of only five players in history to have won the AL MVP three times and was a first ballot hall of famer in 1972. He was also one of only seven managers in history to lead an AL and NL team to the World Series. Yogi was an 18 time all-star who had his number 8 retired by the Yankees. He also holds the record for most World Series rings with 10 as a player and 3 more as a coach. He passed away from natural causes on the 69th anniversary of his debut game with the Yankees.

8. Maureen O'Hara (8/17/20-10/24/15) 95 years old: The fire-redheaded starlet was one of the biggest names in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Perhaps most famously known for her role as Doris Walker in Miracle on 34th Street, a Christmas favorite that is aired every December on a television near you, she had also starred in other hits. She had starred in Sinbad the Sailor with Morgan Fairbanks, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, How Green Was My Valley, and The Black Swan over her career as well. Acting during the rise of color films, she was dubbed "The Queen of Technicolor". She passed away in her sleep at her Boise, Idaho home.

9. George Barris (11/20/25-11/5/15) 89 years old: Not a name that some people may recognize, but Barris was one of the masters at creating iconic cars for television and movie shows. His two most notable creations were the Batmobile from the Batman '66 television show and the Munster Koach of The Munsters. During his time working on customized automobiles, he had also designed or customized other cars such as the Clampetts's truck from Beverly Hillbillies, the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard, KITT from Knight Rider, and the tour vehicles in Jurassic Park. At the age of 89, Barris passed away in his sleep.

10. Scott Weiland (10/27/67-12/3/15) 48 years old: Lead singer to Stone Temple Pilots and later Velvet Revolver, Weiland battled through drug addiction while establishing himself as one of the greatest rock stars of the '90s and 2000's. With the initial release of Core in 1992 with Stone Temple Pilots, the band released a ton of hits including Plush, Creep, Big Empty, Vasoline, Interstate Love Song, Big Bang Baby, Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart, Lady Picture Show, Down, and Sour Girl which would be enough for a band to land in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Weiland then moved on to join members of Guns N' Roses to form Velvet Revolver and produced hits such as Slither, Fall to Pieces, and She Builds Quick Machines. Found dead on his tour bus with his current group, The Wildabouts, it was later determined that despite his claims to have recovered from previous drug and alcohol addictions, his death was caused by a lethal mixture of cocaine, ethanol, and Methylenedioxyamphetamine.

The Characters of the Game

The Clown Prince of Baseball: Max Patkin

Just as in many professional sports, there are a small percentage of players that are character-like on the field. Football has it's mean guy, monster-like players that would scare anyone if their actions were performed anywhere off the field. Basketball is known for players that have flair, covered in tattoos, often wearing what's trendy, and in the 1990's, rapping in music videos. Baseball on the other hand, has had a mixture of these types, but a whole other class of characters that is seldom seen in the other sports. Quirky. Whether it's the players, managers, or someone just affiliated with the club in some sort of extraneous way, it seems like every team has at least one person that boosts the team's "weird" credentials.

I give you a list of the top ten characters of baseball over the years.

1. Max Patkin: For 51 years Patkin was crowned "The Clown Prince of Baseball" for his antics as a minor league player, barnstormer, and genuine entertainer after his baseball career was over. A member of the United States Navy during World War II, while pitching for a service team, Patkin allowed a homerun to the legendary Joe DiMaggio. Rather than get angry and forgetting about it, Patkin threw his glove down and started to run the bases behind DiMaggio.

After his career ended, he performed over 4,000 times and never missed a scheduled performance. He wore a baggy uniform with a question mark as his player number and made funny faces to entertain the crowd. His fame as a minor league clown was solidified when he appeared in the baseball movie Bull Durham as himself.

2. Al "The Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky: Hrabosky used theatrics to intimidate the opposing hitters of the team. Facing towards second base, he would vigorously rub down the ball while huffing and puffing. Then he would slam the ball into his mitt, turn around, and have the expression of an angry man. He often yelled on the field and stare down hitters for extended periods of time before throwing a pitch. Off the field he would go shirtless during team batting practices.

3. Rube Waddell: During the offseason, Waddell would wrestle alligators. If that doesn't say enough about him, he was even more peculiar during the season. On multiple occasions he would wave his teammates off the field and tell them he would be striking out the side, often following through on his claim. During games, he was known to leave the stadium when he heard the sirens of passing fire trucks (it was rumored he would chase after them). Opponents would sometimes distract him with "shiny objects" and puppies during the game. His attention was always splintered in multiple directions. Despite all this, he was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

4. Yogi Berra: Perhaps the most quotable player in baseball history, his quotes were termed as "Yogiisms". Another Hall of Famer, Yogi was a great player on the field, but with his words, he often dumbfounded those around him. It's still not one hundred percent known if his quotes are created on the spur of the moment or if he pre-planned them. It's also not known if they are intentionally so confusing. Here is a small sample of his past quotes:

-"It's deja vu all over again." - "You can observe a lot by watching." - "Always go to other people's funerals. Otherwise they won't go to yours." - "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." - "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." - "I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."

5. Turk Wendell: Perhaps the most superstitious athlete of all time, Wendell officially earned this title from Men's Fitness magazine. During his 11-year career, he would jump over the foul lines, chew black licorice while on the mound, drawn three crosses in the dirt before starting each inning, slamming down the rosin bag as hard as he can every time he used it, and brush his teeth in the dugout in between innings. While signing a contract with the New York Mets, he made them change their offer of $10 million a year to $9,999,999.99 in honor of his uniform number, 99. A hunter during the offseason, Wendell wore a necklace made from the claws and teeth of the animals he hunted.

6. Wade Boggs: Though being known as one of the purest hitters of his generation, Boggs was a slave to routine. One of his most widely known routines was that he had to eat a whole friend chicken before each game (he played in 2,440 regular season games). What many fans didn't know was he had to take 150 grounders during practice. No more. No less. He also would scratch the word "chai" into the dirt before every at-bat (the word means "life" in Hebrew). He would have to take batting practice at exactly 5:17pm and at 7:17pm do his sprints before every night game. Boggs was also known for excessively drinking beer while his team traveled on road trips.

7. Mark Fidrych: Known for his bird-like movements, Fidrych earned the nickname "The Bird". While pitching, he would often talk to the baseball, be seen strolling around the mound, and would even toss a new ball back to the umpire because he felt the ball had "hits" in it. In a OCD-ish sort of a way, he would often smooth the mound with his own bare hands to get rid of the cleat marks of opposing pitchers.

8. Nyger Morgan: Perhaps quirky or perhaps sad, no one could ever fully figure out if Morgan is the victim of multiple personalities. Often calling himself Tony Plush, which would in itself not be too alarming, he once got a game-winning base hit and couldn't recall it minutes later during a postgame interview. He would often thrown up a "T" for Tony, imitate other famous athletes motions, and he would wear a uniform a couple of sizes too big because he felt Tony Plush was a bigger man than he was.

9. Kevin Rhomberg: Despite only playing 41 games in his Major League career, Rhomberg was perhaps the most tactile player to ever play. He had the weird obsession to touch anyone back that touched him and took this "tag" like obsession to a new high. Once tagged with a baseball by teammate Brook Jacoby during a game, Jacoby threw the ball out of the stadium, leading to Rhomberg leaving the stadium and searching for the ball for two hours before finally finding it. Whenever he was tagged out, he would touch the player back instantly. In a game against the New York Yankees, the umpire had to stop the game and warn the Yankees to stop touching Rhomberg because he would run after each player. Once touched on the toe by teammate Rick Sutcliffe while he was in a bathroom stall, Rhomberg ran out of the stall to touch everyone in the clubhouse since he wasn't aware of who touched him. In extreme scenarios, he would mail a letter to a player and write in the letter than receiving the letter constitutes as a "touch", if he couldn't touch the player who touched him during the game.

10. Charlie Kerfeld: Known as the Astros' oddball in the 1980's, Kerfeld demanded that his contract include 37 boxes of orange Jell-O as part of his compensation for playing. A fan of the cartoon series, The Jetsons, Kerfeld had to wear the same Jetsons shirt under his jersey every game. Many times while sitting out in the bullpen, he would wear a Coneheads cone on his head with teammates Larry Anderson and Dave Smith. He was also quoted as once saying that he wanted to team up with Hulk Hogan, Brian Bosworth, and Charles Barkley against the Four Horsemen and would often say he was pondering a career in wrestling, Arena Football, or as a brain surgeon after the end of his baseball career.