Dick Williams, American baseball player and manager (Oakland Athletics), Hall of Famer, died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm he was , 82

Richard Hirschfeld "Dick" Williams was an American left fielder, third baseman, manager, coach and front office consultant in Major League Baseball died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm he was , 82. Known especially as a hard-driving, sharp-tongued manager from 1967–69 and 1971–88, he led teams to three American League pennants, one National League pennant, and two World Series triumphs. He is one of seven managers to win pennants in both major leagues, and joined Bill McKechnie in becoming only the second manager to lead three franchises to the Series. He and Lou Piniella are the only managers in history to lead four teams to seasons of 90 or more wins. Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 following his election by the Veterans Committee.


(May 7, 1929 – July 7, 2011)

Biography

Playing career

After growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, and Pasadena, California, Williams signed his first professional contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and played his first major league game with Brooklyn in 1951. Initially an outfielder, he separated a shoulder making a diving catch early in his career, weakening his throwing arm. As a result, he learned to play several positions (he was frequently a first baseman and third baseman) and became a notorious "bench jockey" in order to keep his major league job. He appeared in 1,023 games over 13 seasons with the Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics and Boston Red Sox. A right-handed batter and thrower, Williams had a career batting average of .260 with 70 home runs.
He was a favorite of Paul Richards, who acquired Williams four different times between 1956 and 1962 when Richards was a manager or general manager with Baltimore and the Houston Colt .45s. Williams' stay in Houston during the 1962-63 offseason was brief, because he was soon traded to the Red Sox for another outfielder, Carroll Hardy.
His two-year playing career in Boston was uneventful, except for one occasion. On June 27, 1963, Williams was victimized by one of the greatest catches in Fenway Park history. His long drive to the opposite field was snagged by Cleveland right fielder Al Luplow, who made a leaping catch at the wall and tumbled into the bullpen with the ball in his grasp.^[2]

Managerial career

An "Impossible Dream" in Boston

On October 14, 1964, after a season during which Williams hit a career-low .159, the Red Sox gave him his unconditional release. At 35, Williams was at a career crossroads: Richards gave him a spring training invitation but no guarantee that he would make the 1965 Astros' playing roster; the Red Sox offered Williams a job as playing coach with their Triple-A farm team, the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. Looking to begin a post-playing career in baseball, Williams accepted the Seattle assignment. Within days, a shuffle in 1965 affiliations forced Boston to move its top minor league team to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. This caused Boston's Triple-A manager, Edo Vanni, a Seattle native, to resign in order to remain in the Pacific Northwest. With an unexpected opening for the new Toronto job, Williams was promoted to manager of the 1965 Leafs. As a novice pilot, Williams adopted a hard-nosed, disciplinarian style and won two consecutive Governors' Cup championships with teams laden with young Red Sox prospects. He then signed a one-year contract to manage the 1967 Red Sox.
Boston had suffered through eight straight seasons of losing baseball, and attendance had fallen to such an extent that owner Tom Yawkey was threatening to move the team. The Red Sox had talented young players, but the team was known as a lazy "country club." Williams decided to risk everything and impose discipline on his players. He vowed that "we will win more ballgames than we lose" — a bold statement for a club that had finished only a half-game from last place in 1966. In spring training he drilled players in fundamentals for hours.
The Red Sox began 1967 playing better baseball and employing the aggressive style of play that Williams had learned with the Dodgers. Williams benched players for lack of effort and poor performance, and battled tooth and nail with umpires. Through the All-Star break, Boston fulfilled Williams' promise and played better than .500 ball, hanging close to the American League's four contending teams — the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox and California Angels. Outfielder Carl Yastrzemski, in his seventh season with the Red Sox, transformed his hitting style to become a pull-hitter, eventually winning the 1967 AL Triple Crown, leading the league in batting average, home runs (tying Harmon Killebrew of the Twins), and RBI.
In late July, the Red Sox rattled off a ten-game winning streak on the road and came home to a riotous welcome from 10,000 fans at Boston's Logan Airport. The Red Sox inserted themselves into a five-team pennant race, and stayed in the hunt despite the loss of star outfielder Tony Conigliaro to a beanball on August 18. On the closing weekend of the season, led by Yastrzemski and 22-game-winning pitcher Jim Lonborg, Boston defeated the Twins in two head-to-head games, while Detroit split its series with the Angels. The "Impossible Dream" Red Sox had won their first AL pennant since 1946. The Red Sox extended the highly talented and heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the 1967 World Series, losing to the great Bob Gibson three times.
Despite the Series loss, the Red Sox were the toasts of New England; Williams was named Major League Manager of the Year by The Sporting News and signed to a new three-year contract. But he would not serve it out. In 1968, the team fell to fourth place when Conigliaro could not return from his head injury, and Williams' two top pitchers — Lonborg and José Santiago — were injured. He began to clash with Yastrzemski, and with owner Yawkey. In September 1969, with his club a distant third in the AL East, Williams was fired with nine games left in the season.

Two titles in a row in Oakland

After spending 1970 as the third base coach of the Montreal Expos, Williams returned to the managerial ranks the next year as boss of the Oakland Athletics, owned by Charlie Finley. The iconoclastic Finley had signed some of the finest talent in baseball – including Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi – but his players hated him for his penny-pinching and constant meddling in the team's affairs. During his first decade as the Athletics' owner, 1961-1970, Finley had changed managers a total of ten times.
Inheriting a second-place team from predecessor John McNamara, Williams promptly directed the A's to 101 victories and their first AL West title in 1971 behind another brilliant young player, pitcher Vida Blue. Despite being humbled in the ALCS by the defending World Champion Orioles, Finley brought Williams back for 1972, when the "Oakland Dynasty" began. Off the field, the A's players brawled with each other and defied baseball's tonsorial code. Because long hair, mustaches and beards were now the rage in the "civilian" world, Finley decided on a mid-season promotion encouraging his men to wear their hair long and grow facial hair. Fingers adopted his trademark handlebar mustache (which he still has to this day); Williams himself grew a mustache.
Of course, talent, not hairstyle, truly defined the Oakland Dynasty of the early 1970s. The 1972 A's won their division by 5½ games over the White Sox and led the league in home runs, shutouts and saves. They defeated the Tigers in a bitterly fought ALCS, and found themselves facing the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. With the A's leading power hitter, Jackson, out with an injury, Cincinnati's Big Red Machine was favored to win, but the home run heroics of Oakland catcher Gene Tenace and the managerial maneuvering of Williams resulted in a seven-game World Series victory for the A's, their first championship since 1930, when they played in Philadelphia.
In 1973, with Williams back for an unprecedented (for the Finley era) third straight campaign, the A's again coasted to a division title, then defeated Baltimore in the ALCS and the NL champion New York Mets in the World Series – each hard-fought series going the limit. With their World Series win, Oakland became baseball's first repeat champion since the 1961-62 New York Yankees. But Williams had a surprise for Finley. Tired of his owner's meddling, and upset by Finley's public humiliation of second baseman Mike Andrews for his fielding miscues during the World Series, Williams resigned. George Steinbrenner, then finishing his first season as owner of the Yankees, immediately signed Williams as his manager. However, Finley protested that Williams owed Oakland the final year of his contract and could not manage anywhere else, and so Steinbrenner hired Bill Virdon instead. Williams was the first manager in A's franchise history to leave the team with a winning record after running it for two full seasons.

From Southern California to Montreal and back

California Angels

Seemingly at the peak of his career, Williams began the 1974 season out of work. But when the Angels struggled under manager Bobby Winkles, team owner Gene Autry received Finley's permission to negotiate with Williams, and in mid-season Williams was back in a big-league dugout. The change in management, though, did not alter the fortunes of the Angels, as they finished in last place, 22 games behind the A's, who would win their third straight World Championship under Williams' replacement, Alvin Dark.
Overall, Williams' Anaheim tenure turned out to be a miserable one. The Angels did not respond to Williams' somewhat authoritarian managing style and finished last in the AL West again in 1975. They were 18 games below .500 (and in the midst of a player revolt) when Williams was fired in July 1976. While managing the Angels, he once held a practice in the lobby of his team's hotel using only wiffle balls and bats; the point was to demonstrate that his hitters were so weak, they could not break anything in the lobby.

Montreal Expos

When Williams switched to the National League, however, he regained his winning touch. In 1977, he returned to Montreal as manager of the Expos, who had just come off 107 losses and a last-place finish in the NL East. After cajoling them into improved, but below .500, performances in his first two seasons in Montreal, Williams turned the 1979-80 Expos into pennant contenders. The team won over 90 games both years, but finished second each time to the eventual World Champion (the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980). The Expos, with a fruitful farm system and young All-Stars such as outfielder Andre Dawson and catcher Gary Carter, seemed a lock to contend for a long time to come.
But Williams' hard edge alienated his players and ultimately wore out his welcome. He labeled pitcher Steve Rogers a fraud with "king of the mountain syndrome" – meaning that Rogers had been a good pitcher on a bad team for so long that he was unable to "step up" when the team became good. Williams also lost confidence in closer Jeff Reardon, whom the Montreal front office had acquired in a much publicized trade with the Mets. When the 1981 Expos performed below expectations, Williams was fired during the pennant drive. With the arrival of his easy-going successor Jim Fanning, who restored Reardon to the closer's role, the inspired Expos made the playoffs for the only time in their 36-year history in Montreal. However, they fell in heartbreaking fashion to Rick Monday and the eventual World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in a five-game NLCS.

San Diego Padres

In 1982, Williams took over another chronic loser, the San Diego Padres. By 1984, he had guided the Padres to their first NL West Division championship. In the NLCS, the NL East champion Chicago Cubs – making their first postseason appearance since 1945 – won Games 1 and 2, but Williams' Padres took the next three games in a miraculous comeback to win the pennant. In the World Series, however, San Diego was no match for Sparky Anderson's Detroit Tigers, a team that had won 104 games during the regular season (having gone a record 35-5 by late May) and swept the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. Although the Tigers won the Series in five games, both Williams and Anderson joined Dark, Joe McCarthy, and Yogi Berra as managers who had won pennants in both major leagues (Tony La Russa joined this group in 2004 and Jim Leyland followed suit in 2006).
The Padres fell to third in 1985, and Williams was let go as manager just before 1986 spring training. His record with the Padres was 337–311 over four seasons. As of 2011, he was the only manager in the team's history without a losing season.^[3] His difficulties with the Padres stemmed from a power struggle with team president Ballard Smith and general manager Jack McKeon.^[3] Williams was a hire of team owner (and McDonald's restaurant magnate) Ray Kroc, whose health was failing. McKeon and Smith (who also happened to be Kroc's son-in-law) were posturing to buy the team and viewed Williams as a threat to their plans. With his San Diego tenure at an end, it appeared that Williams' managerial career was finished.

Final seasons in uniform

In 1986, the Seattle Mariners, another perennial loser, called on Williams to be manager. When the Mariners lost 19 of their first 28 games under Chuck Cottier, Williams came back to the American League West for the first time in almost a decade. The Mariners showed some life that season and almost reached .500 the following season. However, Williams' autocratic managing style no longer played with the new generation of ballplayers. Williams was fired from his last managing job with Seattle 23-33 and in sixth place in June 1988. Williams' career won-loss totals were 1,571 wins and 1,451 losses over 21 seasons.
In 1989, Williams was named manager of the West Palm Beach Tropics of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a league featuring mostly former major league players 35 years of age and older. The Tropics went 52-20 in the regular season and ran away with the Southern Division title. Despite their regular season dominance, the Tropics lost 12-4 to the St. Petersburg Pelicans in the league's championship game. The Tropics folded at the end of the season, and the rest of the league folded a year later.
He remained in the game, however, as a special consultant to George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees. In 1990, Williams published his autobiography, No More Mister Nice Guy. His acrimonious departure in 1969 distanced Williams from the Red Sox for the remainder of the Yawkey ownership period (through 2001), but after the change in ownership and management that followed, he was selected to the team's Hall of Fame in 2006.
Williams's number was recently retired by the Fort Worth Cats. The Cats were a popular minor league team in Fort Worth and Williams played there while he was working his way through the Dodgers system. The Cats merged/disbanded around 1960 but in recent years returned as an independent minor league team. The "New" Cats retired Williams' number.

Managerial statistics

Team	Year	Regular Season				Post Season
		Won	Lost	Win %	Finish	Won	Lost	Win %	Result
BOS	1967	92	70	.568	1st in American League	3	4	.429	Lost to St. Louis Cardinals
BOS	1968	86	76	.531	4th in American League	-	-	-	-
BOS	1969	82	71	.536	3rd in AL East	-	-	-	-
OAK	1971	101	60	.627	1st in AL West	0	3	.000	Lost to Baltimore Orioles
OAK	1972	93	62	.600	1st in AL West	7	5	.583	Won World Series
OAK	1973	94	68	.580	1st in AL West	7	5	.583	Won World Series
CAL	1974	36	48	.429	6th in AL West	-	-	-	-
CAL	1975	72	89	.447	6th in AL West	-	-	-	-
CAL	1976	39	57	.406	4th in AL West	-	-	-	-
MON	1977	75	87	.463	5th in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1978	76	86	.469	4th in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1979	95	65	.594	2nd in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1980	90	72	.556	2nd in NL East	-	-	-	-
MON	1981	44	37	.543	2nd in NL East	-	-	-	-
SDP	1982	81	81	.500	4th in NL West	-	-	-	-
SDP	1983	81	81	.500	4th in NL West	-	-	-	-
SDP	1984	92	70	.568	1st in NL West	4	6	.400	Lost to Detroit Tigers
SDP	1985	83	79	.512	3rd in NL West	-	-	-	-
SEA	1986	58	75	.436	7th in AL West	-	-	-	-
SEA	1987	78	84	.481	4th in AL West	-	-	-	-
SEA	1988	23	33	.411	7th in AL West	-	-	-	-
Total		1571	1451	.520		21	23	.477	Won 2 World Series

Induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Dick Williams was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in December 2007, and was inducted on July 27, 2008.^[4]

Personal life

His son, Rick Williams a former minor league pitcher and Major League pitching coach is currently a professional scout for the Yankees. Before Dick Williams became a Major League manager in 1967, he successfully appeared on the television quiz shows The Match Game and the original Hollywood Squares. According to Peter Marshall's Backstage with the Original Hollywood Squares, Williams won $50,000 as a contestant on the latter show. Marshall's son, Pete LaCock, played nine seasons (1972–1980) in the Major Leagues — but never for Williams.

Arrest

In January 2000, Williams pleaded no contest to indecent exposure charges in Florida.^[5][6] This occurred just weeks before the Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee's vote in that year's inductees.
"What happened to me down in Fort Myers when I was arrested evidently hurt me quite a bit," Williams told the New York Times in a telephone interview. "What came out on that in the papers was not true. I was not masturbating on the balcony. I'm going to issue a statement about it so the explanation goes across the country."^[7]

Death

Dick Williams died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm at a hospital near his home in Henderson, Nevada on July 7, 2011.^[8][9]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Steve Cardiff, Canadian politician, died from a automobile accident he was , 53.

Steve Cardiff was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Mount Lorne in the Yukon Legislative Assembly died from a automobile accident he was , 53..

Political career

He was first elected to the Yukon legislature in the 2002 general election and re-elected in 2006.^[1] He won convincingly both times.
He was the NDP caucus critic for the Department of Community Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Highways and Public Works, the Department of Justice, the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board, the Yukon Housing Corporation and the Yukon Liquor Corporation. Cardiff shared critic responsibilities for the Department of Economic Development with party leader Todd Hardy, and was the Third Party House Leader.
Prior to becoming Mount Lorne’s MLA Cardiff worked as a certified sheet metal journeyman on industrial, commercial and residential projects in every Yukon community.
For 16 of his 20 years in the sheet metal trade, he volunteered as the local president of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. He volunteered on the executive of the Yukon Federation of Labour for two years at the same time. He also served on Yukon College’s board of governors, which he did for nine years, acting as chair for his final three. He is an active volunteer with the Mount Lorne Community Association.
In February 2009, Cardiff declared his candidacy for the leadership of the New Democrats, following Hardy's resignation as party leader.^[2] However, he withdrew from the race later in the year for unspecified personal reasons.^[3]
Cardiff was killed in a two-vehicle road accident, one kilometre north of Lewes Lake on the South Klondike Highway, involving a tractor trailer and a small vehicle.^[4]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

Mani Kaul, Indian filmmaker, died after a long illness he was , 66.

 Mani Kaul was an Indian film director of Hindi films  died after a long illness he was , 66.. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and later became a teacher. Started his career with Uski Roti (1969), which won him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie, he went on to win four of them in all. He won the National Film Award for Best Direction in 1974 for Duvidha and later the National Film Award for his documentary film, Siddheshwari in 1989.

(25 December 1944 – 6 July 2011) 

Early life and education

Born as Rabindranath Kaul in Jodhpur, Rajasthan into a Kashmiri Pandit Kaul family, he first joined Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune as an acting student and later shifted to the direction course, graduating in 1966.^[2]
He was the nephew of actor-director Mahesh Kaul. Initially studying acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, he changed over to directing. He is a 1966 graduate of the FTII.^[2]

Professional life

His first film Uski Roti (1969) has been described as "one of the key films of the New Indian Cinema or the Indian New Wave".^[2] It marked a drastic departure from earlier Indian cinema techique, form and narrative. It was one of the early formal experimental films in Indian cinema.
Asad ka Ek Din (1971), his next film, was based on a play by Mohan Rakesh.
Duvidha (1973), his third, was his first in colour. It grew out of a short story by Vijayan Detha and tells the story of a merchant's son, who returns with his new bride to have to depart on family business. A ghost falls in love with the bride... It was widely shown across Europe.
Mani Kaul was one of the co-founders of the Yukt Film Co-operative (Union of Kinematograph Technicians) in 1976, leading to avantgarde films. Critics^[2] suggest that in "Mani Kaul's cinematic conception, fiction and documentary films have no clear demarcated dividing line." He also taught music in the Netherlands, and was Creative Director of the film house at Osian's Connoisseurs of Art, Mumbai.

Career

In 1971, he was a member of the jury at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival.^[3]
He was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University for the 2000–2001 school year.^[4] Currently he was the Creative Director of the Film House at Osian's Connoisseurs of Art, Mumbai.

Personal life and death

He was a nephew of the noted Hindi film director Mahesh Kaul, who made films like Raj Kapoor starrer Sapnon Ka Saudagar (1968). Mani Kaul died on 6 July 2011 at his home in Gurgaon, near Delhi. He had been ailing for sometime.^[5][6]
According to a tribute^[6] from Prabha Mahajan on the Indian documentary film discussion network Docuwallahs2[1], Mani Kaul's significant body of work included both feature films and documentaries. In an interview Mani stated: "The dividing line from my films and documentaries is thin. Some of my films like "Siddheshwari" are like poetic documentaries." Mani Kaul's fellow alumni from FTII intend to put together a collective tribute to Mani Kaul and his work, and interested persons were invited to send in their thoughts on Mani as a film maker, teacher/ mentor, colleague, and as a person.
Indian film critic Khalid Mohamed commented,^[7] " As a film director, he discussed the status of women (Uski Roti, Duvidha), crafted visually seductive documentaries (Arrival, Before My Eyes, A Desert of a Thousand Lines) and went through a spell of interpreting Fyodor Dostoevsky’s masterworks. The Russian writer’s short story A Gentle Creature inspired Nazar, shot in low, chiaroscuro lighting."

Awards

National Film Awards

• 1974: Best Direction: Duvidha
• 1989: Best Documentary Film: Siddheshwari^[8]

Filmfare Awards

Mani Kaul won Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie four times.

• 1971: Uski Roti (1970)
• 1972: Ashad Ka Ek Din (1971)
• 1974: Duvidha (1973)
• 1993: Idiot (1992)

Filmography

• Uski Roti (1969)
• Ashadh Ka Ek Din (1971)
• Duvidha (1973)
• Ghashiram Kotwal (1979)
• Satah Se Uthata Admi (1980)^[9]
• Dhrupad (1982)
• Mati Manas (1984)
• Siddheshwari (1989)
• Nazar (1989)
• Idiot (1992)
• The Cloud Door (1995)
• Naukar Ki Kameez (The Servant's Shirt) (1999)^[10]
• Bojh (Burden)(2000)
• Ik Ben Geen Ander (I Am No Other) Nederland 2002
• A Monkey's Raincoat Nederland (2005)
• 'Signature Film' for Osian Cinefan Festival of Asian Cinema (2006)

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

George Edward Kimball, American boxing columnist (Boston Herald), died from esophageal cancer he was , 67

George E. Kimball III  was an American author and journalist who spent 25 years as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald before retiring in 2005 died from esophageal cancer he was , 67. Considered one of the foremost boxing writers of his era, he is the author of Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and the Last Great Era of Boxing (2008) and "Manly Art: They can run -- but they can't hide" (2011). In collaboration with John Schulian, he edited two anthologies, "At The Fights: American Writers on Boxing" (2011) and "The Fighter Still Remains: A Celebration of Boxing in Poetry and Song from Ali to Zevon" (2010). Since 1997 he had written the weekly ‘America at Large’ column for The Irish Times in Dublin, Ireland, and had contributed to a number of boxing websites.

(December 20, 1943 – July 6, 2011)

Youth and Education

Descendant of Richard Kimball (ca 1595-1675) and the son of a career Army officer, Kimball was born in Grass Valley, California, but lived all over the world as a boy, including stops in Taiwan and Germany. After graduating from high school in San Antonio, Texas, he attended the University of Kansas, and later the Iowa Writer's Workshop. He became increasingly involved in the counterculture of the late 1960s, and although he had originally attended college on a Naval ROTC scholarship, later in the decade his participation in the antiwar movement led to several arrests.

Early career

In the late 1960s Kimball (with John Fowler and Charles Plymell) was an editor for the influential Midwestern magazine Grist before moving to New York, where he was heavily involved in the literary scene revolving around the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie and the Lion’s Head saloon in Greenwich Village. After working at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in New York, Kimball returned to Kansas in 1970, where he waged a colorful campaign for the office Douglas County sheriff. As a freelance writer he contributed to diverse publications such as The Paris Review, Rolling Stone, The Realist, and Scanlan’s Monthly, and his novel, Only Skin Deep, was published in 1968. In the early 1970s he was also an editor for the Cambridge (Mass.) literary journal Ploughshares.

Journalistic career

In early 1972 Kimball became the sports editor of the Boston Phoenix, and for nearly a decade there worked on a Phoenix staff that at various times included Joe Klein, Jon Landau, Janet Maslin, Curt Raymond, Sidney Blumenthal and David Denby, while nurturing the early careers of fellow sportswriters Mike Lupica, Michael Gee, and Charles P. Pierce. In 1980 he began a columnist for the Herald, and for the next quarter-century covered major sporting events around the world, including Super Bowls and World Series, NBA Finals and the Olympic Games, golf’s four majors and Ryder Cups, Wimbledon and the America’s Cup yacht races. He covered nearly 400 world title fights, and was the 1985 recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism. Kimball also received ‘Best Column’ awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America, the Golf Writers Association of America, Boston Magazine, and United Press International.

Books

• Only Skin Deep (Olympia/Ophelia, 1968)
• Sunday’s Fools: stomped, tromped, kicked, and chewed in the NFL. Houghton Mifflin. 1974. ISBN 9780395199527. (with Tom Beer)
• Chairman of the Boards -- Red Rock Press, Dublin (2008) (with Eamonn Coghlan)
• American at Large -- Red Rock Press, Dublin (2008)
• Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing. McBooks Press. September 1, 2009. ISBN 9781590132388.; Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh = date July 1, 2008
• The Fighter Still Remains: A Celebration of Boxing in Poetry and Song from Ali to Zevon -- publisher = Fore Angels Press/DiBella Entertainment/ date June 1, 2010 (with John Schulian)
• At The Fights: American Writers on Boxing -- Publisher - The Library of America -- date March 3, 2011 (with John Schulian)
• Manly Art: They can run -- but they can't hide. Publisher = McBooks Press = date= April 1, 2011

Anthologies

• The New Olympia Reader
• The World Anthology
• Baseball Diamonds
• Baseball’s Finest
• Come Out Writing
• Impossible Dreams
• A Commonwealth of Golfers
• Rolling Stone Record Review
• Patriots Day

Forewords

• Football’s Blackest Hole by Craig Parker
• The Regulation of Boxing by Robert Rodriguez

Broadcast career

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Kimball served as a regular co-host for several sports talk radio programs in the Boston area, as a television analyst for boxing broadcasts on the Fox SportsNet and Comcast networks, and as a panelist for several PBS programs produced by WGBH-TV. He appeared (as a boxing writer covering a fight between Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas) in Ron Shelton’s 1999 film “Play it to the Bone.”

Family

In a ceremony officiated by former heavyweight champion George Foreman, Kimball married New York psychiatrist Marge Marash in 2004. The couple lived in New York City. He had two children, Darcy Maeve Kimball of Denver, Colorado and George E. Kimball IV of Brooklyn, New York, stepsons Kim, Chris, and Jeremy Seeger, and four grandchildren.
Kimball was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and died from the disease in 2011 at age 67.^[1][2]

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns all formed the pantheon of boxing greats during the late 1970s and early 1980s—before the pay-per-view model, when prize fights were telecast on network television and still captured the nation's attention. Championship bouts during this era were replete with revenge and fury, often pitting one of these storied fighters against another. From training camps to locker rooms, author George Kimball was there to cover every body shot, uppercut, and TKO. Inside stories full of drama, sacrifice, fear, and pain make up this treasury of boxing tales brought to life by one of the sport's greatest writers.
About the Author
George Kimball spent 25 years as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald and in 1986 received the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism. He has covered more than 350 title bouts, and is the author of Only Skin Deep and Sunday's Fools. He lives in New York City.
RE: NAT FLEISCHER AWARD:
http://boxing.about.com/library/bl_bwaa_fleischer.htm
RE: PLOUGHSHARES
http://www.pshares.org/authors/author-detail.cfm?authorID=1899
RE: GRIST:
http://www.etext.org/Poetry/Grist/gol_1.asc
Any reference to the original GRIST would be incomplete if there were no indication of the contribution made by co-editors George Kimball and Charlie Plymell. For many issues they were, in fact, the editors, while I acted as publisher (from the thin bankroll of the Abington Book Shop which was too soon exhausted). They sought out authors, gathered material, traveled, wrote letters, made phone calls, cajoled subscribers, designed, laid out, typed, printed, collated, stapled, stamped and delivered. (John Fowler)

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here

John Mackey, American Hall of Fame football player (Baltimore Colts, San Diego Chargers) died he was , 69.

John Mackey  was an American Football tight end who grew up in Roosevelt, Long Island and played for the Baltimore Colts (1963-1971) and the San Diego Chargers (1972) died he was , 69.. He played college football at Syracuse University. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.

(September 24, 1941 — July 6, 2011)

Career statistics

Mackey joined the Colts in 1963 and had revolutionized the position of tight end by 1966. During the 1966 season, of the nine touchdowns he compiled, six were scores of more than 50 yards, and he served as one of Johnny Unitas' primary receivers in Unitas' later years of his career. Twice Mackey compiled season averages of more than 20 yards a catch, and his 10-year career average of 15.8 is considered remarkable for a tight end.
Mackey also displayed impressive speed for a tight end. During one season, the Colts decided to use him as a kick returner. He returned 9 kickoffs for 271 yards, an impressive 30.1 yards per return.
Although injuries forced him into early retirement, Mackey proved to be an extremely durable player, missing only one game in his 10-season career.

Super Bowl V

In Super Bowl V played January 17, 1971, Mackey was a principal in one the most famous plays in NFL championship history, catching a pass from quarterback Johnny Unitas after the ball first bounced off the hands of receiver Eddie Hinton and then grazed the fingertips of Cowboys All-Pro defensive back Mel Renfro. The ball caromed further downfield into the waiting arms of Mackey, who ran untouched for a (then) Super Bowl-record 75-yard touchdown reception. Baltimore won the game, 16-13, on Jim O'Brien's 32-yard field goal with five seconds left.

Post-playing career

After retirement, Mackey became the first president of the NFL Players Association. He helped organize a strike that earned players $11 million in pensions and much-needed benefits.
"He was the right man at the right time," said former teammate Ordell Braase. "We were a fractured group until John began putting permanence in [the union's] day-to-day operations. He hired administrators and a general counsel."^[2]

Honors

In 1992, Mackey became the second pure tight end to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Mike Ditka of the Bears had been the first one four years earlier. It has been speculated that Mackey's actions as a high-ranking member of the players' union may have led to the delay in his election. In 1999, he was ranked number 48 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, the highest-ranking tight end. He was also named number 42 on NFL Network's list of the Top 100 Football Players in 2010.^[3]
In 2000, the Nassau County Sports Commission created the John Mackey Award which annually honors the top Division 1-FBS collegiate Tight End. He was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame that same year.
On September 15, 2007, Syracuse University retired #88 in Mackey's honor.
On an October 2008 airing of the NFL Network's 'Top 10 Tight Ends' Mackey was named the #1 tight end by virtually every football figure commenting on the show.

Post-football career health problems

Mackey suffered from frontotemporal dementia, which made him particularly protective of personal possessions and suspicious of anyone who tries to control his actions. During the 2006 NFL season, Mackey was reported by family members to be confused and angered when seeing Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Marvin Harrison wearing the same #88 jersey that Mackey used to wear.^[4]
At age 65 Mackey's dementia forced him to live in a full-time assisted living facility. NFL Players Association initially refused to pay a disability income due to there not being a proven link between brain injury and playing football. The league and the NFL Players' Association have responded with the "88 plan" – named after Mackey's number. It provides $88,000 per year for nursing home care and up to $50,000 annually for adult day care. Mackey passed away July 6th, 2011 at the age of 69 of frontotemporal dementia.^[5][6][7][8]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here